River Rigging

[JackSalmon]

I live very close to the White River here in Arkansas. I need to know a good rig for fishing minnows in fast water. I plan on fishing with minnows in fast water below a dam. I have a very good supply of large minnows. Thanks, JackSalmon

[drizz]

It's tough to beat a jig!

[steve(IL)]

Agreed, Lindy or Jack's River jigs with a stinger on big bait is pretty deadly. Where possible, tie in a three way and go more finnesse there - it works for me.

p.s. I fish some snaggy water and pre-rig four (4) rods this way so if I have to break off, I drop one rod and pick up the next.

[sib]

in fast water i like to add enough weight to keep my jigs vertical.
"go outside and play"
sib

[River_eye]

The first thing that I'd usually do is tie on a 1/4 or 3/8 oz jig, and just go with the flow. If you'd rather stay in one spot, try a bottom bouncer with a simple spinner rig tied on, somtimes this works the best in fast water. There are also a bunch of contraptions you can put together with a 3 way swivel and a sinker, preferrably the no snag type.

River eye

[Bob G2]

Going for those big brownies below Bull Shoals? Try drift fishing with either a slip sinker rig or a Michigan rig, or bobber fishing. You'll need at least a 9 foot rod for maximum effectiveness, a seven weight fly rod with a spinning reel would work fine.

[BJ]

Jigs are very good in the river. Another option is floaters. Phelps Tackel came out with the Wobbler Floater last year, it is a soft bodied floater that trolls with the hook upright. I used it on the Rainy River last spring and it worked great. Get ahold of them at phelpstackle.com and order from there, or I requested a catalog and ordered from that. Good luck to you.

[GORD]

try using double a barrel rig with a snelled hook. tie a weaker line for the drop weight. it will break off if you snag. even if you need a heavy weight to get down, you can still finesse the fish. think of it as a lindy rig with a break away weight. you can control how far you fish off the bottom by varying the length of the dropper line that goes to the weight. this works for spinners in currant too. lower it slowly to avoid tangles.