Fishing with worms

[Old Gray Hair]

Hello all, new to fishing.
When I fish plastic worms along the bottom i frequently get the tap-tap then nothing. If I try to set the hook when I feel this, I get nothing. If I do nothing and wait I dont get a fish either. What do you guys do?
I do catch fish when the bass hit the bait hard but other wise just a tap-tap and nothing. Any advise?
Thanks.

 

[Bass Tracker TX17]

Re: Fishing with worms

Hello all, new to fishing.
When I fish plastic worms along the bottom i frequently get the tap-tap then nothing. If I try to set the hook when I feel this, I get nothing. If I do nothing and wait I dont get a fish either. What do you guys do?
I do catch fish when the bass hit the bait hard but other wise just a tap-tap and nothing. Any advise?
Thanks.

The tap tap could be just weeds etc your catching. Took me a while to get the right feeling. My timing is to work the worm at a 45 degree tip angle. Once i feel the fish I slack the line and reel down to level with the water. Then try to set the hook. Also if your rig is set with the hook to far forward for your worm you could be getting short strikes. When i feel i'm missing fish because of that i either shorten the body of the worm and set the hook farther back or go with a longer shank hook to get the tip back.

 

[dooma_Flatchy]

Re: Fishing with worms

Basically what Bass Tracker TX17 said. If I feel that tap tap I give some slack by lowering the rod and watch the line, If I see the line tap again or if I see the line moving I set the hook. If you are fishing for bass around bream they could be tailing the worm also. Those little sob's worry the crap out of a plastic worm and me . LOL Depending on what size worm you are using for hook size I use nothing less than a 4/0 hook. If I use a smaller worm 6" or 7" I use a smaller wire hook but still use the 4/0 or 5/0 hooks (Texas or Carolina rig).

 

[Barnacle_Bill]

Re: Fishing with worms

Bream definitely like worms too.

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Fishing with worms

Definetely something small like a bluegill, bass doesn't tap twice. That thump you feel is when a bass sucks the lure in. The sure way to tell is to lift the worm up very gently, if it feels heavy at all, set the hook. There's an old saying that jerks are free, when unsure set the hook. There are times when I thought it was a bluegill, waited a split second too long and the bass ended up swallowed the hook or missed the fish. With modern soft plastic scents they don't spit it out as fast as they used to so missed hook set doesn't happen very often anymore. By the way, if you're fishing in cover and your worm falls off a rock or tree limp, it will feels just like a thump. Again, lift your worm up because many, many times this is when you get bite.

 

[Old Gray Hair]

Re: Fishing with worms

Im sure it is the brim pestering the bait. Those little buggers always eat the tails of my Gulp worms. After a couple casts the tails are gone and nothing seems interested in it after that.

 

[Bob1958]

Re: Fishing with worms

Depends what you're fishing for. Walleye, for example, do a very light tap-tap, especially bigger ones, and you need to give slack right away because if they feel resistance they let go. Bass has already been covered. Nuisance fish will mostly leave you with half a crawler no matter how hard you try to hook them.

 

[j_martin]

Re: Fishing with worms

Little bass slam the worm. Big bass will sometimes pick it up so gently you have a hard time feeling it. When you fish Texas rig, if you feel the fish, he's feeling you also, and usually lets go. If you suspect a fish, set like you're trying to put a baseball out of the park. You will feel foolish till you hook that big hog that's been playing with you.

If it's at all possible, I fish a plastic worm wacky style, with a small exposed hook stuck right in the middle. I use a homemade curly tail zipper worm that's about 10% salt so it sinks about like a live crawler would. Then I soak it up with Kick-n-Bass and throw it. When I suspect a fish I can feel for it, and if I feel it, the hook is already lightly penetrating. With a wrist set I've got the fish on.

I can fish almost any cover that has open water over or near it with this. If it gets real thick, like the bass are a long cast back into the lily pads, I use a Texas rig with a wide gap hook. Usually I use a sweet beaver so the tip of the hook can be slightly exposed.

Hey, tight lines for ya
John

 

[cwilt]

Re: Fishing with worms

Little bass slam the worm. Big bass will sometimes pick it up so gently you have a hard time feeling it.

