Don't leave home without it...
Not your credit card, your worms
It's
the most productive lure. Practically every time
you go fish, you'll hear someone else telling you about yet
another lure that is the world's best lure to use. But day in and
day out, a worm is the best. Always has been. Probably always
will be too. Don't leave home without it!
How to amass an arsenal of worm baits. Generically
speaking, a 6 inch straight or ribbontail worm is the most
productive and best-selling size and style of lure in the history
of bass fishing. Especially on a Texas rig. It's classic!
Now you add a few 4 inch worms for larger numbers of smaller
bass, mix in some 7 to 10 inch worms for slightly bigger bass
than average. Some fat ones, some skinny ones...a few 3, 4 and 5
inch single tail GRUBWORMS, throw in a couple of sizes of
Yamamoto Senko worms, which are soft plastic jerkbaits - you've
just amassed a simple but deadly arsenal of baits for all seasons
and locations!
Name some names. There are tons of
good worms out there and I have probably used most of them at one
time or another. They're all good. Heck,I can't think of a worm
that is NOT good! However, the ones I mention here are the ones I
have in my worm bag when I go out fishing nowadays.
1) Small: I tend to use small worms on
Carolina or Split Shot Rigs...some of the ribbontail or curly
tails on light jig heads too. The straight 4" Slider Worm in
black with a blue or chartreuse tail tip. Relative to other thin
4" worms, the Slider Worm is a slightly fatter, softer worm
that exhibits a floating sort of action. Another straight tail is
the Yamamoto Cut Tail. It's got a fatter and denser body than
other worms. You can fish it real fast! I also like Kalin's
straight 4" Western Worm, which is thinner, harder, and more
pointed on both ends. It sinks and darts a little more sharply
than other worms, especially when you flick the rod tip. I like
the one with a black/red flake back, clear belly, and chartreuse
fire tip. At times, I also use Kalin's ribbontail 4" Salty
Lunker Worm in black/red, white, or smoke/metal flake. For a
small worm, the Salty Lunker's ribbontail generates good
vibration, and does not get ripped off that easily by short
striking fish. On the other hand, the Yamamoto 4 inch worm (#4)
has a more compact, thinner diameter "curly" tail. It's
a real finessy bait.
2) Medium: Choice for 5" to 6"
worms...eegads!...there are so many good baits in this size
range, either straight or ribbontails....I like to use some of
the zipper-style worms, such as Mister Twister's Exude Fry. Try
some of the fry styles or ringworm styles often used for Carolina
rigging. Don't forget Zoom Trick Worms and other floating
worms...not just on top,but on Texas, Carolina or split shot rigs
as well. The more buoyant plastic formulation makes these
floating worms rise and fall. Yamamoto's Single Tail Mini (#2) is
a medium GRUBWORM - I don't think there's another shape/size worm
out there like it! The Yamamoto 6 inch worm (#6) has a more
compact, thinner diameter "curly" tail. It's a real
finessy bait.
3) Large: Would you like to catch some fours
to eights? They're big-sized bass and their mouths are much
bigger than yours! So go get some BIG worms. We're talking about
the classic 10" Berkley Power Worm (#MPWA10) with a
ribbontail. We're talking the thin, slinky 11" Mister
Twister Phenow Worm (#11P) with a small sickle tail. And,
yes!...we're talking about the fat-bodied 8" and 10"
Yamamoto grubworms. These three brands of worms have varying
widths, shapes, tail actions.
How to pick the right worm hook.
There are a few rules of thumb for selecting the right hook to
complement your worm:
1) Use an Offset: Start off with an offset
bend hook to Texas rig or Carolina rig a worm.
2) Match Lengths: Start two sizes smaller
than the worm is long. Start with a 4/0 in a 6" worm, a 3/0
in a 5" worm or grub, a 2/0 in a 4", a 1/0 in a 3"
worm - two sizes smaller than the length to start with as a rule.
3) Match Widths: Look for the hook's gap or
"gape" (the space measured between the hook's point
down to its shank) to be two to three times wider gap on the hook
than the worm's body width. That's two times the diameter of a
skinny worm and three times the diameter of a fat worm as a
starting point.
4) Other measures: Now beyond these simple
rules of thumb for size and gap, there are a few other
measurements that really start to make different brands and
models of hooks radically different from each other. First and
most important on offset hooks, there is the vertical height
between the top of the kink (the offset) up to the point of the
hook. Second, measure the horizontal length from the kink back to
the hook point. These measurements - from the kink UP to the
point and from the kink BACK to the point - also have a bearing
on what size of bait and what size of bass you can most
effectively target with an offset hook. Suffice it to say that
more generous proportions of these offset measurements UP and
BACK from the kink allow you to use increasingly larger and
fatter baits - and hook increasingly larger and fatter bass - or
vice versa.
5) Match Bend & Throat: There are other
aspects of a hook too, such as its BEND (the curved portion of
the hook) and its THROAT (the horizontal length from the point to
the very back of the bend). The measurements we talked about
above (size, gap, distance up and back from the offset to the
point) are more important to SET the hook and work together to
ensure initial, deeper penetration of the point. On the other
hand, bend and throat take over after you hook a fish, and
provide better HOLDING POWER during the fight. If a fish throws a
deeply-set hook, you should suspect that either the THROAT, the
BEND, or the combination of throat/bend is at fault.
