Arig for dummy aka me

I'm like the worst Arig fisherman in the state, I have spent probably 200 bucks on different rigs and baits and have yet to catch any kind of fish on one. If very frustrating to me to spend the time and money and not getting any return. I'll be out tomorrow with the one rod on the deck tryin to figure this technique out. Any advise would be great, I'll be throwing a flash mob jr and have a verity of swimbaits to try have some of a citrus looking 4.7 inch on the outside and a 5" white with purple glitter in the center.

You mean you don't catch 5 at a time on every cast with one????

Brad I hope the wealth of knowledge of the TFF is shared. I to have struggled with it. But I do know they will catch striper on Texoma . Caught three at a time till the school disappeared

Only thing I can catch is trees and a sore shoulder with one.

I break it off after 3 cast , love them

Brad there's a time and place to throw one. I'm no guru at it either. Trust me... I've had my best luck in the early spring mid feb to early April. I throw on points with no cover and don't drag the bottom with it. It's a killer for schooling fish too. I've only had decent days on my home lake on broken now. Buy the ones with the blades throw it on a long rod. I use a bb1 5:1 gr... This is a great reel for a rigs or deep diving cranks, it won't give you crankbait shoulders. I'm sure other guys can give more help, I'm no pro with an a rig and I'm not real big on throwing it but it's what I've had my best luck on.

Work it like spinnerbaits around docks, that's how I fish it most of the time

Again I don't throw into cover.... Also I use heavy braid (which makes it tougher to throw) but I can straiten the hooks and get my a rig back when it's hung

Use a stiff rod, 20lbs fluro. I prefer the hogfarmers 5 wire. I throw it anywhere without extreme cover. Make ur cast and as soon as it hits the water roll it back on a medium pace. Hang onto ur pole because the strikes are usually fierce. Double Z makes a swinbait that I like to throw called the swayback swimmer. You can get it at anglers pro. I use 4 of one color and one completely different color. 9/10 they will hit the odd bait. I've caught tons of fish on it including one that was almost 9lbs. 54-66 degrees have produced the best for me.

Brad, I have some tips that may help. Use heavy flouro like 20+, an A-rig already looks a little suspicious to bass. I have had much less success with braid vs. flouro or a co-polymer. Find bait, then throw it. To me, this is the key tip. I have had much more success throwing around bait balls than into water without bait or just around structure with no conformation of bait present. If it's a 5 wire, use 3 or 4 shad colors then mix in another color like watermelon or something that is visually different, more often than not the other color will get bit. When you are reeling, vary your retrieve a little and don't be afraid to "flare" the lure or give the rod some twitches to give the rig added action. Also, down-size the jig-heads to as small as you can get. Also, vary the swim-baits. For instance, if you are throwing a boot-tail shad and not getting bit, put on flukes with no kick. Also, smaller rigs with grubs can work well too with highly pressured fish. It can be a frustrating bait, but when it's on, there is not another bait like it. I never throw the rig around heavy timber, except outside edges... to much hassle and to likely I will lose the rig. Good luck!

I don't fish the A-rig much, but a couple of my buddies do and they've caught a lot of big fish on it. One of them caught a 7# in about 3' of water at Arlington on one, and he also caught a 12.5# at Fork on it. The other buddy caught a 9.13# at Fork and a 8# at Alvarado. I've caught one striper on it so far, but to me it's kind of a boring, brute force way to fish, so I'm not really attracted to it much. However, if I'm going to be competitive, I know I'm putting myself at a disadvantage by not using it. I'll be trying it more this winter.

Thanks for the feedback guys I'll be working main lake points tomorrow probably 8-20ft throwing it on 65lb braid, 7ft xh rod and a 6.3 gear reel. I will be graphing more than fishing more than likely and hopefully I'll get lucky and catch a fish and come home with my rig this time.


Here is what I have rigged up might need to downsize a little, but if I do get a bite it should be a good one.

I only throw it in cold water, late December till early February, and usually catch some good ones. Use 20 pound floro and you will be able to straighten a hook if it gets hung up. The key to my approach has been retrieving as slow as possible, Here is an 8+ I caught in late January on Joe Pool,

May want to consider downsizing the plastics if you don't get bit, and you graph feeding bass. The little 3" Super Shad/Sassy Shad can come in handy!

Fish it around Bridge Columns, Docks, Rocky Points...

I'm not an expert either, I have lost my share of them too!

