MISTAKE #1: INCORRECT RIGGING  –  WHATKNOTS

Soft plastic lures rigged correctly will move naturally through the water. Whereas baits rigged incorrectly will spin unnaturally and won’t entice fish to bite. When that happens, you won’t catch as many fish as you could. But incorrect rigging isn’t just about how you put soft plastic lures on hooks, but also knots you tie with your lures. Most lures need to erratically dart around for them to be effective, and when you’re using artificial lures, it’s important to work it the correct way to convince a fish to strike. And one of the things you can do to help yourself is to use the right knot with it. There are two types of knots when you’re tying on lures: Snug knots and Loop knots. Snug knots are great for lures that you do a constant retrieve with, while loop knots are great for lures that you need to put action on.

Lures to use a Loop knots with include paddletails, soft plastic jerk shads, spook-style topwaters, and twitchbaits. Snug knots work best on spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and popper-style topwaters. Although, if a lure has a split ring, then you would tie a snug knot no matter what type of lure it is. For instance, some spook-style topwater lures come with split rings on the end, so you would tie a snug knot to the split ring because the split ring is already acting like a loop by giving the lure room to move. Another thing is that snug knots are stronger than loop knots, so keep that in mind when trying to decide what line size and/or drag setting to use.