Category: Guides

The Texas rig is the most reliable bass setup ever invented — a weedless way to drag a soft plastic through cover where the biggest fish live. If you fish anywhere with weeds, wood, or rock, this is the rig to learn first.

What is a Texas rig?

A Texas rig is a soft-plastic bait (usually a worm or creature bait) rigged on a worm hook with the hook point buried back inside the plastic, so it slides through cover without snagging. A bullet-shaped sinker rides on the line above the bait. Because it’s weedless, you can throw it straight into the nastiest brush, grass, and laydowns — exactly where bass hide.

Gear you’ll need

A medium-heavy rod with a fast tip, 12–17 lb fluorocarbon (or 30–50 lb braid around heavy cover), a 2/0 to 4/0 offset worm hook (EWG for bulky baits), a bullet weight from 1/8 to 1/2 oz, and a soft plastic — a 6–7 inch ribbon-tail worm or a creature bait are classics. A baitcaster gives you the most control here; see our best baitcasting reels guide.

How to rig it, step by step

1. Slide a bullet weight onto your line, pointed end first, then tie on the worm hook (a Palomar knot is perfect). 2. Push the hook point into the very tip of the worm’s head, about 1/4 inch, then out the side. 3. Slide the worm up over the hook eye so the head is snug. 4. Rotate the hook, lay it against the worm to find where the point lands, and push the point back into the body so it’s just under the surface — weedless but ready to pop through on a hookset. 5. Want it to stay pinned to the weight in heavy cover? Peg the sinker with a bobber stopper.

How to fish a Texas rig

Cast to cover, let it sink on a semi-slack line (watch for a tick on the fall — many bites come as it drops), then work it slowly: lift the rod tip to hop or drag the bait, reel up slack, and repeat. Stay in contact with the bottom and feel for anything different — a tap, a mushy weight, or the line swimming off. When you feel a bite, reel down to load the rod and set the hook firmly to drive the point through the plastic. Landed a good one? Estimate its weight with our free fish weight calculator or a largemouth chart.

Quick tips

Use the lightest weight that still reaches bottom and keeps contact — a slower fall draws more strikes. Go heavier (3/8–1/2 oz) to punch through matted grass, lighter (1/8–3/16 oz) in sparse cover or shallow water. And keep your hook point sharp; the whole rig depends on it driving home.

Related from Fishing Toolbox

• How to Fish a Drop Shot Rig
• How to Tie the Palomar Knot

The improved clinch knot is the workhorse fishing knot — the one most anglers learn first and keep using for life. It ties your line to a hook, lure, or swivel quickly and holds strong, which is exactly what you need most days on the water.

When to use the improved clinch knot

Use it to tie monofilament or fluorocarbon to any terminal tackle with an eye: hooks, lures, swivels, and snaps. It’s a great all-around choice for line up to about 20 lb test. For very heavy line or slippery braid, the Palomar knot is often the better pick — but for everyday mono and fluoro, the improved clinch is fast, reliable, and easy to tie even in low light.

How to tie it, step by step

1. Thread the tag end of your line through the eye of the hook or lure, pulling through about 6 inches. 2. Twist the tag end around the standing line 5 to 7 times. (Use 7 wraps for lighter line, 5 for heavier line.) 3. Bring the tag end back and pass it through the small loop just above the hook eye. 4. Now pass the tag end through the big loop you just created — this is the “improved” step that makes the knot far stronger than a standard clinch. 5. Wet the knot with saliva or water, then pull the standing line slowly to cinch the coils down neatly against the eye. 6. Trim the tag end close, and you’re fishing.

Why wetting the knot matters

Always wet the line before you cinch any knot. Pulling a dry knot tight creates friction heat that weakens the line right where it counts, so a quick lick or dip before you snug it down noticeably improves your knot strength. Cinch slowly and smoothly rather than yanking.

Common mistakes to avoid

Skipping the final pass through the big loop turns it back into a weaker standard clinch — don’t skip step 4. Using too few wraps on light line lets it slip, while too many wraps on heavy line makes the knot bulky and hard to seat. And don’t tie it in braided line; braid is slick and the clinch can slip, so use a Palomar or a braid-specific knot instead.

Put your knot to work

A good knot is the difference between landing a fish and telling a sad story. Once you’ve got the improved clinch down, pair it with a properly spooled reel — our guide on how to spool a spinning reel helps you start with line that behaves — and get out there.

Related from Fishing Toolbox

• How to Tie the Palomar Knot
• How to Spool a Spinning Reel

When the water heats up in midsummer, a lot of anglers watch a great spring bite grind to a halt. The fish don’t disappear — they change where they hold and when they feed. Understand that shift and you can keep catching bass through the hottest weeks of the year.

