5 Most Effective Powerbait Rigs For Multiple Methods

My Powerbait rigs are great for trout like this nice brown trout but they will also work for steelhead, salmon, bass, carp, and catfish. and probably other bait eating species. — My Powerbait rigs are great for trout like this nice brown trout but they will also work for steelhead, salmon, bass, carp, and catfish, and probably any other bait eating species.

These are my most effective Powerbait rigs that have been tested and proven to work with many different Powerbaits. I’ll show you the Powerbait rig and setups I use when I’m guiding and fishing rivers and lakes for trout, steelhead, salmon, as well as just about all other fish.

As a guide, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to experiment with many rigs, and also learn the best bait rigs from other guides, and I’ll be honest with you, for some reason the Powerbait rigs top guides use are often different from what is being recommended online by your average angler and their blog.

I’ll even teach you things about common Powerbait setups that hold anglers back from catching fish, and they don’t even know it. If you are using those same Powerbait rigs, you are missing fish too.

Table Of Contents hide

1 The Power Baits To Use

2 The Best Hook For Powerbait Setups And The Best Hook Size

3 Rigging Your Powerbait On Hook

4 Leader Size For Powerbait Setups

5 About My Powerbait Rig Setup

6 Float Fishing Powerbait Rig

7 The Drift Fishing Powerbait Rigs

8 Bottom Bouncing Powerbait Setup

9 Bottom Fishing Powerbait Rig

10 Bobber Doggin Powerbait Setup

11 Powerbait Rigs Q&A

The Power Baits To Use

Most anglers want to know how to rig the Powerbait dough which is fine, just let me emphasize that there are other great Powerbaits that are possibly better. It all depends on the fish and on the conditions.

These are all Powerbaits that I use.

Berkley PowerBait Magnum Power Eggs
Berkley PowerBait Magnum Garlic Power Eggs
Berkley PowerBait Power Wigglers
Berkley PowerBait Floating Trout Bait Dough
Berkley PowerBait Natural Scent Glitter Floating Trout Bait Dough
Berkley PowerBait Power Honey Worm
Berkley Trout Worm: My most effective Berkley product

For more on fishing these baits and which ones are my most effective, check out these articles:

All of these should be rigged onto your hook with a couple of things in mind.

The Best Hook For Powerbait Setups And The Best Hook Size

These are good hook for your Float Fishing Leader — A good hook pentrates well and holds the fish well during the fight. Some hooks do this better. These are just some of my hooks that I use.

There are 2 critical parts to all of these Powerbait rigs, the hook, and the leader.

The reason these are critical is because these are the parts of the Powerbait rig that the trout see.

And, I’ll be honest with you, part of the reason many anglers struggle to catch fish is a bad hook, the wrong hook size, and a leader line that is so thick the fish can see it from the other side of the lake. Just kidding, but many fish have very good eyesight and they can see your hook and your leader and then decide not to bite, especially wild fish.

Unfortunately, I can’t blame anglers for using the wrong hooks. The sad truth is there are a ton of articles on fishing with baits written by idiots that keep recommending bait-holder hooks.

Let me tell you a secret guys, top fishing guides do NOT use baitholder hooks because THEY SUCK!!

Fishing guides are meticulous about the hooks they use because they want their client to catch as many trout as possible, so they must use hooks that penetrate well on the hookset, and that keep the fish securely hooked during the fight. They also want hooks that are not too big and not too small.

If bait holder hooks were the best hook for bait, all the guides and top anglers would use them, however, they don’t, and that says something.

Instead, use a good short shank wide gap hooks like the Raven Specimen hook or a Gamaktsu Octopus hook. These are the type of hooks the top guides are using.

Bait and hook size — This bait is way too small for this hook which could result in the fish seeing the hook and refusing to eat the bait. Match the hook to the size of the bait.

Your hook size will depend on the bait size! You need to match your hook up to the size of the bait.

