VMC Tokyo Rig

So who has tried the Tokyo rig and who has used VMC’s TR hooks?

I haven’t, but it seems interesting, but I am skeptical. Sure the action probably is better than a bullet weight on the eye of the hook as far as action goes, but the weight makes it look less natural to me, but I am not a bass. They say it is like drop shotting too, but I don’t put my bait 2″ from the bottom of the drop shot.

The last couple trips to fish the inshore dock have been busts and I’ve had to wade at times because people have gotten to the docks first. I am over it. So I am thinking instead of wade fishing when I can’t or don’t want to haul the kayak, I may get back to some bassing.

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I have not tried the Tokyo rig – To me it doesn’t do anything that a normal drop shot Wont. I know some who use it when flippin heavy cover – Once again I’d prefer a standard pitching setup. I just cant think of a good use for it.

I have. It’s ok. I used it for flipping pads and muck but there’s too many bends and appendeges for things to get hung on it. I’d much rather use a flipping weight with a flipping hook. Much more streamlined. It’ll catch fish like anything else but it’s more effort than I want to put into it.

The one other time I’ve used it was fishing swimbaits on rocky bottoms. Hook them on the tokyo rig and it allows the weight to drag along the bottom and keeps the swimbait a few inches off the bottom. However with the weight bouncing and deflecting off the rocky bottom, it in turn gives the swimbait those same deflections and erratic movement.

I’ve used it off and on the past couple years and am gravitating back to other approaches. It’s not bad, but not great.

I agree with Mahto that if your Flippin heavier cover it seems to hang up a little more than a typical jig or T-Rig plastic on a flippin hook.

It also can be used dragging plastics across the bottom long distances. Doing this with the worm hook version and a long lizard or big worm works reasonably well. But for crawfish style lures (which I use more) I think a Hard-Head/Biffle Bug or Strike King Jointed Structure Head/Rage Craw work better. The Tokyo Rig keeps lures along the bottom on retrieve like the others, but all the extra wire/weights hanging below are a bit klunky and just don’t seem as efficient or necessary to me.

The real plus is the ease in changing weights without re-tying.

Agree with others. My experience is that it’s been okay but not great. Ex. – Late last fall fishing deep offshore rock piles for smallies, my son’s Keitech swimbaits fished with a traditional jighead far outfished the Tokyo Rig and Keitech. No idea why, just was. Caught a few but wasn’t keeping up. With that said, I haven’t given up and have one rigged up for walleyes as we speak. We’ll see how that goes.

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Sometimes I think the larger, clanking profile of the Tokyo Rig can be a turn off to fish… and who knows maybe other times it’s a plus, but I gradually lost confidence in the rig.

It definitely seems like it really is only practical swimming over a clean bottom. And I really don’t see an advantage over similar rigs.