The Texas Rig is the most famous weedless rig, but it has a lot of variations.
The point of the hook can be left inside the softbait, or just under the skin (skin on top) to have a perfect weedless rig. On the other hand the point can be left outside (exposed) when we are going to cast in an obstacle free spot.
This rig has been conceived for bass fishing, because the black bass has its favourite habitat in spots that are full of weeds, obstacles and branches, but it can be used for almost all the other predators, both in freshwater and saltwater. The Saltwater fishing technique called "Hard Rock Fishing" (HRF) is mainly based on this rig.
The main components of the Texas Rig are:
_Line: a nylon or fluorocarbon line (10-20lb.) is perfect for this rig, but a braided line (PE1.2-PE1.5) with a quite long leader can be used as well.
_Sinker: the specific Texas Rig sinkers are the classic bullet weights (usually from 3/8oz to 3/4oz.), that can be find in different sizes, shapes (classic, rounded, elongated) and colours (raw, white, black).
_Hook: the classic Texas Rig hook is the offset one. There are offset hooks of any shapes and sizes, but it's better to choose the “stronger” versions of these hooks for saltwater fishing because the average hook shank is really thin, and can be not enough for powerful saltwater fish.
_Softbait: every kind of softbait can be used with a Texas Rig, but the best ones are definitely Worms, Soft Stickbaits, Creatures, Craws and Soft Jerkbaits. It's more difficult to use very thin softbaits which prefer Nose-Hooking Rigs, and too short softbaits, because even the smallest offset hook is quite long.
_Bead: it's useful to put a plastic small bead along the line between sinker and hook. The first function is to protect the knot, because without it the sinker would hit and damage the knot when we move our softbait. The second function is related to the "attractiveness", in fact the sound of the weight hitting the plastic bead, in addition to the color of the bead itself, seems to be very attractive for the fish.
_Stopper: it's a small rubber tube that can be fixed on the line, up the sinker, just to "stop" the sinker itself. It can slide along the line in order to place it wherever we want.
The stopper is very important for the rig because it allows us to differentiate the two main variants of the Texas Rig:
_Pegged Texas Rig: this version of the Texas Rig needs a stopper or something to keep the sinker fixed on the line, in contact with the hook and the softbait. This solution is the best one if you want to cast your bait in very intricate spots. Another version of the Pegged Texas Rig is the Florida Rig (or Screw-In Rig), that consists in using bullet weights equipped with a metal screw, that helps us to fix the bait to the sinker without using any kind of stopper.
_Unpegged Texas Rig: in this version of the Texas Rig the sinker can slide along the line (we can have a stopper but not close to the bait). There are at least two advantages in having the sinker free to move along the line; the first one is connected to the fact that the weight will reach the bottom a lot before the bait, which will follow with a slow, natural descent. The second one is connected to the fish bite with a lighter and unconstrained bait in fact the fish bite will be less suspicious.
The other possibility is the most simple one:
_Weightless Texas Rig: this rig is substantially a "No-Sinker Rig" and consists in using the Texas method to put the softbait on the hook, but without any weight on the line. This rig is usually used with softbaits which have a high specific weight or with softbaits that can move in a very sinuous way just under the water surface, like the Soft Jerkbaits.
