Ever Heard of the Riveting Rig?

If you haven't, you're probably not alone, 'cause until recently, it was a fairly well-kept secret. The cat's out of the bag now, though, and I'm going to share the details here, as revealed in the latest issue of Jay Kumar's BassBlaster.

To start with, the riveting rig is designed for fishing soft-plastic jerkbaits and swimbaits. The standard way to rig these baits, of course, is with a Tex-posed hook, which often will result in only about a 65-percent hook-up ratio. You reportedly can improve that hook-up ratio with the riveting rig. Here's how it works, as explained by Mark Zona, an admitted tackle junkie. He first learned the trick about seven years back from a gentleman who promised, if he used the rig with a Strike King Caffeine Shad, "You'll never miss them (the fish)."

You first take the hollow sleeve out of a pop rivet, which basically is a tube with a circular plate on the end of that sleeve. Push it from the back side (where the "V" is on the belly of a Caffeine Shad) toward the nose, then clean out the inside of the rivet with a nail. Now slide your line through the rivet and attach a treble hook. The suggested sizes are a #2 treble hook with a 4.5- to 5-inch swimbait, a #4 with a 4-inch Caffeine Shad, or a #5 on a magnum-sized bait.

Zona is adamant that a Lazer Trokar round-bend treble hook is an important part of the equation. He will vary line size from 15- to 20-pound fluorocarbon, and he always will tie it to a split-ring rigged with the round-bend hook.

Both Zona and Bassmaster Elite Series angler Ott DeFoe use this rig, and both advise anglers not to be lazy on the hookset. "A lot of times," says DeFoe, "the good bites are a really good thump, and the line then goes limp, so I reel about two cranks, and once I feel pressure, I set the hook."

Success rates with the riveting rig may vary, depending on the angler using it, but Zona says his hook-up ratio soared to nearly 99 percent.