As we progress into the summer months fishing turns to some-kind of worm fishing; its probably the oldest of the artificial bait presentation and one that works and has forever. One of the keys to worm fishing is understanding the speed at which your worm drops from the time it hits the water. The speed at which it drops is critical to getting bites so don’t be afraid to try different weights to determine which fall rate gets the most bites.
One key determining factor in fall rate is the color of the water, I believe the clear water many times gives a bass to much time to look at your bait, so you have-to speed up the fall rate. If it’s slow and clear bass will quickly determine that the worm is not real and won’t touch it. The opposite is true in stained water the bass don’t get a good enough look at it to make-a-determination as to the worm food viability so drop it slower and use a lighter weight. A good way to start out is to use about a ¼ to 3/8 in clear water and 1/8 to 3/16 in stained water. If that doesn’t attract a bite do some adjusting with your weight until you determine the correct fall rate.
Fall rate also affects how they appear in different structure, for example grass changes everything especially as the grass creates voids at the bottom where the grass has an empty depth below the horizontal grass line. In this situation heavy weights are needed to penetrate the grass to get down to the horizontal void. This also follows my analogy above where clear water many times requires heavy weights as generally speaking the void below heavy grass is clear water. Many times, this requires 1 to 2 oz. weights and allows the bait to drop through the heavy grass then drop quickly in the open space where bites come as reaction to the fast drop rate in the area void of grass. This is also a time to peg your weight making the bait drop as one unit to the bottom. Bulky plastics like Missile Bait D-Stroyers allow the bait to slow some and drop as one unit to the bottom when pegged.
Drop rate is critical be aware of and adjust.
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
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Email: bassguide@comcast.net
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Capt. Mike Gerry