Tales from the Outdoors: The Ubiquitous Worms

Plastic worms are very versatile and are used by fishermen
all over the country and are able to be rigged with different
shaped weighted sinkers to get them through weedy cover
and into the 'strike zone' quickly. PHOTO BY BOB CHAPIN

By Bob Chapin 

Many fishermen have discovered the attractiveness and efficacy of using plastic worms and other swim baits for catching a whole array of fish but mostly small and large mouth bass. The manufacturers of plastic worms, grubs, salamanders and jig bodies have responded to this demand and today there is a bewildering selection of bait shapes and sizes designed to meet your every need.

If you want to use a worm, for example, you can buy one from about 2 inches to 12 inches in just about any color of the rainbow, with or without glitters. First, they made them to look like the real thing, then they added metallic flakes for more sparkle, then they added colors like watermelon, or motor oil or any number of other concoctions. Then they changed the shape to be thicker on one end and tapered the tail to be thinner and flatter then curled it so it fluttered tantalizingly as it fell through the water column.

They are remarkably versatile and soon we had standard ways to rig them often pioneered by fishermen in various parts of the country, so you have Texas rigged, and Carolina rigged with different shaped weighted sinkers, sliding or fixed, designed to get them through weedy cover and into the “strike zone” sooner.

Then they lost the weights altogether and started hooking them in the middle called the “Whacky worm” where both ends of the worm wiggled with just a slight pull on the line. These were either hooked through the worm body with a large 1/0 -5/0 bass hook or strung through a O-ring washer or an electrical tie.

These last two techniques allowed the worm to stay on the hook longer and resulted in fewer lost worms. Now Berkley Power Baits has come up with a water-soluble polymer that they inject with flavors the fish might like, say crawfish. The bait oozes the flavor in a concentrated squirt when a bass inhales such an offering.

The theory is that the sensors, they have on their tongues and lips, tell them right away, estimated at .2 seconds, whether what they just slurped in is food or not. If not, they can eject it from their mouths just as quickly before the fisherman can detect he has a bite and react with a vicious pull on the line setting the hook.

How you feel about these technological advantages, which tip the scales in favor of the fisherman, depends on whose side you are on.

The ethics of such refinements designed to overcome the natural defense mechanisms of your quarry certainly are open for debate.

What is not up for question though is the fact that thousands of plastic baits, but worms in particular, eventually fall off or are ripped off the hooks due to casting pressures, underwater obstructions, multiple fish bites, or simply old age as these worms often sit for long periods of time in the bottom of tackle boxes, sometimes in sealed plastic bags, sometime not and they deteriorate.

Sometimes they react chemically with the plastic your tackle box is made of and melt or stick to it making it useless. I think you can see where such a worm is likely to end up…yup, tossed overboard and therein lies the problem.

Plastic baits free to settle to the bottom detached from your line do not stop fishing because they are not attached to anyone’s line. They settle onto the substrate and start to expand. The material they are made of begins to absorb water. Many times, these loose worms get vacuumed up by fish without anyone there to reel them in.

Sometimes they are able to regurgitate the worm if they detect something is wrong early enough, but usually not. They are not able to pass the worm through their digestive tract and out as feces. When that happens, the worm expands four to five times its original size. A 6-inch by ¼-inch worm quickly turns into an 8- to 10-inch worm and quadruples in width filling the stomach cavity of the fish.

The fish thinks it is full and stops eating. You can guess what happens then. They get no nourishment from the worm in their gut, but it takes up the space normally reserved for bugs, minnows, larvae, and other protein rich foods that allow them to grow and stay healthy.

There have been many attempts to force the manufacturers of plastic baits to come up with a bio-degradable alternative with little success. In short, the reason is money.

Manufacturers such as Mann, Gulp, YUM, and Berkley sell billions of worms a year. Most serious bass fishermen will have multiple bags of six to 12 worms each in their tackle boxes as a hedge against not having the right color, size, shape, and now flavor, when the bite is on.

Most of these are priced anywhere from $5 to $12 each. Next time you pick up a fishing magazine look closer at the lunker being held up by the lucky angler.

Chances are it will have a plastic worm hanging out of the corner of its mouth. If it were only the bass eating the runaway worms maybe I could forgive the fishermen losing control of their worms, but it is not.

Of the dozen or so brook trout I caught through the ice this past winter and kept for the table, clearly 20 to 25 percent of them had some plastic bait in their stomachs. The only way this is going to get better is if fishermen put their feet down and demand a bio-degradable alternative from the manufacturers, it can’t be that hard. It worked with small lead weights and waterfowl because the audience was larger than the fishing public and it can work here. <