by Bruce Middleton, August 08, 2011

Bass like different worms at different times under different circumstances…

I think it’s safe to say that if I were to spread out all the plastic worms I own today, they would cover the floor of my backroom office, three layers deep. I have finesse two and three-inch worms all the way up to eleven and a half inch giants and ever one of them has caught bass at one time or another. And the colors, why I could make a rainbow blush with envy at the gambit of colors I posses. But the biggest difference in this collection of worms is the shear numbers of different colors, types of heads, appendages and tails these worms have. Because when it comes to bass fishing and choosing the right worm or any other plastic bait for any given situation, it’s the head, appendages and tail design that matters second most. Presentation is first of course, size and girth is third and color is last.

Plastic worms have been catching bass for about 80 years now and doing a great job of it. Modern manufactures have given us more choices than ever before and new material has revolutionized the plastics bait industry. But that’s to be expected. What’s important now is how to fish all these new types of worms and plastics on the market so you get their fullest benefit, best action and the best fishing out of them you can.

Bass show decided preferences for different sizes, colors, shapes and actions of worms at different times of the year and under different weather and water conditions. A clear example of this would be that bass prefer smaller finesse worms in clear water than they do larger worms. It’s not so much that this is etched in stone, as it is just the way things are. Bass in clear water just prefer smaller worms, plain and simple. One other simple fact about worms is that they have to be fished slowly. They are made to go so slow that it almost gives you an anxiety attack. Now if they are used as a top water lure then of course they are fished a lot faster to keep them on or near the surface.

With this in mind you have we shift our attention to the presentation factor of worming starting with flipping and pitching. These two methods are short-range casts to accurately drop worms into really heavy cover. A lot of the time this calls for standard four to seven inch worms with thick tails that have plenty of action. Long skinny tailed ribbon worms don’t do well in this environment because the tail waves around and tangles up in the thin limbs of the brush and cover. Thick tailed worms ricochet off this cover and seldom get hung-up. Flipping and pitching are best done in off colored water so it’s important to choice a worm that sends out a lot of vibration to attract the bass. Good worms to use are “c” tails, “u” tails, blunt tailed ones and flat tailed worms or French fry worms. The main idea is to use a worm with a lot of mass and stay away from smaller skinny ones when in heavy, brushy areas. Over the tops of weed and grass beds then other worms are called for.

In the spring and summer a favorite worm tactic is top water worming. As the name implies, this is a weightless rig, fished on the surface, mostly during low light levels of the early morning or at dusk. The retrieve is a stop and go to slow steady speed to imitate a small snake, eel or leech on the surface. The worm should have a paddle tail or a gator tail to work at its best. Other good choices include flat tailed worms, split tailed ones and straight tailed ribbon worms. The idea is to look like a snake that has some action without over doing it. Too much action at the tail can turn off bass. Here too the worm is seen to have morphed into a swim bait often looking more fish-like than worm-like. But that is the beauty of plastics, they are easily reshaped to any desired shape to suit what we fishermen need to get the job done.

Drop shotting worms is a vertical presentation where the worm is presented almost horizontally. To understand this you first have to understand a drop shot rig. A drop shot rig is a line with the weight on the end and a hook tied above the weight 18 to 30 inches or so about the same distance a regular leader is long. A small Octopus circle hook is used which is a round shaped hook, smaller than a regular worm hook in length. The worm used on this rig is usually a cut-tail worm or very thin tailed worms so the never seem to stop wiggling even with the slightest motion and when hooked it is suspended horizontally to the surface. While the rig can be cast, it is best fished over the side of the boat in fairly deep water and the boat moved to change the location of the rig. Other worms will work on this rig to a degree but cut-tail worms out produce them in almost every trial.

