Grim’s Tales: What fishing rigs do you like? – Pine and Lakes Echo Journal

As I was awaiting word from my first attempt at finding an agent for my book, “Monsters on the Block” (no go, so still looking, by the way), I tried to figure out what to do to distract myself.

For some reason my mind went to fishing. I think my desire for spring got the best of me and I was thinking how much I’d like to try the “fly and bubble” method of fishing.

For this method, you start with a type of float most people mistake for a bobber, add a little bit of water to it and secure it as much as a rod length away from your lure, which in this case is a classic fly fishing lure. You fish this using a standard rod, not a fly rod.

I can’t help but dream that this rig would be useful on those nights when you hear the bluefish and crappies snapping the bugs off the surface of the calm waters while you sit in the boat with little or no bites.

That got me thinking about how little I actually know about fishing. Sure, I’ve picked up some favorite lures and favorite methods over the years, but when people talk about bottom bouncers, Carolina rigs, Texas rigs, slow death rigs or whatnot, I’m left clueless.

I only really know about the classic bobber rig. Growing up that’s all we used. A bobber, a hook and a worm. Sometimes we didn’t have a fishing rod and we made due with fairly long sticks. Sometimes digging worms didn’t go well and we surprised ourselves with how willingly fish will bite on chewing gum.

A lot of these rigs require a boat with some form of motor to be useful, and sometimes the only guarantee was the hook and line.

This was about all we knew growing up, so I wanted to educate myself.

I started researching all the various fishing rigs I could find and writing it down in a little book, describing which species they are good for, conditions where they work and what hardware is necessary to put them together.

In truth, the same type of hardware can be organized into a variety of these rigs suitable for different situations, meaning for much less than a box full of lures you can have a versatile kit for fishing basically anywhere.

However, you have to be prepared to know how to tie many different knots and have line and swivels and spinner blades and all sorts of other hardware likely floating loose in your kit. I see why some just prefer a snap swivel and box of lures.

I searched online for as many different types of rigs as I could find, took notes and even illustrated them. I have since documented the: 3-way rig, Carolina rig, Texas rig, bubble and fly, wacky rig, Lindy rig, Santee Cooper rig, hair rig, Ned rig, bottom bouncer rig, crawler harness, spinner rig, fish finder rig, drop shot rig, paternoster rig, quick strike rig, helicopter rig, pulley rig, weightless rig, popping cork rig and pollyball rig.

I even invented my own gar-duation tassel lure for longnose gar (Get it? Because it looks like a graduation tassel).

I’m excited to try them. First thing after opener I plan to try out a paternoster/Santee Cooper hybrid rig for walleye. Just for the fight I’ll probably try the hair rig for redhorse and sucker as well. Of course, I’m still dying to try out the fly and bubble (I love topwater fishing).

For all the anglers out there, I invite you to educate me. Do you have any rigs I haven’t listed here? Do you like any of the rigs I’ve listed here? What and where do you like fishing with them?

Drop me a line, so to say, and share your expertise with me. At the very least I’m sure we could all use a little daydreaming about open water fishing.

Travis Grimler is a staff writer for the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River. He may be reached at 218-855-5853 or travis.grimler@pineandlakes.com.