You can trick a largemouth bass
Published 3:01 pm Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Did you know you could trick largemouth bass into biting? The secret to tricking a largemouth bass is to use a lure called a Trick worm. The Trick worm has been around for several years and is most deadly in the springtime when the largemouth bass are shallow.
Some forty years ago, a company brought a plastic worm to the market with the name Sportsman Super Floater. To my knowledge, that was the first and closest thing to the modern Trick worm.
In those early days, we fished the Sportsman Super Floater in a slightly different way than the technique used with the modern Trick worm.
Those early Super Floater worms came in white, black, yellow, and some multi-colors. As the name implies, the worm floated on the water and was used by presenting the worm on top of the water in grass and lily pads.
Unfortunately, that early floating worm did not catch on with anglers and anglers failed to see its potential for catching largemouth bass in shallow water.
Some twenty years later, the Zoom Bait Company introduced the modern floating Trick worm.
Other worm manufactures also developed their version of the Trick worm, but if you ask anglers what brand of Trick worm they use, the answer usually is the Zoom Trick worm. The secret to the Trick worm’s effectiveness is the tantalizing slow drop in the water column.
I am surprised that more anglers do not use the Trick worm for catching largemouth bass. It can be somewhat difficult to cast with baitcasting equipment and can cause a line twist, especially with spinning equipment. I use a simple rigging technique that eliminates both of those problems.
I use 12-pound monofilament line on a baitcasting reel to which I tie a 7mm barrel swivel. I then attach a 10-inch piece of 10-pound fluorocarbon line to the other side of the barrel swivel. I then tie on a 2/0 or 3/0 wide gap worm hook and finish the rig with a Zoom Trick worm. I rig the worm to the hook as you would a Texas rig, and I only slightly bury the hook point.
The swivel keeps line twist to a minimum and gives a little extra weight for casting, but the swivel also adds to the tantalizing drop that occurs as the Trick worm slowly drops in the water column. The rig will catch largemouth bass in a foot of water out to several feet.
Last week, I took my young friend Dustin Lingold fishing, and we began the day by using spinnerbaits and crankbaits, but it did not take us long to realize that the largemouth were looking for something else to eat.
That something else turned out to be Zoom Trick worms in very shallow water. The bass were right up against seawalls and shoreline rocks and the Trick worm brought strike after strike.
We ended the day catching over twenty bass and they all came on the Trick worm. Dustin was using spinning equipment and I was using baitcasting. We both used the green pumpkin colored Trick worm. Most of the bass were male buck bass, but several were females still loaded with eggs.
Most of the fish were located from halfway into coves and pockets to the very back. Over the next two to three weeks, the number of large females is going to increase in those locations as they begin spawning, and the Trick worm needs to be in your arsenal of lures.
Now I know there are anglers that prefer the spinnerbait during the spring spawning season, and in the hands of an experienced angler, the spinnerbait will catch more than its share of shallow water fish. However, on those days when the spinnerbait will not produce, the Trick worm can be the next best thing in your tackle box to catch largemouth bass.
After Dustin and I returned from fishing, a man and his son came by my dock, and I asked them if they were catching fish. They answered no and said they had been fishing a spinnerbait all day. I asked them if they had tried a Trick worm to which they replied no.
They had some Trick worms but were not sure how to rig them. I gave them a quick lesson on rigging and showed them a couple of coves that were loaded with bass and off they went.
I hope that they were able to trick a few bass, and you will, too, if you try the Trick worm. Good fishing and see you next week.
Outdoor Columnist Bobby Peoples can be contacted via e-mail at brpeoples@
windstream.net.