One point that needs to be made when down sizing uses a small circle hook, you can’t set the hook like you would if you had a worm hook on. You just pull the rod tip up and start reeling. There is no need to reef back to set the hook hard as it will set almost automatically by itself and the circle hook will usually catch the bass in the corner or the top of his mouth or on the top of the upper jaw and not back down his gullet. If you look at a circle hook you will notice that the very tip of it rounded over to almost a 90-degree angle. This is what sets the hook in the corner of the basses mouth whereas it will slid along the interior of the bass’s mouth smoothly until it gets to the sharp 90 degree part of the mouth. When these two 90 degree points connect the fish is hooked. It just requires a lot less force to hook a bass with these hooks. If you do use a lot of force there is a chance of ripping the bass’s mouth and jerking the hook out. This will add to the mortality rate of a fish whether he is boated or not.

Finesse worming lends itself to smaller worms, say the two to four-inch range. Straight tailed one are my favorite but just about any tail shape will work. I prefer a Senko™ black, grape, cotton candy or June bug colored 4-inch worm for this type of work. It is my confidence worm. It never fails me and always seems to finds bass even on the toughest bite days. This is a time to use small thin worms and sometimes with a jig head. Slider worms and slider jig heads are another important worm to mention in this type of fishing. They work exceptionally well and should not be over looked. And never forget about the use of a wacky rigged worm as they have a habit of catching bass when most other methods fail. A wacky rig in the spring is a real bass taking bait.

When fishing in deep water or in heavy vegetation like milfoil and lily pads the use of 6 to 8 inch worms are called for. The bigger the worm is, the more vibration it sends out and in heavy cover you need to advertise. The tail of the worms you use has to have a lot of action, more so than at any other time. The more curl to the tail at this time the better and the more movement you can get out of the tail with the slightest rod movement the better. Split tails, double tails, ribbon tails, curly tails are all great choices here. I also like C and U shaped tails too for these places. Remember the name of the game here is body and tail action. In mid summer in these areas you can move up to 11 and 12-inch worms. Don’t be afraid of these long worms. Most beginners see an 11 inch worm with a single hook way far away at one end of the worm and nothing but plastic for a foot from there on. Well let me tell you, a big bass can and will slurp up that long worm in about 1/12th of a second.

A weightless rig uses a worm that sinks slowly and is hooked up weedless. You can also use a lightly weighted hook for a very slow fall on worms that float. The weight of the hook is all-important here so make sure you know what action you are going for and adjust the worm and hook to match. This style of worming is ideal for fishing the worm over dense grass beds where you don’t want the worm to sink too fast but you do want it under the water looking like prey moving about. A swimming action tail is perfect for this rig. Curly tails, ribbon tails, split tails and the like all work extremely well for this application.

However a stick worm is my first choice. Why? Because when a bass will not respond to any other bait or lure they will strike a pen shaped or Senko style worm. The real key to using this worm is to do nothing. That’s right don’t work it. The more you do nothing the more the worm works like it is supposed to. All you really do is cast it out and let it sink to the bottom and after it reaches the bottom turn the reel about a half turn every 20-30 seconds until a bass hits it. If you over work it by using the tip of the rod you make it look unnatural and a bass will let it go by. So stick to the basics and you won’t regret it. A real key with Senko™ type worms is the action they have as they fall. The worm flexes at the middle and the ends move up and down. The action is subtle but then most forage items on the bottom don’t move too much as they are trying to hide and not be eaten. This worms imitates this movement perfectly and that is why you don’t over work it. The action of the worm is built in and that is all you really need.

A basic and ever popular Texas rig has a sinker weight next to the plastic worm so that it falls to the bottom quickly or can penetrate through heavy top cover to get to the bottom. The size and shape of the sinker varies widely depending on the circumstances you are fishing in. Some angles prefer to peg the sinker in place next to or attached to the worm while others prefer to let the sinker remain free to slide up and down the line at will. In this unpegged version, when a bass strikes, the sinker automatically slides up the line and does not interfere with the hook set or while your playing the fish. Also a Texas rig makes an ideal rig for skip casting your bait under docks. The most popular sinker weights are a ¼ to 3/8s of an ounce. While both sinking and floating worms are used with this rig, floating worms are by far more widely used now days. The tail stays up off the bottom and makes it much easier for the bass to see and strike. A lot of tail action is wanted for this application so choose ones with lots of curl or a ribbon. But remember this, when fishing with any plastic always use the least amount of weight you can get away with and still accomplish your goal.

