More times than we may like to admit, a perfect cast is ruined by getting snagged on something.
It's understandable when it happens with crankbaits or anything with exposed treble hooks but it can be downright painful when it happens fishing with what you thought was a "weedless" setup.
Sometimes weedless doesn't seem so weedless after all.
One setup that commonly falls victim to this is Texas rigged soft plastics.
Sometimes a snag is just simply bad luck but in many cases we as anglers can ensure the chances of it happening are slim to none.
This boils down to how we are rigging our soft plastics and making sure we take the extra time to properly hide to the hook.
There are essentially 3 ways to hide your hook:
Using soft plastics with hook grooves
Using a weed guard
Embedding the hook point
Hook Grooves
Not all soft plastics include hook grooves but for the ones that do it's a great feature to help the angler avoid getting hung up.
Common soft plastics that include a hook groove are stickworms, swimbaits, and soft plastic frogs.
A hook groove simply keeps the hook beneath the most outer edge of the soft plastic body.
This prevents the hook from getting caught on things when dragging it through submerged timber, aquatic vegetation, or the like - all the while allowing your setup to freely expose the hook when a fish takes your lure.
Soft plastics that include a hook groove are strategically positioned on the bait which makes matching your plastic with the right size hook very important.
More times then not this involves using a wide gap style hook that sits flat within the hook groove.
If you rig your soft plastic in a way that the hook point doesn't settle in the groove then you may need to adjust your hook size.
Weed Guards
The purpose of a weed guard is to block things from getting to the hook.
Kind of like putting a stick on the front of a four-wheeler if you know there are spider webs around.
The stick becomes your first line of defense so that you don't get a face full of spiderwebs .
A weed guard does the same for your hook.
Weed guards are constantly evolving but most are made from one of two things; plastic or metal.
The large majority of weed guards, like what's found on skirted jigs, typically sport a brush guard made up of a bunch of fine bristles.
Brush guards can vary in both the amount of bristles as well as how thick the bristles are.
A skirted jig designed for finesse applications where retrieves are generally slower may have a thin brush guard that has some give to it whereas a jig head designed for thick cover will include a thick brush guard with more bristles to better protect your hook from things such as grass mats, lily pads, or the like.
As for metal weed guards, expect to find these on jig heads used for Ned rigs, wacky rigs, or small finesse jigs.
Metal weed guards are often made up of either a single piece of thin gauge wire or two pieces twisted together.
TIP: Got any heavy (50 lb.) mono or fluorocarbon line laying around? Use 1-2 inches of it to make a weed guard for your hook! With a little bit of hot glue or fly tying thread you can modify just about any hook to have it's very own weed guard.
Long story short, weed guards are super effective and do a great job of keeping you from getting hung up.
Just know that when fishing a lure with a weed guard you will need a strong hook set to drive the hook point through the mouth of the fish.
Embed The Hook Point
A very common method in hiding the hook point is to simply embed it into the soft plastic.
This is typically done in one of two ways.
The first is by feeding your soft plastic onto your hook just like you would for a Texas rig but never fully coming through with the hook point.
A lot of anglers prefer using this method when worm fishing.
The second method is to rig the soft plastic as you would a Texas rig and then barely embed the hook point back into the top of the lure.
To avoid over-doing it and your hook being too far embedded grab your soft plastic right in front of the hook and lightly pull the soft plastic back a little bit (towards the eye of the hook) and allow the hook point dig into the back of the lure as you release the soft plastic.
This allows the lure to be weedless but also release away from the hook point and allow for good hook sets once the time comes for the fish to take your bait.
It's easy to think you need to really hide the hook deep into the soft plastic but by doing so you don't allow the bait to give away from the hook - something needed for a good hook set.
Just under the skin of the soft plastic is typically enough to keep your lure weedless.
Then it is just a matter of checking it every few casts to ensure the hook point is still hidden.
Time to go catch 'em!
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