Why the summer bite gets tough

As surface water warms past the mid-70s and into the 80s, two things happen. Warm water holds less oxygen, and bass — like most gamefish — get sluggish and stressed in it. So they leave the warm, bright shallows and slide to wherever the water is cooler and better oxygenated: deeper structure, shade, or moving water. Chasing them in the shallows at midday is why the bite seems to “die.” Our best water temperature guide breaks down each species’ comfort zone.

Where the fish go

In summer, look for bass in three places. First, deep structure — points, humps, ledges, and drop-offs where cooler water and baitfish stack up. Second, shade — docks, overhanging trees, thick weed mats, and laydowns that give fish cover and relief from the sun. Third, current and inflows — a feeder creek, dam tailrace, or wind-blown shoreline pumps in cooler, more oxygenated water and concentrates active fish.

Fish early, late, and after dark

The single biggest adjustment is timing. In summer, dawn, dusk, and night are prime — the water is coolest and bass move shallow to feed under low light. A topwater at first light or a spinnerbait at dusk often outproduces a whole afternoon of grinding. Our guide on the best time of day to fish covers why low-light windows work so well.

Tactics that work in the heat

At low light, work the shallows with topwaters, spinnerbaits, and buzzbaits. Once the sun is up, go deep and slow: a Texas-rigged worm, a football jig, or a deep-diving crankbait dragged across offshore structure. When fish are deep and finicky, a drop shot rig is hard to beat — it keeps a finesse bait in the strike zone long enough to tempt a lethargic bass. Fishing shade in the middle of the day? Flip a jig or soft plastic right into the thickest cover you can find.

Handle summer fish with care

Warm water is hard on released fish. Keep them wet, unhook them fast, and get them back quickly — a bass that’s overheated and exhausted needs extra care. If you want a weight for the photo without keeping the fish out of the water, measure length and girth and use our free fish weight calculator, or check a largemouth bass length-to-weight chart for a quick estimate.

Related from Fishing Toolbox

• The Best Water Temperature for Every Gamefish
• Why Dawn and Dusk Are the Best Times to Fish

The drop shot is one of the most effective finesse rigs in fishing — a simple setup that suspends a small bait just off the bottom, right in a fish’s face. When bass get pressured, water turns clear, or fish pull out to deeper structure and stop chasing, the drop shot keeps catching when other techniques stall.

What is a drop shot rig?

A drop shot is a finesse rig with the weight at the very bottom of your line and the hook tied inline above it, so the bait hovers off the bottom at a set height. Because the weight — not the bait — hits bottom, your soft plastic stays in the strike zone and moves with the slightest twitch of the rod. It’s deadly on both largemouth and smallmouth bass, and it also fools crappie, perch, and walleye.

When to fish it

Reach for a drop shot when the bite gets tough: clear water, cold fronts, heavily pressured lakes, or fish holding deep on points, humps, and ledges. It shines any time fish are present but inactive — you can shake the bait in place over a spot for a long time without moving it, which finicky fish can’t resist.

Gear you’ll need

A drop shot is a spinning-rod technique. Use a medium-light to medium spinning rod, 6–10 lb braid to a 6–8 lb fluorocarbon leader (or straight fluoro), a size 1 to 2 drop shot or octopus hook, a small 3/16 to 3/8 oz drop shot weight, and a 3–4 inch finesse worm or minnow-style bait. A smooth spinning reel makes light-line casting easy — see our best spinning reels guide if you’re shopping.

How to rig it, step by step

1. Tie your hook to the main line with a Palomar knot, leaving a long tag end (12–18 inches). Our Palomar knot guide walks through it. 2. Point the hook up, then run the tag end back down through the top of the hook eye. This makes the hook stand out from the line at a right angle — the key to the rig. 3. Tie or clip your drop shot weight to the bottom of the tag end. Most drop shot weights have a special line clip, so no knot is needed. 4. Nose-hook a finesse worm or minnow bait for maximum action, or Texas-rig it weedless around cover.

How to fish a drop shot

Cast or drop it to the spot, let the weight settle to the bottom, and take up slack until the line is tight but not lifting the weight. Now shake the rod tip gently — you want the bait to quiver in place without moving the weight. Pause often; most bites come on the pause. When you feel a tick or the line loads up, reel down and sweep the rod to set (no hard hookset needed with the light-wire hook). Landed a good one? Estimate its weight with our free fish weight calculator.

