Fishin NJ said:
WOW guys great responses, keep em coming and SMDAVE i must say you are the most well spoken person i've met on a board. You have a ton of knowledge and skills, you are going places that is for sure. Who knows one day we may be watching you on a dvd. I look forward to part 2 of you reply.
Thanks to all
Hehe thanks!
Ok so for worms. There are all different types of worms, ribbon tails, finnesse (straight tailed, usually between 4-6"), etc. I am not really big on ribbon tail worms, but I can imagine they would be great (I have used them with success), but don't use them too often to know much about them. But I love straight tailed worms. Salted ones like the Zoom Trick Worm will sink unweighted, so these are not ideal for shaky head rigs. Floating worms (unsalted finnesse worms usually) and lightly salted/only head salted worms work great. My favorite shaky head bait is Joe's (basssnacks.com) Finnesse-it, a 4" straight tailed worm. Straight tailed worms are very versatile, they are basically thin senkos, with tapered bodies or larger ends. But yet, they are completely different and can be fished in whole different ways. Some popular techniques are shaky heads, dropshots, wacky, texas rigs, and carolina rigs (there are tons more out there). Depending on the weight of the bait (dictated by salt content), finnesse worms are awesome for wacky rigging, as the rounder ends of the head wiggle more, and the thin body allows for more bending which in turn equals: greater action. Here's a cool rig I saw once in bassmaster and have tried out. Take a jighead with a light wire hook, and grab wire cutters, and cut off the hook at the very start of the shank where it meets the jighead. Insert the jighead's collar into the bait (like you would a regular jighead, without the hook though), and wacky rig it. This makes a unique action, like a shaky head combined with a wacky rig. It looks promising, but I don't use it too much. Another great technique and popular technique is texas rigging. I texas rig my Zoom Trick Worms, which are too heavy for shaky head rigs, and that technique is one of my go-to's. Fish it slowly, but not too slowly, but not to fast, at a moderate pace, hopping it and jerking it off the floor and letting it sit. Twitches and pauses are great ways to fish them too. Weightless texas rigging (like a senko) is often overlooked for finnesse worms, but this action is unreal. Especially with the Zoom Trick Worm, because of its longer body and thinner profile. Imagine a water snake, and if fished correctly, you can make it wiggle just like one or a baitfish. I have nearly mastered this techniqued, and is deadly, the Zoom Trick Worm has a slow sink rate, so try this rig near submerged brush, weedbeds, weed edges, and other shallow structure. This technique is also THE BEST for followups on a buzzbite strike (well, maybe the senko is the best, but the straight tailed worm comes close). Carolina-rigging is also popular, but I reserve this technique mostly for senkos. But I have had carolina-rigging success with Zoom Trick Worms. They are great for ground-relating bass, and if you choose a floating worm or a worm with light salt and a bouyant (floaty) body, they will hover off the bottom, and is great for ground-relating fish or even suspended bass. Carolina rigging straight tailed worms is great for finnesse fishing too, believe it or not. Drag it slowly across the bottom during those dog days of summer too. The advantage of a carolina rig over a texas rig is you get it to the bottom faster, keep it in contact with the bottom longer, and covers more water quicker (as opposed to the texas rig, where you more or less hop, the carolina rig you drag across the bottom). Carolina rigs and texas rigs both have their place, similarly to the senko. I don't fish with floating worms much, so I can't speak much about them. Dropshotting, you want to use small worms (4"). My absolute favorite is the Berkley Handpoured Finnesse Worm in size 4", color Red Crawler. When weightless t-rigging, keep in mind how heavy the worm is, longer lures will usually sink faster, but sometimes not. Use your hook size more or less to guess the ROF. In worms, you generally want the same size hook, if anything, larger than the hook used for senkos of the same size. For jigheads (using the shaky head), I like 1/4-3/8 oz. jigheads with a 3/0 or 4/0 hook. Keep in mind, jigheads are not restricted to tail-floating shaky head worms, but they also work great for sinking worms such as the Zoom Trick Worm. Fish a jigheaded worm anyway you want, but for smaller, shaky head worms (usually 4-5", always with a floaty tail), I fish in colder conditions or finnesse presentations. When finnesse fishing with a shaky head, keep the jighead in contact with the bottom 90% of the time, just shaking your rod tip to make the tail of the bait quiver enticingly underwater (hence the name, shaky head). But you can jig it, hopping it, or glide it occasionally. Shaking the worm on the ground is how you should mainly fish the shaky head, but once again experiment. I love straight-tailed worms so much because they are so versatile, have many rigging options, and can be used in the summers of Florida to the winters of New Jersey!
I use braided line with ALL soft plastic presentations, EXCEPT the dropshot, weightless texas rig, and the shaky head. For all three of these presentations, I use fluorocarbon. May I recommend Berkley Trilene (NOT vanish) Fluorocarbon? 6-8lb test is perfect for dropshots, 10lb. test for everything else is a good general strength, but it depends on the cover/etc. These are also the only presentations I use on a spinning reel, unless I am skipping (I always skip with my spinning reel, no matter what presentation I am fishing). But that is just personal preference. Skipping is a popular technique to get under docks, hanging brush/trees, etc. You want to cast the bait at a high velocity close to the water (try to keep the cast parallel) so that the bait will skip across the water, like skipping a stone. You want the same principles. I mainly skip with a shaky head, but texas rigging will worm too. Carolina rigging? Nah. Wacky rigging would be possible, but hard I imagine. I have never tried it. Also, do not start practicing skipping with a baitcaster, you will just get birdnests, get it down solid with a spinning reel first, then try it on a baitcaster. I still get backlashes on my baitcaster trying to skip, also I think skipping is much easier on a spinning reel.
Popular colors are pumpkin, green pumpkin, watermelon, watermelon/red, junebug, ox blood (transparent) or red bug (solid), black, chartreuse, and bubblegum. Bubblegum is a good all around color, and I have used them with success for both muddy and clear water. The natural colors (pumpkin, green pumpkin, watermelon, watermelon/red, ox blood) you want to use more for clearer water, but I have used junebug a lot lately in all water conditions with success. Same with chartreuse. Once again, experiment, but generally, natural/transparent colors in clearer water, bolder or darker solid colors in dark water. Black is also a good general color for both water conditions. But my favorite for the Basssnacks ShakIt and FinessIt are green pumpkin (for both) and black/blue flake is killer (only for the ShakIt).
If I may suggest some worms, for shaky head: Joe's (basssnacks.com) FinessIt and ShakIt. For texas rigging and carolina rigging: Zoom Trick Worm, Zoom Finesse Worm (a shorter version of the Trick Worm), and the Kinami Cut Tail Worm. For wacky rigging, I like the Zoom Trick Worm, for weightless texas rigging, I like the Joe's (basssnacks.com) ShakIt, and the Zoom Trick Worm.
If I was to only choose 2 worms to start out with, they would be the Basssnacks ShakIt and the Zoom Trick Worm.
Good luck hope this stuff helps.
UPDATE: Basssnacks.com now carries the BeavIt again!!! Yay!!!
