How To: Catch surface-feeding fish with a popping cork rig

One of the most exciting times you can have fishing is when you can get in the middle of a school of surface-feeding fish like black bass or white bass or stripers. If you can manage to cast off into them, you're guaranteed to get a bite. And one way to improve your chances… the popping cork rig. Wade Bourne of MyOutdoorTV shows you how to fish a popping cork rig.

The popping cork rig is normally used to catch speckled trout and other inshore marine species. However, this rig is equally effective on white bass, black bass and striped bass that are schooling and surface feeding in freshwater lakes. Here are tips for fishing a popping cork rig.

- Cast the popping cork/bait into an area where fish are feeding on or near the surface.

- Pop the cork by jerking sharply with the rod tip. This sounds like a fish chasing bait on the surface and draws other fish eager to feed.

- Try different popping cadences and waiting period between pops. Sometimes fish react better to rapid pops; sometimes, to slower pops.

- The cork is also this rig's strike indicator. When the cork is yanked under or starts swimming away, set the hook.