Most bass fishing anglers are familiar or have at least heard of the term wacky rig.
A wacky rig is the combination of a hook and soft plastic lure, typically in the form of a worm imitation, where the hook is placed in the middle section of the soft plastic.
Without the presence of a weight, this is commonly considered a weightless wacky rig.
Certain situations that involve deeper water, current, heavily pressured fish, or the need to cover water faster can make it difficult to fish a weightless wacky rig successful.
When faced with one or more of the situations listed above it can be advantageous to add some weight to your wacky rig to produce more bites.
Below we'll cover two of the more common ways to add weight to your wacky rig.
1. Weighted Wacky Hooks
This is a simple, yet effective way to add weight to your wacky rig.
One of the main features of a wacky wigged lure that makes it so effective is the horizontal fall and flutter of the soft plastic.
Weighted wacky rig hooks allow your lure to maintain the enticing horizontal fall and flutter through the water column.
The flutter will not be as subtle as with a weightless wacky rig but this is made up for by the increased fall rate and ability to create reaction bites.
In terms of gearing up on fishing weights, the market is flooded with weighted wacky rig hook options.
An important decision to make when choosing hooks is whether or not you may need a weed guard.
If you tend to fish more structure (bluffs, points, ledges, channel swings) where hang up areas aren't as prevalent a weed guard may not be necessary.
If you typically fish a lot of cover a weed guard will help save you the frustration of your lure constantly getting caught on things.
However, like many things, there are pros and cons to using a weed guard.
While the weed guard helps prevent snags it can sometimes lead to not getting as good of a hookset on the fish.
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2. Nail Weights
A second option for weighing down your wacky rig is to use a nail weight.
Nail weights come in a variety of sizes and weights and are intended to be inserted into one end of a soft plastic lure.
These carry one advantage over weighted wacky rig hooks since hiding a portion, if not all, of the weight inside the soft plastic and not affecting the visual presentation of your rig as much.
The trade off to having the weight more hidden is that your lure will have a more vertical presentation when falling through the water column due to the weight placement.
By using a nail weight you're essentially turning a wacky rig into a Neko rig.
The difference now is where you choose to fish the lure; throughout a portion of the water column (Wacky rig) or on the bottom (Neko rig).
When it comes to buying nail weights, they are commonly sold with either a conical rib or a screw-in design.
Some nail weights are designed to be completely inserted into a soft plastic (top conical rib weight seen above) to avoid affecting the visual presentation of the lure.
If you don't mind a little bit of the weight sticking out of the end of your worm a "half moon" nail weight is a common choice among many anglers.
Time to go catch 'em!
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