difference

[gotta know]

What does the term rigging mean and why does it take a different rod for its application?

[T-Mac]

Rigging just means using a live bait rig (hook w/ live bait and weighetd by a sinker).
No artficial lure involved.

For me, anyway. ?

[Tourney Fan]

I think the term was dirived from "Lindy Rig". Which is a live bait hook and slip sinker rig. So "Rigging" is fishing with a Lindy Rig.

[Mattman]

Rigging is having your bait on or near bottom using weights that are a distance from you bait. Typically live bait. So the line leaves your rod tip, travels down to the bottom to your weight, and then travels parallel to the bottom (roughly) to you bait. Most times rigging is used for light biting or finicky fish.

Lindy rigs and their various other forms, 3-way rigs and bottom bouncers are all types of rigging. But for the most part when someone says rigging, they mean Lindy rigging which uses a type of walking or stand up sinker. And this sinker is not fixed to the line. If you let go of your line or open the bail, the fish is free to take line as it passes right through the sinker. When working the rig the sinker can only get so close to the bait because you use a slip bobber knot to set the length or a barrel swivel to reduce line twist. The fish can pull line from their end, but you will run into a stop before your sinker gets to the bait.

Because you basically have a big L in you line, longer rods are preferred here as you need to move quite a bit of line to set the hook. Softer, longer tapered rods are also the norm to help protect the light lines often used in rigging and so the tip can visualize strikes for you.

In a nutshell...



Better to have and not need than to need and not have!

Matt Davis

[Old Time Guide]

There were a great many people "rigging", before Lindners began selling that "Lindy Rig". Their little sinker was a new shape, but the use of sliding sinkers, stopped by a barrel swivel at the end of a length of leader with a small hook on the end was used by many guides for many years before "Lindy Tackle Co." ever started. Us guides were using egg sinkers, bell sinkers and such to accomplish the same presentation.

As far as rods go, a longer more limber rod with a high geared reel was preferred for fishing this way. That way the slack could be taken up quicker after letting the fish "run with it" after the "bite", and the limber rod was more forgiving with the small hooks. This is still true, today.

[Mattman]

Quite right, many people were rigging before the Lindner's introduced the Lindy Rig. Funny how that has just become a generic term now. Much like people refer to plastic laminate counters as Formica.

I guess a better term should have been a slip sinker system. Regardless of manufacturer.



Better to have and not need than to need and not have!

Matt Davis