Why go into so much detail? Simply
because the hook dimensions must match the size of bait, rod,
reel and line. So, always keep an offset hook's dimensions in
mind. Select a hook to match the size of your bait, the tackle
you will use to deliver the bait, and the size of bass you expect
to catch!
How to put the worm on the hook. Now
that you have amassed an arsenal of worm baits, and you have all
the right size hooks to match them, you now have a choice of four
ways to rig the worm on the hook as presented below
The best way depends on how heavy the cover is that you are
fishing at any given moment. But you always start out the same.
That is, put the bait onto the offset eye portion of the hook as
you normally do for Texas or Carolina rigging. Rig the hook so
the eye is buried an inch or two back on the bait if possible
(Not always possible on short baits...just leave as much room as
you can). It's important that the front portion of the hook eye
is not jammed immovably against the weight. So leave some room
between the weight and the eye of the hook when you rig the bait.
Why? Because when you set the hook, if the eye of the hook is
pressed up against the weight, and the weight is pressed up
behind the fish's tightly-clamped jawbone, then you only move the
entire bass/weight/hook forward without penetrating any mouth
tissue on the hookset. By leaving an inch or two of slack, you've
ensured enough room to move the hook and have it get set before
it jams up behind the weight
Now that you've buried the eye of the hook in the head of the
bait, then take the point end of the hook, and do one of the
following:
1) Tex-posed. For thin cover, put the point
into the bottom of the bait and all the way out the top of the
bait. The barb on some Texas rigging hooks (like the Mustad
Mega-Bite) curves downward a bit, so it will lie flat outside of
and on top of the bait, and this is called "Texposed",
which means it is an exposed point Texas rig. Texposed really
works a bit better on big fat-bodied ribbed grubs or on
wide-bodied lizards. Worms and tube baits are a bit too
thin-bodied for lots of Texposed rigging, but it does have its
applications for tubes and worms, especially where the water is
mostly open, with few snags or weed patches.
2) Tex-skin on top. For moderate cover,
follow the directions for texposing the hook. Then, insert the
hook point and barb just under the skin on the plastic bait's
back. You kind of have to pull the plastic forward in front of
where the hook comes out the top of the bait, and stretch it
forward a bit. While it is still stretched, insert the point just
under the skin, and then push the stretched plastic back to cover
the barb area. The only way to describe it is that the hook point
should appear just under the bait's skin exactly as if you got a
splinter in your thumb or your big toe, just under your skin.
3) Tex-skin on the side. For moderate to
heavy cover. In this variation, you do not insert the hook
through the bottom of the bait. Rather, let the hook dangle down,
with the hook bend underneath the bait's body, and the hook point
alongside the bait. Now scrunch the bait forward a bit with your
fingers, insert the hook point into the side of the bait, and
then slide the bait back so that the point and barb are under the
skin on the bait's side. You can bury this under the skin just a
little deeper than the Texskin top rigging. Sometimes I use the
heavy wire 3/0 offset shank Tru-turn hooks for this (not to sure
you can get these anymore).
4) Traditional Texas rig. For the heaviest
cover, this is your good ol' put the hook in through the bottom
of the bait, and have the point sitting just under and ready to
come out the top surface of the bait. Works best with
thinner-bodied baits where you do not have to drive the hook
through lots of plastic on a hookset. Sometimes, you can push the
point out the top, then pull it back underneath. This kind of
opens up a channel for the hook to slide out, but you really
don't want to open this channel too much. Never pull the entire
barb out, then try to cover it back up with the plastic. It just
won't work. If you pull the entire barb out, you will have made
the open channel too wide, and the hook point will poke out too
easily and get stuck when you pull the lure over snags.
Above all, you need to leave some slack in the body of the
lure when you rig it. You cannot have the bait stretched too
tightly onto the hook. Tautness in the lure body is what makes
for poor hooksetting. You have to leave the slightest amount of
slack in the body between the offset eye and the embedded point.
The slackness makes for a good hookset. This is a feel that only
comes with doing it right. Leaving slack does not mean that the
lure should look like it has a bend or curve caused by the way
you rigged it - it should look perfectly straight - but when you
press down on it with your index finger right where you want the
fish to bite it, there should be some looseness, some slack give
in the lure body. You want the fish's mouth to depress the bait's
body down easily in the section ahead of where the hook point is
waiting. Once the hook point starts to grab hold in the fish's
mouth, you really want the entire bait to easily pull down off
the front offset portion of the hook, and out of the way where it
won't interfere with a good hook set. This is kind of hard to
describe in writing, but very recognizable once you get the hang
of doing it.
Split Shot Hook. All the above
applies to Texas or Carolina rigging an offset hook. Offset hooks
are best for weedy, brushy, woody areas. But for open gravel,
rocks, and structure, you can Texas or Carolina rig with an
exposed hook...especially for some of the weightless, wacky and
splitshot rigging... the Yamamoto Split Shot hook is one of the
best tools to use, and it breaks all of the rules just mentioned
above! Maybe that's why I like it so much. Most anglers have
never heard of it - yet. You can click here to find out more
about it and how to rig it: The Split Shot Technique is The Advantage by
Jerry "Bubba" Puckett, editor of Inside Line magazine.
Hope it helps you worm your way out of here! |
