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There are numerous adaptions to the standard Texas Rig - you can 'peg' your nose weight with a match stick or sinker stopper, you can do away with the weight altogether and fish weightless (this can be deadly with baits like Senkos) or instead of a nose weight you can use small amounts of spilt shot on your leader.

Top Texas Rig Tips

1. Use as light a weight as possible.
2. Offset hooks will aid presentation, pay attention to get your hook point in the middle of the bait.
3. Watch out for 'on the drop' hits, especially with lighter weights!
4. Match your hook to the bait and ensure you get your hook point at least 1/3 of the way down your bait.
5. Use a fluorocarbon leader.

A nice Wrasse taken on a Texas rigged Keitech bait about this time last year!

Hart has arrived at Monster Tackle and to celebrate we're giving you the chance to win aHart Bloody Offshore 240 lure rod worth over £150! To enter simply leave your details below and answer the question - it couldn't be easier!For more details on this great prize click here.

Hart have a fantastic range of quality rods, reels, soft and hard baits - we'll be adding more to the site in due course but for now don't miss theAbsolut Worms, theX3 Pencil, and the awesomeSurface Patriot 120!

COMPETITION CLOSED! The Winner has been notified :-)

This trip must be one of the most amazing I have done in South America!

With 5 guests and myself, we arrived at the International Ezeiza airport in Argentina on November 2nd and stayed in the beautiful city of Buenas Aires. Leaving the smaller airport of Jorge Newbury the following afternoon we arrived in Concordia and after a short van ride, we got to La Zona Lodge, our home for the next 4 days and 5 nights.

Each day started with a sumptuous breakfast followed by about 4-5 hours of intense fishing and then back to the lodge for a three-course lunch! After a short siesta at about 3.00pm, our mottly crew was led back to the river for an afternoon of more lure chucking until dark. A few pre-dinner drinks were followed by another three-course dinner and splendid wines! You will NOT lose weight here!

There is nowhere on earth that anglers can catch Golden Dorado of the sizes taken here. Records are constantly broken and as the El Salto Dam stops the upriver migration of these huge fish, they gorge on the constant supply of large baitfish available. They grow to immense proportions here and often when caught they will regurgitate baitfish and even fellow Dorado to over 10lbs!

This is an area which incorporates the water below the huge El Salto Dam (built and shared between Argentina and Uruguay) running across from border to border and down river for about 1km. Anglers cast lures and jigs/flies while the boats drift down with the current to the end of what is the protected reservation known as ‘The Zone’. The boat pilots then start up the engines and run up to the dam for another drift.

Over the next 4 days of this extreme fishing, even with two novice anglers, we all hooked and landed big fish to over 30lbs! Even with replacement split rings, 4X strong and extra sharp hooks, only one Dorado is normally landed for every four hooked. They often throw the hooks when jumping so acrobatically as they have such hard, bony mouths. We still made a respectable total of over 500 fish for two boats and six anglers with 26 over 30lbs.

The fish of 30lbs and over were as follows:
5 x 30, 1 x 31, 4 x 32, 1 x 34, 1 x 35, 3 x 36, 2 x 37, 2 x 38, 1 x 40, 2 x 41, 1 x 42, 1 x 46, 1 x 47 and 1 whopping big 49.5. The last two are also both new world length records!! That's an average of just over 5 fish over 30lbs per angler!!

The best producing baits were Rapala X Raps deep-divers, Rapala CD 18s, lead-in-head Rubber Shad jig baits (these got hammered and chewed up all too quickly), 2-3oz Bucktail jigs and large 2-3oz heavy-duty Spinnerbaits. The largest of 49.5lbs was caught on a 3oz Spinnerbait.

Due to heavy rain coming down the river from Brazil, the water levels were high and the water fast and furious most days, especially when all generating turbines were let loose in both countries! On Sundays, generally neither country generate electricity so the current is usually slower and levels much lower with plenty of rocks showing. Dorados loves rocks and abound stack up around them easily picking off baitfish. Our Sunday however still produced fast water which didn’t fair well for our long-awaited topwater lure action. While some fish were caught on poppers and walk-the-dog baits, deep-divers produced the best fish.

On the morning of November 8th, we all flew back from Concordia to Buenas Aires. I had business in Brazil so carried on from there while the others all flew home the same day. Most of the guys took from the 2nd - 9th November or 8 days off in total for their trip, with 4 Brits, one Lithuanian and an American.

This is such exciting sport, the fish here are always on the hunt, the guides are the best anywhere in Argentina and the lodge and food are excellent in every way. Anyone interested in knowing more about this fantastic fishery can contact Steve viawww.amazon-angler.com

At the start of week 1 we arrived on the Araca only to find us in rising water conditions. The levels rose by over 1m during the week! High water is an Amazon angler's nightmare as it puts the fish down due to cooler water temperatures and it allows water to rise over the banks and spread into the surrounding jungle, making finding fish like looking for a needle in a haystack!

With only 750 fish caught by 8 anglers for the week, most of our group caught big fish, with 18lbs being the largest Peacock Bass and a couple of 50 and 60lb Piraiba Cats were caught in the evenings. We ran the camp down river to the Rio Negro to get away from the rising levels and downwards onto the Rio Caures.

Arriving at the mouth delta of this beautiful river at the end of the first week, we found the Caures to be a completely different story, with low conditions and fish busting on baitfish everywhere. Lots of good sized fish were caught from day 1 with the largest Peacock at 22lb and quite a few 20s and 21s also caught. Many high teeners also added to the total of over 2,000 Peacocks for 7 anglers in 6 1/2 days. A few Redtail Cats also caught with the biggest at about 65lbs only.

In total we must have travelled and fished over 800 miles of rivers. A good bunch of guys and many new friends made.

Next report will come in a few weeks from Argentina for Giant Dourado at the world-famousLa Zona Lodge, followed by a week in the Brazilian Amazon for Peacock Bass at our friendly, family-run eco-lodge.

Over the years we've come to love the Jersey Bass Festival weekend, organised by Steve Mullins and the Sinkers Sea Fishing Club it is well supported by sponsors and always draws a big crowd (over 200). The format is simple start fishing at 6pm on Friday night, finish by 7pm on Sunday and you can fishing almost anywhere you like on the Island so long as you can reach it by foot.

We managed just 1 bass this year between 4 of us and it placed joint 3rd in the catch and release section - just 1 fish for 4 rods isn't very good but we had alot of fun along the way. The catch and release section was won by Dave Watson who nailed an 8lb fish on a soft plastic in fast running water in the middle of the night - well done mate! The lure section was won by Giles Allcock with a fish of 5lb 15oz 12dr he also won the visitors section so a great weekend for him. Some photos and the full results from a cracking weekend below.