What he said

Mark pack makes a swimbait head that has a structure guard. For lakes like fork and ray roberts it's hard to beat them. It took me about $200 worth of rigs stuck in trees to find them.

I had my Arigs custom made with split rings instead of snaps. It has no lead head/fish head. Wire junction has heavy shrink tube covering the junction sleeve. The Picasso jig heads give it plenty of weight. Wires have never broken and they have taken a beating. I throw it on 25 XPS Floro. When it gets hung and the hook doesn't bend out the split ring will fail; so you get the rest back.

i was told its best in clear water. Not so great in dirty which is what north to lakes are right now.

I would STRONGLY recommend a rod longer than 7' man. You need all the leverage help you can get when casting the damn things. I've been throwing them on a 7'10 Mojo Bass swimbait rod. It wears you out, there's just no way to avoid that. 65lb braid is what I use too. PP super slick.


The ONLY bait I've ever used on mine is a yum money minnow. Shad looking colors. If you run it thru some active fish, you should get bit.

They do hang but not as easily as I expected. With the 65 lb braid you can always either straighten a hook or break an arm off and keep using it.

Don't be scared to fish it around cover, that's where I've caught most of my fish on it.

Just started throwing one. Ive caught one fish on it and it was a 4 pounder. That fish came on the first 10 mintues of throwing it. Ive thrown it several hours since without a bite

Heres some good info on the A-rig. These guys fish out west, but some good tips non the less.
https://youtu.be/TwZIMwqXP5k

Rick James: interestingly Ray Bob is extremely clear on the south end but the creeks are mud soup. And What ever James Biggs says you better believe it.

In my experience you won't get many bites on an A-Rig but the ones you do get will be good.

That's why so many put it down and go with other baits. 5-6 bites a day is pretty average.

When I get them pecking at it and not committing I throw a followup hard swimbait with treble hooks. Slap that! Works pretty often.

IMO the A-Rig was pretty awesome when it first came out but sometimes I think they just slap at it because they've seen it so much. Have a followup bait at the ready. Get pecked at and fan-cast the followup.

Use some smaller swimbaits, its hard to beat the 3.8 Keitech in Tennessee Shad or Sexy Shad. Bigger swimbaits will work but in most cases I think you will get way more bites with the smaller ones.

You still have to throw it around fish. If you struggled to find fish before the arig, you will continue to struggle with it...

I use a 3/0 owner belly weight hook with the screw lock with a swimming fluke jr. It don't get hung up much (if any) since the I can skin hook the bait. Also will let you fish it in skinner water since your not getting hung up every other cast.

Good info on this thread.

I posted similar question about a week ago.

Still have had no luck but I am going to keep trying.

Last weekend the water was super muddy, pretty sure no one could see my A-rig to hit it.

Totally agree with this and there are days that they want a rig with blades and days they don't. Sometimes that make the difference.

No Dan, you just suck at fishing.

1st thing I would do is switch to an 8ft rod. This will help you tremendously.
2nd...use 1/4oz heads. You don't need the heavier heads or the 5/0 hooks to catch fish.
3rd...the Flash mob Jr. doesn't work well with heavy heads at all...might try 1/8th oz heads and 3" baits...
4th...dip the middle bait in chartruse or use a different color bait for the middle. Majority of your fish will come on that middle bait..reason for this is the bass will typically "charge" the bait ball to break it up...the middle bait catches them most often.
5th...if you use 3"baits on the outside, use a 4" on the middle or 4/5s...whatever you feel is best.
6th...5:3:1 reel works great as you really want it to crawl...bait fish don't move a lot unless they are spooked.
7th...if you are fishing open water and/or rocks, 20lb flouro works great. If you fish around any cover I would recommend 50-65lb braid.
8th...fish it like a 6xd or 10xd...let the fish load up on it and lean back, don't jerk the hookset.

A lot has been covered on this thread but there is one odd thing that I've done to an A-Rig for high pressure situations... put a few single tail grubs on the back. I'll put a 4" swimbait on the long wire in the middle, two 3" swimbaits on the bottom 2 wires, and two 3" single tail grubs on the top wires. Not a lot of people do it but it has worked wonders for me. More often than not, the color of the grub that I throw is different than color of the swimbaits. Sometimes in low light conditions, I'll put on a 7" grub on the long wire in the middle and put 4" swimbaits on the other wires. There are endless ways to rig an A-Rig.


