S5E300. Bass Fishing for Noobs - The Free Rig with Shaye Baker

Paddle N' Fin

On today's episode of Bass Fishing for Noobs, Sean and Susie are joined by Shaye Baker, a writer for Wired2Fish, Bassmater, and Monsterbass to discuss a technique that is relatively unknown among anglers, the free rig. The free rig consists of your favorite texas rigged soft plastic bait tied on the end of the line but with line run through the eye of a free floating bell or cylinder weight. The beauty of this technique is how versatile it is, as you can mix up your weights, soft plastics, and hook types to match the places and cover you are fishing. It also can be thrown on both a spinning setup as well as a baitcaster. While searching for more information on this technique, Sean stumbled on an article written by Shaye on the free rig and enjoyed his writing style. Sean reached out and Shaye thankfully accepted his invitation to come on the Noobs show and teach us all what he knows about fishing the free rig.

We start out by learning Shayes background and his journey from getting involved in the fishing industry, making the decision to write and work instead of fishing professionally, how his deep dive into working in the industry led to some tough times, and finally how he was able to find his way back to his love for fishing by taking a more balanced approach and focusing on his priorities.

Sean, Susie, and Shaye then jump into discussing the free rig, how to rig it, the retrieve and hookset, when and where Shaye likes to fish it, line choice, and many other aspects of using this well rounded technique.

Also be sure to check out the show notes below for a bunch of Shayes content, including two youtube videos that I feel perfectly illustrate why we love kayak angling so much!

So if you’ve never heard of the free rig and want to give it a try, tune in to this week's episode of Bass Fishing for Noobs here on the Paddle N Fin Podcast, for a crash course!

You can find Shayes content on the following sites:

https://www.wired2fish.com/

https://monsterbass.com/

https://www.bassmaster.com/

Shayes article on the free rig: https://www.wired2fish.com/fishing-tips/how-to-fish-the-free-rig-for-bas

Shayes video on trying kayak fishing for the first time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNN-GZ-U4pU

Shayes video on winning his first tournament from a kayak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqOF0-Vr7aM

This is why we LOVE kayak angling!

Some of the other baits mentioned in this episode:

Team Ark Minidiver crankbait: https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Team_Ark_MiniDiver_Crankbaits/descpage-TXX.html

Shaye’s Ark Minidiver review: https://www.wired2fish.com/tackle-reviews/team-ark-minidiver-crankbait-review

Zman Chatterbait MiniMAX: https://zmanfishing.com/cms/products/chatterbait-minimax

Shaye’s Mini Max review: https://www.wired2fish.com/tackle-reviews/z-man-chatterbait-minimax-review

Zoom Split Tail trailer: https://zoombait.com/chunks-trailers-grubs/trailers/split-tail-trailer/

Shaye’s Split Tail review: https://www.wired2fish.com/tackle-reviews/zoom-split-tail-trailer-review/

Dale Hollow Lodging- www.eastport.info

Fantasy Kayak League- www.paddlenfin.com/fantasy

Waypoint TV- https://waypointtv.com

Patreon-https://www.patreon.com/paddlenfin

Podcast & Website- www.paddlenfin.com

YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/paddlenfin

Email- [e-mail]

Social Media- @paddlenfin

Yak Gadget- www.yakgadget.com

Pelican Professional- www.pelican.com

Rocktown paddlesports - rocktownadventures.com

JigMasters Jigs- https://jigmasters.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices