It's tough to make a Texas or Carolina rigged plastic into something different, something the fish haven't seen or heard before. Elite Series pro, Mike Wurm, faces this problem nearly every day. Metal on metal is one way he solves it.
"At one time metal beads were common, everybody fished with them," he says. "But then they fell out of favor. Guys started using plastic and glass because the sound was different. And it was different then, but metal is what's different now."
The test is what is new to the bass, not what's new to the angler.
In his search for something new to the bass, Wurm turned to Tru-Tungsten beads and weights. "The Peter T Force Bead is great. It's made from a composite material that sounds and feels like metal. It fits just right in the concave face of their weights. Combine that fit with the metallic hardness of everything, and you have just the ticket for something different."
His rigging is conventional — to a point; first the plastic, then the bead, finally the weight. But then, he pegs the weight as tight as possible against the bead using the Tru-Tungsten Smart Peg system. "The tighter the better," he says. "I want as little movement between them as possible.
"I know a lot of anglers think that defeats the purpose but that's not true. Sound is effective, but only if it's the right kind. It can't be too loud and needs to be natural. I don't care how tight you peg that weight there'll still be some movement between it and the bead.
"That little movement is just enough to give you a slight clink. You don't want a thump, a knock or a clank. You want a tiny clink. It should sound like a crawfish's parts hitting together in the water."
Not as important as sound to Wurm, but important nonetheless, is color. He's a strong believer is using a dark weight in front of a blood red bead. (Both products come in a wide variety of colors.) "I like that little red dot sitting on top of my plastic with the dark weight providing contrast for the bass," he says.
"I know this (composite bead, metal weight, clink sound and color combination) sounds like a small thing, but small things make a big difference. Educated bass can be hard to catch. You need to use every trick in your boat."
