Tokyo and J-Rigs
Fishing rock piles on Clear Lake is not like the ones you fish on your home lake .
“ Clear Lake has this volcanic rock that is really , really snaggy ,” says Cody Meyer . “ I mean , it ’ s so bad that you ’ re constantly snagged throwing a football head and we used to try and float a 1 / 4-ounce jig above it , because if you touched it you were snagged .”
That is , until Meyer started tossing the Owner J-Rig .
So , what is the Tokyo or J- Rig ? Take a drop-shot ; get rid of the “ drop ” line for either a wire with a weight on it ( Tokyo ) or just a bell sinker ( J-Rig ); and add an offset , wide-gap hook .
It doesn ’ t look like much , but Meyer says it transformed his ability to fish those snaggy rocks and other cover .
“ It comes through stuff so much better than a Texas rig ,” says Meyer , whose favorite size is a 1 / 4-ounce with a 5 / 0 hook . “ That weight leads and allows the bait to sit horizontal behind . And when you ’ re working the bait , the weight will move and clear itself . So , your bait is 10 times cleaner coming through cover and hardly gets hung up .”
To clarify , Meyer is not punching or even flipping truly heavy vegetation with the rig ( though , he has ). He ’ s more talking sparse hydrilla and milfoil , casting it out and dragging , shaking and popping it back to the boat while always keeping in contact with the bottom . The result is a different action than any Texas rig that also keeps the lure cleaner .
Same goes for rocks , where he ’ ll drag it like a jig or sometimes put a small swimbait on it and slowly swim it , keeping contact with the rocks because he knows he won ’ t get hung near as much .
In terms of gear , he ’ ll go with a 7-foot , 3-inch Daiwa Tatula Elite Brent Ehrler rod and Daiwa Tatula Elite 7:1 reel spooled with Daiwa J-Fluoro Samurai . But he ’ s tinkered plenty with the lures .
“ I used to use strictly creature baits with it , but I ’ ve learned in places like Florida to use slender baits , too , like a Yamamoto Senko ,” says Meyer . “ It gets in and out of the cover better and truly has such a different action that gets more bites .”
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
BRENT EHRLER
GRAE BUCK
Cody Meyer
NEKO RIG ROD 7 ’ 1 ” Daiwa Tatula Elite Brent Ehrler - M ( spinning ) REEL Daiwa Tatula LINE 12lb Sunline Xplasma Asegai braid to an 8lb Sunline FC Sniper leader
NED RIG ROD Favorite Jackhammer 741 - MH ( spinning ) REEL Favorite Jackhammer 2500 LINE 15lb Seaguar Smackdown braid to an 8lb Seaguar Tatsu Fluorocarbon leader .
TOKYO / J-RIG ROD 7 ’ 3 ” Daiwa Tatula Elite Brent Ehrler - MH ( casting ) REEL Daiwa Tatula Elite 7:1 LINE J-Fluoro Samurai
* Notes
JUNE-JULY 2022 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM 65