How to Make and Rig "Mini Rags"

By SSSF Admin RyanK

These are very inexpensive and very effective drift bobbers. you can make hundreds of these in no time flat, they work incredibly well, and they are cheaper than a corky.

Supplies needed from left to right:
Scissors, decent sized sewing needle, yarn of your choice (My favorite is Shrimp Pink), and 3/8" foam backer rod. The backer rod is very cheap when bought in bulk.

*Multiple colors of yarn can be used too, just thread two or three pieces of different colored yarn through the eye of the needle and then follow these same steps.



Step one:
Cut the backer rod into anywhere from 1/3" to 1/2" pieces. Then thread your yarn through the eye of the needle, leave a few inches of yarn sticking out so it doesn't pull back out. Next slide the foam width wise onto the needle and all the way down the yarn one at a time until as many pieces of foam will fit on the yarn leaving about 3/4" between pieces of foam.



Once done it should look like this:



Step Two:
Cut the yarn right down the middle of the foam pieces, adjusting as necessary to make sure the yarn is even on both sides of the foam. once done you should have a pile of Mini Rags.



Step Three:
For leaders I use 10-12lb test and size 1 hooks. Slide a small corky or 4-6mm bead down your leader, then thread the end of your leader through the eye of the needle like shown below, and then thread a rag on the needle vertically, and slide it all the way down the leader. Sorry for the junky photo, it was the only way to get a shot of the leader through the eye of the needle.



This is what it looks like all rigged up:



When rigging these use a short leader around 24" these float very high, and if your fishing where you need to get down quick a longer leader could be an issue. You can add bait to these if you like, I like prawn meat or boraxed eggs. I fish these baitless more often than not and they work great. You can also inject scent into these and it'll release slowly so you don't have to re apply very often. Another bonus to these is since they float so high, your hook hangs up less on the bottom! Give these a try this winter season you won't be disappointed.