Where there's a will......(Sshhhh...It's a Secret!)

For years I have been searching for a way to solve a problem. One of my favorite techniques that I use in fishing is imitating a struggling bait fish with a soft plastic lure called a fluke. It is used in its simplest form just like its cousin in the hard plastic realm, the jerk bait. However, unlike the jerk bait, properly rigged, the fluke can be fished with ease in the nastiest cover by anglers of any skill level. You can watch me load the boat with it in Wahoo Creek on Lake Lanier over on Laughs-n-Lures YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/94Dcrn2aLMg. That's not the problem and in fact, you can find me skipping docks or chucking that baby anywhere at all times of the year. The problem is not getting bit, but rather getting the fish in the boat! My hook up to landing ratio was only about two thirds or 66%. In other words, I was only catching two out of every three fish after I had worked so hard into tricking them to bite. Some will say "So what? That's not so bad.", to which I say "duck squeeze!" If you are in a tournament and losing 3-4 fish out of 10 bites.....NEWS FLASH: You are probably going to lose the tournament as well! I'm no different than any other hardcore fishermen. If they wanna bite, I wanna catch'em! I realize that I am not going to catch every fish that bites however, if I could find a way to Improve I should pursue that. And that's exactly what I did for a long time without success. But evidently, I wasn't alone no sir! I'm home one day working on some fishing stuff and I am watching fishing shows that I record. This one happened to be a show with Mark Zona and he was talking about a rig that Ott Defoe used to win an Elite Series event. He called it a Riveting Rig and it was a way to put a treble hook on a soft plastic lure like swimbaits or a fluke....... Wait.... What? You mean there's more of you out there? I'm totally focused on the TV now and really soaking this in! Finally, someone not only had the same problem I did but they also had a way to fix the problem and they are sharing it with me! I halfway expected Zona say "Just kidding! We're not really going to show you this. It's a Secret!!". Or maybe, the power would suddenly go out or I would somehow lose everything recorded on my box! But thankfully, none of that happened. I got the secret information and I am about to give it to you. That's one of the things that I love about social media and instant information that we've got from technology today. The fishing world has notoriously always been unwilling to share too much information to the common anglers out here. It seems to me now that all of the gadgets and Smart technology has forced them kicking and screaming to do so in order to stay relevant. But let me get off my soapbox and back to the Riveting Rig in our Tips and Tricks segment!

There's only a few easy steps and I have borrowed some pictures that Zona posted. I will post them below here. First, you'll need to run down to the hardware store and get your rivets. I bought 1/4 & 1/2 inch rivets and trimmed the excess off the nose of my baits. The trick to separating the hollow tube from the rivet nail was to grab the tube with my pliers and use a hammer and bang the nail loose. You'll notice in the picture that there's also a bag of treble hooks, a small boot tail swimbait and a chartreuse fluke. Something I use that is not pictured is a bobber stopper and a glass bead. I like red and I use it to protect the line. I also only slide the bobber stopper down to about an inch above the fluke allowing it to make a slight clicking noise because I believe it helps them find the bait better. And one more thing! If you throw a fluke, always always always use a barrel swivel! If you don't, you are going to get your feelings hurt from all of the line twists! The illustration uses the swimbait but it's exactly the same for the fluke. The reason why this is such a big deal and therefore a great tip is this. Using a line through method and a treble hook means that you are going to have much greater odds of getting one of those three hooks somewhere in that fish that just swiped at your bait! Listen up, you are competing against nature! That's the sport of bass fishing! With new and improved paints and schemes, we can get close. And with time on the water, anglers can fine tune and polish their skills but never will we be better than the real thing in nature! That's the deal! That's why baits have so many hooks and still, most of the time the fish are caught on the rear hooks. The same goes to the importance of using trailer hooks on spinnerbaits. Most of the time we are getting reaction and curious bites to catch a fish. Rarely does it happen when the fish has been completely fooled and has the whole bait in its mouth. However, when it does happen, don't change a thing and just keep throwing it!!

Since I started using this tip, my hook up to landing ratios have risen to over 90%. I still keep a fluke tied on and texposed using a skip gap 4/0 hook from Gamakatsu because the Riveting Rig is best suited for open water and it's not going to come through the trash without getting snagged and nor does it skip as well. I know this is going to help as you'd be surprised at just how many times an uncertain fish will bash your offering with a closed mouth or swat and swipe it with its body trying to stun the prey. And now, you'll catch'em! Now that you know the secret, get out there and Set The Hook and Set Things Right!!