A Carolina rig has the sinker assembly set back from the worm by 18 to 30 inches usually on a fluorocarbon leader. Like a Texas rig a floating worm can be preferred over a sinking one for the same reasons. The presentation of the worm is basically a ‘no-action worm’. For this reason ribbon tail worms are the best choice because the tail wiggles at the slightest movement of the line. While just about any worm can be used on this rig and often are you have to remember that with a floating rig you are getting the most action out of the worm when it dips and rises with each hop of the sinker. While not a worm, plastic grubs and tubes are some of the all time best choices for this type of rig. A key factor to remember about salamanders up here in the Pacific Northwest is that they are poisonous to bass. For this reason bass up here ignore them so most all anglers don’t use this shape much.

The length of plastic worms is an important factor and probably more so than the tail design and the color. The tail design though, is an important element when considering what worms to buy for specific fishing conditions. If you look at every worm on the market in a side-by-side comparison you will notice several things right away. One, there will be hundreds of worms to look at. Two, discounting all the colors, there will be dozens of tail designs, body thickness, lengths, body to tail thickness ratios, a huge number of appendage types and many, many different types of plastics used to make the worms.

To help keep your plastic bait from melting together on those hot summer days, use a piece of thin Styrofoam glued to the lid of your tackle box where they are stored. This also doubles as a place to hold different lures and hooks when changing or fine tuning your presentation and you are using several lures.

Like crank baits, you might be inclined to think that there isn’t really that much difference in the action of the different worms. But like crank baits, if you look closely you can see wiggles, wobbles, and other subtle movements. As you pull the worm through the water it produces vibrations over the length of the worm but mostly at the tail, which moves the most. This is what the bass senses with their lateral lines. The thicker the tail is the stronger the vibration the worm sends out. Also the faster a worm is retrieved the more vibration it sends out but since a slow retrieve is the best, speed is usually ruled out of the equation.

The material the worm is made of effects the vibration pattern too. Too hard a plastic can hamper the tails ability to move freely and therefore produces fewer vibrations. Too soft a material and the worm wiggles so freely it creates vibrations but they are so subtle that they are hard for the bass to pick up. Soft worms are better on a Carolina rig because this rig is an open water rig and is more of a sight-oriented bait. Baits that are too hard are best used on drop shot rigs where the tail action is not so important. Double tail, grubs and split tail worms are made to fished slowly and are perfect for Texas rigs and jig heads. They produce a huge amount of vibration and especially good in dingy water where a bass’s sight is reduced. They also are used as trailers for jigs with great success.

Now that you know how to match length, worm type and tail type together, all that’s left is color to complete the package.

Post-spawn tactics include hopping worms along the bottom very slowly. Texas and Carolina rigged worms are cast out and using the rod tip, continuously hop it back to the boat. Red is a good color to have as a part of the pattern but generally not the only color. Greens, blues, blacks, grays and brown are great body colors as they are predominating bottom prey colors. Another method is like fishing with a jig where you cast it out and let it set for a minute or longer. You then hop it about 6 inches at a time just like a jig.

Also too when you are fishing around docks and marina’s where there are a lot of boats all tied up in a group a cigar shaped worm is the worm of choice. Besides all the different ways to rig these worms you can change colors after you catch a few bass out of a small pocket and it will probably get you a few more bites. In this situation a wacky rig that is weightless is a real go to bait as long as you are using a sinking worm. One other note about changing colors, when you do change colors make a big change. Say you are using a green pumpkin color, in this situation I would try a silver smoke color first and then try other colors to see what the most bass want. But the real key is to use as little weight as possible so the worm falls as slow as possible. After casting it out let it set for some time and then give it a short twitch. If nothing happens then recast to a slightly different spot and continue to fish these area just so. You will be amazed at how many fish you can catch this way. Also with a lot of boats in one area it creates a bare bottom under the boats and docks where a bass can dart out of hiding to catch a meal since these open areas attract so many different types of fish.

