ICAST 2019: HEAVY DUTY FLIPPIN’ AND WORM HOOK TOKYO RIGS

Tokyo Rigs^® will bring even more bass into your boat with VMC’s^® release of two new models: one armed with a Heavy Duty Flippin’ Hook, the other with a Heavy Duty Worm Hook.

Imagine a drop-shot rig on steroids – with a big hook and indestructible metal leader. That’s a Tokyo Rig. It comprises a Heavy Duty hook, barrel-swivel, welded O-ring, and a 2-½-inch rigid-wire dropper arm to which you can attach a weight or two of your choice. The original model featured a Wide Gap hook, but the new Flippin’ Hook and Worm Hook models make the innovative fishing system more versatile.

“There’s three hooks bass guys use – now we’ve got all of them on a Tokyo Rig,” says Rapala Pro Mike Iaconelli. “There’s nowhere in the water column where you can’t fish this rig and catch big bass.”

A Tokyo Rig will trigger more bites than a traditional offering like a Texas Rig, because it allows you to impart much more action to your favorite soft-plastic beaver, craw, tube or worm. “You can leave your bait in one spot and just kind of shake it and get a lot of free action out of the bait,” explains Rapala Pro Seth Feider, a Bassmaster Elite Series contender. “The bait’s not really held down by the weight. It stays up, suspended from the bottom.”

The new Heavy Duty Flippin’ Hook Tokyo Rig excels for flipping solid-body, soft-plastic baits, like beavers, in submerged vegetation. The Heavy Duty Worm Hook Tokyo Rig is perfect for pitching smaller soft-plastic creature baits and worms around heavy cover.

A Tokyo Rig can dramatically increase your hook-up ratio as well. Its innovation is positioning your weight below your hook and bait, away from the impact zone during the fish’s initial bite and your ensuing hookset.

Easily customizable, a Tokyo Rig can carry enough weigh to flip heavy cover or punch mats. To keep your weight(s) in place, simply use narrow-nose pliers to bend back the end of the rig’s rigid, 2-½-inch dropper wire.

The straight shank on a VMC Heavy Duty Flippin’ Hook features a double-spiked baitholder with opposing barbs that lock on softbaits. Heavy Duty Flippin’ Hooks come in three sizes: 3/0, 4/0 and 5/0. VMC Heavy Duty Worm Hooks feature a 3-degree offset point, which dramatically improves your hooking percentage.