Texas rigs a fallback for bass
Late last week, as the sun dipped toward the western horizon and Yellow Creek Lake settled down for the night, I sat back in my boat seat, reached for my cell phone and gave a fishing buddy a call.
"Interested in buying a few extra fishing rods?" I jokingly inquired as I gazed at the collection of rods littering the front deck, each set up with a different style offering. "The only thing I seem to be able to catch largemouth bass on this summer is a Texas-rigged plastic worm."
Perhaps less can indeed be more when targeting bass.
While drop shot rigs, Carolina rigs, swimbaits, topwaters, spinnerbaits, jigs, crankbaits and $20 jerkbaits all have their place, when things get tough you can almost always squeak out a few fish on a Texas-rigged worm, just as anglers did when it was introduced 50 years ago.
Texas-rigged worms incorporate three basic components: a bullet-shaped slip sinker, an offset worm hook and a plastic worm. These items can be adjusted to match the water conditions and the attitude of the bass.
Slip sinkers affect the drop rate of the lure. A light weight allows the worm to sink slowly, giving bass plenty of opportunity to eat it on the initial fall. However, you have very little "feel" once the bait settles to the bottom.
On some days bass want a slow drop, in which the lightest weight possible would be the deal. But on other days they tend to take the bait as it's bumped along the bottom, necessitating a heavier sinker.
Naturally, the depth being fished comes into play. All other things being equal, deeper water requires a heavier sinker.
For instance, when on Yellow Creek last week, a three-sixteenth ounce weight was perfect for working along weed edges in 8 to 10 feet of water. Sinkers in the half- to three-quart-ounce size can be used when fishing thick vegetation, where the extreme weight is needed to pull the bait down through the cover.
Options exist with hooks as well. The basic worm hook incorporates an offset near the eye. This offset provides a short L-shaped bend that helps keep the eye portion locked within the nose of the worm.
Wire size is another variable. Heavier wire is used for fishing heavy cover, where the bass must be wrestled out of wood or thick vegetation before it becomes buried. In thinner cover, it's wise to use a lighter wire hook as it's easier for bass to get a bite on them.
Thicker worms require the use of a wide-gap hook to compensate for the bulk of the worm. Also, the longer the worm, the larger the hook needed to properly cover it. A 1/0 is fine for 4- to 5-inch worms; increase the hook to 2/0 for a 6-inch versions; hooks up to 4/0 hooks can be used for magnum sized worms up to 10 inches.
When it comes to the actual worm, selections can be mind-boggling, with all the profiles, sizes and colors. But things need not be complicated.
Basically, worms come in action tails and straight tails. As its name suggests, action tails — usually bearing a curly or ribbon tail — produce lots of motion.
Conversely, straight tail worms are more subtle. It's wise to have a few of each to test fish's preference each day.
Colorwise, the bass on lakes in the Butler County region respond well to shades of green and blue. Green pumpkin and watermelon seed are excellent green hues, and June bug and grape are productive when bass want the "blues."
Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.