Curly tail worms are best for active spring and fall feeding bass. Use it like jerk bait, swimming it across the surface, mid-water column and near the bottom. The best selling curly tails worm colors are red shad, green pumpkin, crawfish and black with a blue tail.
Chartreuse, green pumpkin and pumpkin seed are good colors for floating worms. A watermelon seed trick worm Texas rigged in clear water is like ringing a dinner bell.

All around colors like black and purple worms are best in dingy water. Fat worms and twist tail worms usually are the best in dingy water and thick cover and small worms in clear water. Thin worms work best in thick vegetation. For inactive fish, use small worms. In clear water, use translucent colors like blue, green, pearl and smoke.

In summer clear water use natural greens and brown hued plastics. In dingy water use browns and black colors. White, bubble-gum and other colors work but you have to experiment with them to find out when and where they best perform. Some are better on the surface while others are better on the bottom. The clearer the water the spookier the bass will be. Use translucent colored worms in clear water with flakes of sparkles in them and solid colors in stained water.

To make a quick twin tail plastic bass worm or creature bait, just super glue two curly tail worms together. Super glue has no smell once it is dry. Also try different color combinations to achieve the desired affect. Rigged weightless a worm (as it was first intended to be used) it is a real tool to be used on a regular basis. Browns, pumpkins and blacks sell the most but shad red, greens and blue/black are also good colors. Reflective flakes in the body in dingy water are a real help.

In the spring if I am not using a wacky rigged worm I use 1/16 to 1/8 ounce ball lead head heads (never use slider heads here) and a 3 to 5 inch worm with a lively tail. The best colors to use are motor oil, pumpkin seed, salt and pepper and smoke. Metal flakes reflect light and can improve the bite.

When the water is clear in fall use light colored worms like white, smoke and pearl. With long worms use what you can see through and not solid colors. Translucent are the way to go. In stained water use darker colors like blacks, blues browns and greens.

A French fry, Centipede or other similar ringed plastic worm has a profile of a caterpillar. They can usually be hooked at either end since they are the same shape. The purpose of the rings is to trap and hold air bubbles. When you cast one out, upon retrieval, each time the French fry touches the bottom bubbles escape, which attract bass to the noise. Watermelon seed is an excellent color for this plastic. It can be Texas or Carolina rigged.

And don’t forget to add a little scent like Megastrike™ or Lunker sauce™ or any other of your favorite flavors. Its like pouring gravy over biscuits and chicken fried steak. It’s the finishing touch. If the worm looks good, smells good and tastes good the bass is far more likely to hang on to it longer, enabling you time to set the hook.

And when the worm wears out you have the option of rigging it wacky style. This hook-up sends out massive amounts of vibrations and a lot of fishermen don’t wait for the worm to wear out to use this style to go after big bass. It’s wise to use an O-ring or split ring around the middle of the worm and slide the hook under it. This way it won’t tear the worm if you cast it really hard and a bass is less likely to tear it off when you catch one meaning you can catch more than one bass per worm.

A real night crawler or several red wrigglers flipped or pitched to the pilings of a dock can get you some smashing strikes. Bass love these baits and will all but stand in line to get them. Live bait always works.

When wacky rigging a plastic worm, which is a spring and summer time favorite summer tactic of mine, I often run the hook through the worm as always but then add a Potski’s ball of Fire salmon egg over the barb of the hook for that touch of red I like on all my lures and baits. That touch of red can mean the difference between something to talk about or something to complain about at the end of the day.

When using a worm rigged wacky style it is important to use one that is salted. The salt put into the plastic during the manufacturing process adds a lot of weight to the worm in the air, but not a lot of weight when it is in the water. This way you can cast it a great distance and still get a fairly slow fall

Enjoy!


Bruce Middleton

bpmiddleton@wildblue.net