Quick tips

Keep the weight light — just heavy enough to feel bottom. Lengthen the tag end (the leader between hook and weight) when fish suspend higher off the bottom, and shorten it when they’re glued to the floor. And use a spinning setup; a drop shot on baitcasting gear fights you the whole way.

Related from Fishing Toolbox

• How to Tie the Palomar Knot
• Best Spinning Reels of 2026 for Every Budget

Flatheads are heavy, stocky brutes that pack on weight fast, so length tells you a lot about a big cat. This flathead catfish length-to-weight chart estimates weight from length so you can size up a bruiser before the release.

Flathead catfish length-to-weight chart

Length	Average weight
14″	1.22 lb
16″	1.82 lb
18″	2.59 lb
20″	3.56 lb
22″	4.73 lb
24″	6.14 lb
26″	7.81 lb
28″	9.76 lb
30″	12.00 lb
32″	14.56 lb
34″	17.47 lb
36″	20.74 lb
40″	28.44 lb
44″	37.86 lb

These figures use weight (lb) = length³ ÷ 2,250 (length in inches), calibrated to Missouri Department of Conservation data from over 6,000 measured flatheads.

What’s an average flathead — and what’s a trophy?

A common “eater” flathead runs 15–28 inches and 1–10 pounds, while dedicated flathead anglers target 24–36 inch fish (roughly 6–25 lb). Anything past the mid-30-inch mark is a notable catch. Anglers widely treat 30 pounds as the trophy threshold — 20 lb is a strong fish and 50 lb+ is a true giant (a convention, not an official mark). The IGFA all-tackle world record is a massive 123 pounds, caught at Elk City Reservoir, Kansas, in 1998.

Put a number on your exact fish (worked example)

Flatheads are broad, heavy-bodied fish, so girth adds up fast:

Weight (lb) = Length × Girth² ÷ 800

A 36-inch flathead with a 24-inch girth works out to 36 × 24 × 24 ÷ 800 = 25.9 lb, well above the 20.7 lb length-only average — a thick, well-fed fish. Measure both and use our free fish weight calculator; see how to estimate a fish’s weight.

Why two flatheads of the same length weigh differently

Flatheads eat almost exclusively live prey, which drives fast, heavy growth — a reservoir fish gorging on shad and sunfish runs much stouter than a river fish of the same length. Pre-spawn females are heaviest; guarding males feed little during nesting and can slim down in midsummer.

Where and when to find bigger flathead catfish

Flatheads hold in deep, slow pools of big rivers, reservoirs, and lakes — turbid water with heavy structure like logjams, timber, undercut banks, and rock. They’re solitary and territorial, tucking into deep cover by day and moving shallow to feed after dark. Gear tip that matters: flatheads want it alive. Unlike other catfish, adults rarely scavenge — the go-to is a large live baitfish (bluegill or sunfish where legal, shad, bullhead) fished on the bottom tight to cover at night.

Flathead catfish weight FAQ

How much does a 30-inch flathead weigh? About 12 pounds in average condition.

What’s a trophy flathead catfish? Roughly 30 lb; 50 lb+ is a true giant.

Do flatheads bite dead or cut bait? Occasionally, but adults strongly prefer live prey — live bait tight to cover is far more productive.

Related from Fishing Toolbox

• Channel Catfish Length to Weight Chart
• Best Fish Scales & Lip Grippers of 2026

That chain-sided ambush predator hits like a freight train — but what does it weigh? This chain pickerel length-to-weight chart gives average weights by length, handy for ice season and quick releases.

Chain pickerel length-to-weight chart

Length	Average weight
14″	0.62 lb
16″	0.93 lb
18″	1.33 lb
20″	1.82 lb
22″	2.42 lb
24″	3.14 lb
26″	3.99 lb
28″	4.99 lb

These figures use weight (lb) = length³ ÷ 4,400 (length in inches); pickerel are long and lean, so the divisor is high. Their condition swings a lot with season, so treat these as approximate.

What’s an average pickerel — and what’s a trophy?

Most chain pickerel run 15–24 inches and roughly 1–3 pounds; statewide averages (Maine) sit near 16 inches and about a pound. A 4-pounder is a genuinely nice fish, and 5 pounds is the common trophy mark in most regions (a convention — several state records fall in the 6–9 lb range). The IGFA all-tackle world record is 9 lb 6 oz, caught in Georgia in 1961 — one of the oldest standing freshwater records.

Put a number on your exact fish (worked example)

Weight (lb) = Length × Girth² ÷ 800

A 24-inch pickerel with an 11-inch girth works out to 24 × 11 × 11 ÷ 800 = 3.6 lb, above the 3.14 lb length-only average — a chunky, well-fed or pre-spawn fish. Measure both and use our free fish weight calculator; see how to estimate a fish’s weight.

