Jigs are the oldest lure family and the simplest: a hook with a lead or tungsten head moulded onto it, dressed with a skirt, a hair tie or a soft-plastic trailer, and fished on the bottom or swum through cover. The rigs belong in the same section because they are the same idea taken apart, a hook and a weight that the angler assembles: the Texas rig, the Carolina rig, the Ned rig, the drop shot, the wacky rig and the shaky head. Between them they account for more bass caught on the bottom than every other lure type combined, and at one 2025 Elite Series event a Texas-rigged soft plastic was on the rods of six of the final ten. The jig types are sorted by head shape below, the rigs by what they do, the weights by depth and cover, and each rig has its own page. These jigs and rigs were developed for bass and are written up for bass here; a jig head with a plastic is also the walleye, crappie and inshore standard, and the species pages give the sizes for each.
Ned Kehde caught 109 largemouth in four hours on 12 October 2006 on a mushroom-head jig and half a plastic worm. The rig took his name four years later.
Start here
- Fishing lures — the section hub and the six lure families.
- Soft plastics — the worms, craws and creature baits every rig below is built around.
- Bass fishing — the six-season pattern that says when a jig or a finesse rig is the right call.
- Fishing rods — the power and action matrix by technique.
The six jig types
| Jig | Head | Weight | Where it works | Trailer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Football | Wide, football-shaped; stays upright on rock | 3/8–1 oz (11–28 g) | Rock, ledges, offshore structure | Craw, creature, grub |
| Flipping | Compact head, heavy-gauge hook, stiff weedguard | 3/8–1 oz (11–28 g) | Heavy wood, brush, matted grass | Craw, beaver |
| Casting (Arkie) | Round or flat-bottom, standard hook | 3/8–1/2 oz (11–14 g) | Moderate cover, docks; the one-jig choice | Craw, creature, grub |
| Swim | Bullet head, light weedguard | 1/4–1/2 oz (7–14 g) | Grass, sparse cover, covering water | Paddle-tail swimbait, grub |
| Finesse | Small and light | 1/8–1/4 oz (4–7 g) | Clear or cold water, smallmouth | Small craw |
| Hair (marabou) | Round | 1/8 oz (4 g) for smallmouth, 1 oz (28 g) and up for southern ledges | Cold water; shad imitations on ledges | None |
The trailer sets the fall rate and the profile: a bulky craw slows the fall for flipping, a thin swimbait keeps a swim jig high over grass.
The rigs, and where each came from
| Rig | Build | Typical weight | Born |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas rig | Bullet weight, offset or EWG hook, plastic rigged weedless | 1/8 oz (4 g) shallow to 1/2 oz (14 g) at 20 ft (6.1 m); 1–2 oz (28–57 g) to punch grass | Late 1950s, Texas reservoirs; the plastic worm itself is Nick Creme’s, Akron, 1949 |
| Carolina rig | 1/2–3/4 oz (14–21 g) egg sinker, bead, swivel, 12–36 in (30–91 cm) leader, hook | 3/4 oz (21 g) | The dragging rig for spring and summer flats; doubles as a bottom-composition finder |
| Ned rig | 1/15–1/6 oz (2–5 g) mushroom head, 2–4 in (5–10 cm) buoyant bait standing tail-up | 1/16 oz (2 g) | Ned Kehde, Kansas, 12 October 2006: 109 largemouth in four hours; named in In-Fisherman in 2010 |
| Drop shot | Hook tied 12–18 in (30–46 cm) above a 1/8–1/4 oz (4–7 g) weight | 1/4 oz (7 g) | Japanese tournament anglers, 1990s, for pressured clear water |
| Wacky rig | Stick worm hooked through the middle on an O-ring | Weightless, or 1/16–1/8 oz (2–4 g) | Spring, shallow spawning bass |
| Shaky head | Stand-up jig head with a finesse worm | 1/16–1/8 oz (2–4 g), 1/4 oz (7 g) in wind | Year-round, docks and laydowns |
Choosing the weight
Bassmaster’s weight-selection guide is the table most anglers work from: finesse baits on 1/32 to 1/8 oz; 1/8 oz in five feet of water or less; 1/4, 5/16 or 3/8 oz around twenty feet; 1/2 oz deeper than that or for dragging big worms; 1/2 to 3/4 oz for stroking a worm off the bottom; 1, 1½ or even 2 oz to get through matted grass. Wind adds weight at every depth, because line bowed by wind hides the bite. Tungsten is smaller than lead for the same weight and transmits bottom contact better, which is why it took over the tournament boats despite the price.
Tackle
Jigs, Texas rigs and Carolina rigs are baitcaster techniques: a 7 ft to 7 ft 6 in medium-heavy, fast-action rod, 15–20 lb fluorocarbon or 40 lb braid to a mono leader, and a high-speed reel to pick up slack for the hookset. The finesse rigs, Ned, drop shot, wacky and shaky head, go on a 7 ft medium-light spinning rod with 10–15 lb braid to a 6–8 lb fluorocarbon leader, and the retrieve is restraint: Kehde’s own instruction is to keep the Ned rig “swimming slowly from six inches to one foot above bottom”, and the drop-shot rule is to shake the rod tip, never drag the weight.
Where to go next
The soft plastics hub covers the baits; the chatterbait and spinnerbait hubs cover the jig’s wire-and-blade cousins; the crankbait hub is the alternative when bass want a moving bait. The hooks hub explains the worm hook and drop-shot hook sizes the rig pages assume.