Hey, tight lines for ya
John[/QUOTE]


thats because big bass swallow it in one gulp, and smaller bass need to try to chew it up

 

[70vhull]

Re: Fishing with worms

Try using a florocarbon line and a finese worm with a shaky head setup.The florocarbon is very sensitive.I use 8-10 lb test.You can feel the bottom as you move the worm and you can definately feel the bites.The shakey head and finese setup is great to learn to feel the strikes with and lets the worm stand up as you move it along the bottom.Once you get the feel of what the strikes feel like you can start using bigger worms with different setups.

 

[Chuck7]

Re: Fishing with worms

Tough call,
I've caught 100s of bass and have had monsters go tap tap...and small dinks pull it hard and visa versa..There are basically 2 different hook sets.
One says when you feel anything cross their eyes..This is the Snap Set

The other is the pull set.I use the pull set. I use a very sensitive rod and I must feel the fish..I don't cross her eyes but I do pull hard and my hook up has increased greatly..Also switching from a 6 ' rod to 7 ' rod has helped a ton..I mostly use a medium action as I don't want the fish to feel me.
The only lure I cross their eyes on is a jig.

I was flipping once with another man..I felt a slight tap tap and figured it was a bluegill or dink..My friend in the back of the boat jigged his black and red tailed worm there and the fight was on ..a hefty 10 pounder..

Here's the Pull Set..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPnRALrRSZQ

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Fishing with worms

I don't know, I've seen Gary Klein swinging for the fence before. He set the hook the way he does is because the majority of his fishing is done with a 7' or longer flipping stick in shallow water. Those long rod move a lot of line.

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Fishing with worms

Tap tap tap tap, thats what bluegill do a plastic worm in my area, I usually drop my rod and give line, a blugill will run stop run, a bass usually just pulls line slow and steady, thats when I cinch up and set the hook, if it's just a bluegill I can just pull away from him and re-cast without damage to the worm.

 

[4JawChuck]

Re: Fishing with worms

If your fishing Walleye you might want to try using a worm blower to get the tail up if all your getting is knocks on the lure. I don't use plastics but this is what you have to do to get good results with real worms here.

 

[Jeep Man]

Re: Fishing with worms

I used to loose a lot when the fish would bite the end of the worm or jig. I started using a small trailer hook imbedded in the tail, attached to the shank of the main hook with a 3 or 4 inch light leader. Amazing how many fish I pulled in on the trailer.

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Fishing with worms

interesting rig jeepman, you have a picture to show how that rig looks? how's the action of the trailer with a hook in its tail?

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: Fishing with worms

Wicked old conversation here but...

I run stinger hooks on almost every spinner rig and harness when I troll, and have tied stingers on everything from Erie Dearies to jigs.

Some are critical of this method because it does not look "natural" but tell me what's natural about a chartruese spinner blade with yellow and green beads behind it? And that can be quite effective.

My 2C

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: Fishing with worms

Oh- and my main reason for running stingers is that I am of dutch lineage. It's offensive to be to constantly be losing night crawlers to perch and bluegills and the occasional hornpout in between walleyes.

SO... I start with half a crawler and hook it up with a twin-hooked rig. That way the first short strike I get a fish, instead of wasting all that adrenalin only to come back with half of -or no- crawler. I was running low on crawlers one day years back and started casting out the short leftover bit, and in so doing found that I was getting hits on a new crawler, but missing the fish, but I would get a fish hooked on the next hit with the bit of crawler. So I started running stingers and cut my crawler loss by 90%

But to get back to the original poster's question which seemed to be about plastic worms, and then went to crawlers on Aug 4th, and then went back to plastic and then Dec 21 it seemed to be on plastic again until Dec 25th it went back to crawlers.... <out of breath>

....by the time you feel a bass pick up a plastic worm that is not moving you should probably already have set the hook. Moving techniques like carolina rigs sort of hook up like they are on auto, but you have to learn to feel and set on still or slow techniques. I am not good at this, nor am I patient. Probably why I love trolling: always movement, changes, and something going on. It takes having patience to succesfully cast rigs, jigs, worms, and plugs for bass.

 

[Chuck7]

Re: Fishing with worms

Not a bad idea..