A hook that is too big stands out like a sore thumb. Sure, a small hook is less likely to be seen by the trout, but a hook that is too small does not penetrate and hold onto the fish well.

Rigging Your Powerbait On Hook

It’s one thing to have a great hook, but if you rig it wrong it will be less effective.

Unfortunately, many of the Powerbait rigs I’ve seen promoted online are rigged wrong and they limit hookups.

How to put a bait on a hook — An example of where you want to put your bait on a hook to be sure most of the hook is covered but also to be sure the hook gap is wide enough and the hook point is not covered.

I will tell you this from many years of experience and plenty of trial and error. You must not cover the hook point. And you must not fill in the hook gap!!

Often the fish will hook themselves if the hook gap stays open and the hook point is exposed. I’m telling you, this will double the amount of fish you catch especially in currents.

Don’t believe me, watch this underwater video of a guy using the wrong hook and closing up the hook gap. You can see how many fish grab the hook and start swimming away and the hook and bait fall out of the fish’s mouth.

Leader Size For Powerbait Setups

I’m talking about the pound test of the leader, not the length. You can see the basic lengths for each rig in the diagrams below.

I use different leaders for different sized fish and for different river conditions.

One thing I will stress is that not all brands rate their leaders properly. This can be a big problem and prevent you from catching fish. For this reason, I always buy my leader line by the line diameter, not the pound test rating the company claims.

These are the basic guidelines for leader sizing. Use these guidelines for the Powerbait rig setups below.

Trout Leader: 2 to 6 pound: 0.004 in to 0.007
Steelhead and Bass or large trout: 6 to 10 pound, ideal is 8 pound 0.008
Salmon: 10 to 14 pound. The ideal is 12 pound at 0.010

Pound Test	Diameter
1.5	.003in (.08mm)
2	.004in (.10mm)
3	.005in (.12mm)
4	.0055in (.13mm)
6	.007in (.18mm)
8	.008in (.20mm)
10	.009in (.22mm)
12	.010in (.25mm)

About My Powerbait Rig Setup

I’ll be honest with you, I treat power bait like any other bait that I use. Therefore, these rigs can be used for spawn bags, worms, minnows, or whatever you want. These rigs are proven to be very effective and are used by me and other guides and countless experienced anglers.

Tweak them as you need for the conditions you fish, but these are exactly how I rig them when I’m guiding and when I’m fishing for fun.

Float Fishing Powerbait Rig

My Steelhead Leader Formula when using 2 baits. You could also omit the middle bait.

Float fishing in rivers and in lakes is probably my most effective method for catching fish.

In lakes and rivers, I use the exact same setup, but the only difference is in the lake I use a slip float especially if it’s deeper than my rod is long, so over 7 feet.

In rivers, I much prefer longer rods of 10 to 12 feet so I will use a fixed float from any water under 12 feet deep.

My most effective Salmon Leader for Float fishing with one or two baits at a time

Shallow water float fishing leader — This is a shallow water float fishing leader that I would use in water less than 24 inches deep. The optional split shot may not be needed since the water is so shallow.

The Drift Fishing Powerbait Rigs

The drift fishing method is what I use when fishing big rivers with heavy currents or deeper water. I’ve used this for trout, steelhead, salmon, carp, bass, and catfish.

Improved Drift Fishing Rig For Steelhead — This improved drift fishing steelhead rig is more stealthy and abrasion-resistant because there is an added length of fluorocarbon leader. This removed the thicker and more visible mainline from the strike zone and fish’s view.

Steelhead drift fishing leader setup — This is a typical drift fishing leader setup for steelhead and can be used on almost any river. With this setup the mainline goes further down and the weight slide on the mainline or is attached to the mainline.

Bottom Bouncing Powerbait Setup

The bottom bouncing method is similar to the drift fishing method except I use it in smaller and shallow sections of rivers. It excels in shallow riffles, runs, small pools, and in pocket water.