AA Monarch Grub

This is the 7" grub that I use.

Had a day on Athens a few years back with over 20 fish in the 4-6lb range. I go to walmart and buy the jr swimming flukes. 1/4 oz jig heads. On Lewisville I fish the dam from January to march and kill them on the jr flash mob. I have weedless jig heads and fish the A-rig anywhere from 3ft to 30ft. I always fish it on braid so I can straighten a hook if it gets hung. The fish are biting a lure made of wires, the line won't scare them. Find the bait fish hang on because they crush it when they hit it.
**here's a secret that I have. use a chatterbait for the center lure and watch out, they crush it.

I can throw an A-rig a mile...much further than other guys in my boat...by using Hook Spit 8' Magnum Crank Bait rod. It was designed to throw huge cranks like the 10XD, but we found that it loads extremely well and launches an A-rig forever. The longer handle allows you to put the rod up under your arm pit or on your side and that takes almost all the pressure off your wrist, which allows you to throw it all day without the fatigue of other rods.

I put V&M's Thunder Shad on the jig heads. They work great.

A buddy gave me a pointer this week: Super glue the head of your plastic bait to the jig head. This will prevent the bait from sliding down the hook, which is very frustrating. You'll catch more fish per bait before having to change them out.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

If you are using keitech or similar heavy salt plastics, remove them from the hook when storing. They can rust really bad, once you start, the rust extends to blades and arms. Dry them really well!

Yep. The Kitechs will rust stuff REAL BAD

^^^This is problem #1. We all know confidence is very important. I know you havent had success, but you've gotta tell yourself it catches fish. You know it does so no one should have to convince you of it.

The ARig doesn't work all the time. When it's on, it's on pretty good. Don't force it. Leave it on the deck and throw it periodically throughout the day. It's not a miracle lure, although the stories we've all heard makes us think so!

We throw it on 65# braid. This way you can bend the hook instead of breaking it off when it hangs up. I've thrown it on flouro and braid and never seen a difference in the two as far as results.

As someone said above, use the 1/8oz heads. 1/4 only makes it tougher on you.

We use a 7'6" heavy rod. I don't think gear ratio makes any difference at all. It's not like it's a crankbait that has a lot of drag.

Finally, the setup you have looks a lot like what we use. Personally, I wouldn't change a thing on it unless those heads are 1/4 then I'd downsize to 1/8.

Did you do any good Brad?

Thanks for all the info guys, I threw the hell out of it today and did finally catch a fish on it about a 3lb spot that absolutely choked it, not much going on with my rig today. I agree it needs smaller baits I was using what I had just like the set up, I'm not going to invest a bunch of money on a set up to throw one if I can't make myself throw it. I need to gain some confidence in it before dropping money on a good rod for throwing it. I will get some more swimbaits before next trip and see if that helps out.

Had more luck today on a deep diving crank had 3 nice keepers on that and probably could have hosted more on a crank but was more concerned with learning the Arig.

Thanks again for all the feedback it is appreciated

You take me fishing and I'll show you how to smoke-em on that same setup your using.

PD

I have been waiting on a date delvec

I'm off tmrow and next Mon and Fri.

Hey, Your the one that suppose to take my smallmouth fishing

Between the water levels rising and falling and water being a few degrees warmer than it usually is this time of year I haven't gotten bit a lot on an A rig yet.

I did catch a decent one today on it, using Heath Taylor's junior sized swimbaits.

Doug it won't hurt if you took me over to Ray Hubbard either.

Let's do next Friday I'm kinda limited during the week on how late I can stay out, but Friday's I can fish as long as you want. Pick the ramp and we will go after em.

Ok Friday it is, State Park is the only one open. And it doesn't have long till they close it too.

I must be the second worst then. I even throw that thing in spots where we are slaying the fish just so I can surely catch one and still don't catch anything on it. Stupid A-rig. I throw it down and go back to tearing em up on normal baits. Works for some people though.

I use the Mark Pack A-rig jig head with a swimming fluke Jr or the small Berkley weighted swim baits that come in a 5 pack. Both have worked well for me.

Had a good day with the a rig. 3 on 1 cast. Fun day on LOP

I use a 8' Heavy Dobyns made for throwing big swim baits and can cast the line off the reel when using an A-rig. The longer pole really helps. I usually use curly tailed grubs instead of swim baits. Smaller profiles and I started catching more fish and just stuck with them.

Don't put it down