Why two pickerel of the same length weigh differently

Pickerel spawn very early — late winter to early spring — so pre-spawn females are the heaviest of the year, and that peak lines up neatly with prime ice-fishing season. Forage and body condition vary widely from water to water, which is why the chart is only a starting point.

Where and when to find bigger chain pickerel

Chain pickerel love shallow, weedy, slow water — vegetated lakes, ponds, backwaters, and sluggish stream and river pools — where they ambush prey from the edge of cover. They’re a popular winter and ice-fishing target. Gear tip: they slash at flash, so spoons, spinnerbaits, and inline spinners worked along weed edges draw hard strikes — and a short wire or heavy fluorocarbon leader saves lures from their teeth. ID: the namesake dark chain-link pattern on a greenish-gold flank, plus a distinct teardrop bar beneath the eye (young northern pike show light, bean-shaped spots instead).

Chain pickerel weight FAQ

How much does a 24-inch chain pickerel weigh? About 3 pounds in average condition.

What’s a trophy chain pickerel? Around 5 pounds; a 4-pounder is a strong fish.

Do I need a leader for pickerel? Yes — their teeth cut light line. Use a short wire or heavy fluorocarbon leader.

Related from Fishing Toolbox

• Northern Pike Length to Weight Chart
• Muskie Length to Weight Chart

Landed a buttery-gold brown and want to know its weight? This brown trout length-to-weight chart estimates weight from length for a fish in average condition — handy for a quick photo-and-release on wild trout water.

Brown trout length-to-weight chart

Length	Average weight
10″	0.40 lb
12″	0.69 lb
14″	1.10 lb
16″	1.64 lb
18″	2.33 lb
20″	3.20 lb
22″	4.26 lb
24″	5.53 lb
26″	7.03 lb
28″	8.78 lb

These figures use weight (lb) = length³ ÷ 2,500 (length in inches), calibrated to statewide average-condition data (Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission). Well-fed lake and tailwater browns run heavier.

What’s an average brown trout — and what’s a trophy?

Most stream browns run 10–16 inches and about ½ to 2 pounds, with a good wild fish being 14–18 inches; lake, tailwater, and Great Lakes browns grow far larger. Anglers widely treat 20 inches or about 5 pounds as a trophy stream brown, pushing the bar to 10 lb+ on big water (an angler convention, not an official standard). The IGFA all-tackle record is 44 lb 5 oz from New Zealand (2020) — a pellet-fattened canal fish — while the classic North American benchmark is the roughly 40-pound brown from Arkansas’s Little Red River in 1992.

Put a number on your exact fish (worked example)

Length-only charts can’t tell a lean insect-eater from a predatory brown that’s been eating baitfish. Girth can:

Weight (lb) = Length × Girth² ÷ 800

A 20-inch brown with a 12-inch girth works out to 20 × 12 × 12 ÷ 800 = 3.6 lb, above the 3.20 lb length-only average — a well-fed fish. Measure both and use our free fish weight calculator; see how to estimate a fish’s weight.

Why two browns of the same length weigh differently

Big browns turn strongly predatory — a fish gorging on sculpins and minnows gets deep and heavy, while an insect-eating stream fish stays lean. Fall pre-spawn females are the heaviest of the year, and post-spawn winter fish are leaner at the same length. Tailwater and lake browns simply outweigh stream fish of equal length.

Where and when to find bigger brown trout

Brown trout live in cool, clean, well-oxygenated streams, tailwaters, and lakes around 53–66°F — and they tolerate warmth better than brook or rainbow trout. They hold near undercut banks, cover, and current breaks and feed hardest at low light, so early, late, and after dark produce the biggest fish. Fall, as pre-spawn browns get aggressive and territorial, is prime trophy season. ID: black and red/orange spots (the red ones often ringed with a blue halo) on a brown-gold body, and a nearly spotless tail — the fastest way to separate a brown from a rainbow or brookie.

Brown trout weight FAQ

How much does a 20-inch brown trout weigh? About 3 to 3.6 pounds, depending on how well-fed it is.

What’s a trophy brown trout? Roughly 20 inches or 5 lb on a stream; 10 lb+ on lakes and tailwaters.

Why are lake and tailwater browns so much heavier? They switch to eating baitfish and grow deep, heavy bodies that beat length-only averages.

Related from Fishing Toolbox

• Rainbow Trout Length to Weight Chart
• Brook Trout Length to Weight Chart