Texas vs Jika Rig?

[MK49]

I'm not much of a soft bait guy, but Jackall Cover Craw with a weighted T rig has worked very well for the last 15 years. It's one of my main soft baits, the other is a weightless Fat Ika, which I don't normally use in winter. Those are pretty much all I use/need for soft baits.

I fished this afternoon. Didn't get a bite on crankbaits, blade baits, jerkbaits and topwater (yeah, I throw topwater even in mid Dec.). Just because I had a snap at the end of my line for those hard baits, I just tried jika rig by putting a weight and a hook on the snap. Put a Cover Craw on it. I got bites on every cast for about 15min. This was the first time I used jika rig Cover Craw, and I was amazed how effective it was. Between 3 and 4:15PM, I caught a dozen of bass, and missed many more. Nothing big, all 1.5 ~ 4lbs, but I was pretty happy.

Now, I wonder if a jika rig was better under today's condition, or a T rig could have worked the same or better. I fished the jika rig the same way I do T rig. I'm going back tomorrow, and will try both jika and T rig with the same weight size and Cover Craw to see if they make much difference. I have a feeling the fishing won't be as good, though.

Anyway, what's your thoughts on Texas vs Jika? I can see the jika rig lift the bait an inch or two off the bottom, and the hook/bait move a bit more freely, but I don't know if that makes much difference.

[Johnny A]

I think the benefit of the Jika Rig is multiple pivot points vs the single pivot point of the Texas Rig.

[sbd3]

Were you getting hit on the drop or was the fish picking it up off the bottom? Fall rate may be a factor here, Jika rig with same weight will fall faster than t rig

[MK49]

Were you getting hit on the drop or was the fish picking it up off the bottom? Fall rate may be a factor here, Jika rig with same weight will fall faster than t rig

Didn't get a bite on the fall. All the bites were off the bottom.

I guess they were feeding a lot yesterday. I caught a fish that had my jika rig and Cover Craw in the mouth along with a little shad and another jika+Cover Craw with a few inches of a broken line. That's one of the fish I missed earlier, and the fish wanted the 2nd Cover Craw and a little shad.

Unfortunately, it rained today, so I didn't go back.