Using Unweighted Plastic Worms for Bass
My best bass, 23-1/4 inches, caught on an unweighted 8-inch Chompers worm.
Favorite Way to Worm
First of all, this is an article of mine published a couple of years ago in New Jersey Federated Sportsmen’s News. The News is produced by the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs. Also, I’m headed to California to visit my son, so it’ll be a couple weeks or more before I next post.
When I think of plastic worm fishing for bass, for me, it usually comes down to either a Senko-type worm, or a thin bodied traditional worm that sinks twice as slow—namely the Chompers brand. I’ve used the Texas rig very little, but I use the worm with an inset hook without the weight, the weight that in my mind defines the Texas rig. I fish what many call a “weightless” rig.
I don’t get a kickback from Chompers, either. I’m not sponsored, though I don’t see why not. Entertain yourself by listening to a sincere voice. I could have included the Texas rig, the Carolina, the whole panoply of worming techniques, but I’m staying focused on just one of a handful of methods my wormin’ depends on. More than anything else, it’s what fishing plastic worms for bass is to me.
Eight-inch Chompers rigged on an inset hook as I almost always do it, using no weight, and the largemouth that was the result.
Taking What Comes Easy
Unless I’m fishing 20 feet or deeper, when I’ll use a Texas rig, I prefer a so-called weightless worm. (Logic compels me to call it unweighted.) One exception was that I got a Chompers down maybe 25 feet, instead of closer to 20, when that 23-1/4-incher hit. Summertime means bass slow down to accommodate sped-up metabolisms, which burn calories bass conserve. Such a metabolism demands frequent feeding, but any summertime bass takes what comes easy. A slow-sinking worm is something any that finds it dropping by can suck down. Unless I’m fishing for smallmouths—the more aggressive species—I usually don’t use Senko-type worms. Senkos or Yum Dingers and the like sink twice as fast as the Chompers brand of traditional style. (I’ve compared them.) A size 2/0 inset hook is all the weight I add to a Chompers eight inches long.
Later in the day, a shadow line can be a very effective edge to cast to.
Most of the time I’ll fish one in weeds, but a combination of weeds and wood is often better. Weeds and rocks can be especially productive, also. In any case, I’m very particular about casting accuracy, because I’m always doing my best to make judgements about just where a bass might be. Often enough, a bass confirms that judgement. It doesn’t have to happen early in the morning or in the evening; bass are more active during those hours, but I catch some at high noon under 95-degree sun.
That’s when I’m probably fishing next to dense cover or possibly in pockets that lead my worm right on down through the thick stuff, but I would never use a one-ounce tungsten jig, pool-cue rod, and 50-pound-test braid. Granted, guys who fish that way get down through thicker weeds than I can. Lunker bass hide there during the day. An old man existed years ago who was great at getting bass out of the summer thick of Lake Musconetcong. But fishing that way isn’t my style. I do use stiff tackle—20-pound-test braid and a seven-foot medium-heavy power spinning rod. On one occasion, I used 15-pound-test braid and a five-and-a-half-foot medium power rod. As if to give myself the actual experience I had warned others about only hypothetically, I lost a big bass to heavy weeds. While pitching heavy jigs with much heavier tackle is a thoroughly documented method of fishing for bass, I don’t believe I’ll ever be attracted to trying it. I like putting a slow-sinking worm where I can get it to go without a lugging feel, and it seems a summer outing never passes without my being surprised by the response of bass.
On Oxford Furnace Lake, while fishing from the boat of my friend Fred Matero, we encountered a weedbed so thick that I believed we had no hope of penetrating it. I noticed a couple of pockets, but they weren’t openings so much as patches of greenery on the lean side that I imagined my worm would never get through. But I tried one. The worm not only sank; soon the line moved off rapidly, and I set the hook. It was a smallish bass, but I had got my worm down there through those weeds. I pitched to another patch where the next bass I had on was the big one I mentioned losing.
On the Drop
I rarely waste time on retrieves. Catches amount almost exclusively to bass having taken a worm on the drop. That’s one full drop per cast, so “initial” drop doesn’t truly describe it. I don’t keep a tight line as the worm falls, because I want it to descend as naturally as possible. When a take comes, the line moves off rapidly in the direction the bass swims. I tighten up and set the hook, no reason in letting the bass take extra line, which could result in it getting gut-hooked
A drop can take a long time. An unweighted worm might fall 20 feet before it settles on bottom. Some of the lakes in North Jersey have very steep shorelines with depths of 20 feet or deeper just four or five yards from shore. Most lakes of that description have very clear, weedy water. At least one species of vegetation grows upward from depths of 20 feet or greater. It’s not surprising that sometimes a worm hangs up before settling on bottom. With just enough tension on the line to detect when it has ceased descending, you might pull it free and let it continue to drop. You’ll learn to tell when it’s on bottom. That’s when it’s time to quickly retrieve and prepare for the next target.
Accuracy
Wormin’ without weight is a deeply enjoyable experience. Selecting targets is largely what it’s about. Having done that for two decades, my casting accuracy continues to improve and my memory bank of successful targets grows. Knowing what to look for certainly helps me recognize new ones.
No need exists for every cast to result in a fish. The point is, every cast should explore the water. It’s not that a spot that could hold a bass should hold one, because for all you know, a bass occupied that spot five minutes ago and you missed the opportunity. It’s not for you to tell nature what to do, but to accept nature’s confronting you with random situations. It’s just that not all of the casting involves random stuff. Closing the gap in your own favor is the game, and it can get exhausting, but you can still learn to guess the better over the worse spot. Getting hit confirms the accuracy of your judgement.
I know a spot on a clear water lake, which I’ve become disillusioned with. For a couple of years, it was the first spot I cast to after getting on the water. A boulder breaks the surface near the lake’s center. It’s surrounded by very shallow water except for a drop-off that falls away almost immediately in front of it. About five yards beyond, the water is 35 feet deep. On every initial cast when I placed a worm so it would descend along that dropping edge, I got a pick-up. At least on one occasion, I caught two, maybe three bass. And then it stopped happening. Now I don’t like the spot and avoid it. Partly because of guilt. It’s as if I put the kibosh on the spot by overdoing my dependence. It matters less and less as I refuse to fish there, though I did give it a try recently, catching nothing. I fish new spots. Even a small lake will offer new spots where you’ve only passed through before.
This one got caught on a Chompers worm in September. Not everything about unweighted worming is limited to the height of summer.
Senko-Type
I won’t say much about Senko-type worms. I do use them occasionally—unweighted—on summer largemouths where weeds aren’t thick. They’re good around wooden structures and rocks. Naturally, the thought of rocks raises the issue of smallmouths, and smallmouths are suckers for Senkos. I wrote an article for New Jersey Federated Sportsmen’s News on Senkos for smallmouths several years ago or more.
I did use Yum Dingers seven years ago in a shallow lake where weeds existed but weren’t thick. Rigged Wacky, I fluttered the worms up top and bass after bass—good largemouths—slurped them down.