All good advice. Thanks!

Maybe should have mentioned that I never use nightcrawlers for that reason … to avoid fish swallowing the bait.

When I used wacky rigs it was with Senkos of different sizes and two small circular bands rolled down in the middle so they crossed each other kind of making an "X" with the hook run under the "X", not through the Senko. This rotated the barb 90 degrees. Caught plenty of fish that way and seemed to end up with fewer deep hook sets … just more than I wanted.

Sure, without bothering with any bands the direction of the barb (hook) merely depends on how it is run through the Senko. The bands were just get more "life" out of the Senko.

Aaaha! Might have saved me a few hooks. Usually just cut them off.

Common practice in New England for stripped bass are circle hooks and crushed barbs. Never tried that in a wacky rig.

Came across a video recently about how to set up a so-called "wacky" rig. Reminded me of why I never use it. Thought it worth mentioning my reason why not.

This rig will catch fish using either live worms or soft lures such as a Senko. But given where the hook is located and motion of the rig as it sinks … many fish … in particular largemouth bass … tend to hit the rig in the middle. That is, directly on the hook instead of the trailing end of the bait … as is commonly the case using a "weedless" rig. The difference is that instead of a hook set in the lip area … more often than not the result is a hook set deep inside the fish … making it very difficult if not impossible to safely remove the hook … to say nothing of the damage done while the fish fights to get free.

For folks who keep the fish for food I suppose it doesn't matter. For the many others who want a safe release back in the water with minimum harm done …

Ah! OK … got it! So far in my 81 years I have never run into this. Hope I don't.

Thanks!!!

Thanks for the clarification.

No confusion in respect to salt water stripers versus fresh water stripers. Just about why take 100 … of anything?

Whew … for a minute I read "striper".

But anyway … not clear why anyone needs to take that many "strippers" either. Why take that many fish of any type. Food … bait?

Maybe there's a movement there to put "strippers" on the endangered list. Hope not!!!

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