The first way of hooking the bait is Nose hooking; in this way of hooking the bait you simply tie on standard hook (there are tons of different hooks that can be use but we will not get into that in this wright up), and insert the hook into the bottom of the bait with the hook sticking up out of the top about a quarter inch down from the head of the bait. This way of “pinning” the bait to the hook allows for the absolute most action from the bait. The reason for that is almost none of the length of the bait is being held in a ridged manner and the hook acts as a pivot point so that the entire length of the bait is free to move and react to the action the fishermen is giving to the bait. With all the great advantages to this way of rigging the bait there is one major disadvantage to it, and that is if you are fishing heavy cover such as rocks, grass or roots there is a extremely high likely hood of getting your hook stuck in the structure
The second rigging is the weedless rig, and just like nose hooking there is a multitude of different weedless hooks. With this way of rigging you lose a good deal of action of the bait due to the fact that the hook runs a good distance from the tip of the bait into the body of the bait holding that entire section stiff in place. Even with that if the proper size hook is selected for the bait you will still have over half the length of the bait to get action out of, so there is still a decent amount of movement you should be able to get out of the bait; you will just have to make your pops and twitches a little more sharp. The great thing about this rigging of the drop shot is while yes a good amount of action is lost you can toss this bait into heavy cover with confidence you will not get your hook snagged so easily.
The third is the “Wacky Rig”; in this style you hook the bait just like a nose hook, but this time your hook placement is in the center of the length of the bait unlike only coming down a quarter of an inch. Once again there are many types of hook for this but just a regular hook can be used. The advantage of this rigging is that it gives the bait very unique movement patterns. On the fall due to the amount of surface area the bait is now creating as it falls each end of the bait will have a quivering effect. Once weight is on the bottom and action is given to the bait in the form of a sharp pop each end of the bait will fold over to the center almost if it was trying to clap, and if only a twitch is used each end of the bait will
appear to quiver or dance. These two unique
qualities to this rigging technique can bring a strike when others fail.
With all three of these rigging techniques you work the bait in the same way. Cast out let your bait sink to the bottom. Once your weight has made contact with the bottom begin alternating between slight twitches, sharp pops, dragging the bait and pauses all while just retrieving enough line to keep the slack out and stay in contact with the bait. If the strike happens while action is being applied to the bait it will feel like a sudden snag SET THE HOOK!!!!! After years of experience with this technique there will always be a split second of uncertainty if it was a fish or a snag, but within a moment you will know. Look for any and all types of structure to fish this technique.