How to fish a finesse worm?

[Guest]

This morning I read the following from the DockTalk section of Bassfan.com:

The 11-13, a new Lewisville lake record, was caught on a 6" Strike King 3X Finesse Worm rigged on a 3/16-ounce Bite Me Shakey-Head jighead.

My question to the forum (mainly for those motherload clear water fishermen) is how exactly do you fish a finesse worm? What rod specs, line and action do you put into the worm to catch fish in clear water conditions this time of year with a finesse worm?

Mind you I'm a shallow water delta fisherman and love fishing the thick stuff and when I get into conditions like this past weekend at New Melones where you have 15-18 foot of visibility the only thing that I typically rely on is fishing a dropshot, swimbait and jerkbait. Needless to say it was a tough weekend for me mentally struggling to catch fish smaller than the blue gill/crappie that I'm catching in Disco right now.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can provide.

[Hipster]

AH

Vince you warm my heart with my favorite technique for fishing 12 months out of the year!!!!!!

Lamiglass dart head special rod or a Shimano cps 60m, shimano 1500 sedona reel, 8lb Flouroclear P-line, 1/8 oz Gammy head with #2 hook. A four inch Pro-Worm in the color that suits the water color and bait forage. I pre-fer Delta red or Pro-Gold with flake.

You can swim it, shake it, dead stick it, pull it, twitch it etc.
Best suited in 15 - 30 ft on structure, can be used on fish as shallow as 1 ft by swimming it out to deeper depths!!

Four words!!! You gotta try it!!! Take only that setup with you in the boat for a whole day and stick with it Patience can be the Key but when you get it down you will find it flat catches fish and not only small fish as some will lead you to believe!! I got a post spawn Large Mouth out of Folsom about four years ago that went 9-12 doing this!!!

Hipster

[Scott Shambre]

it is also a year round tactic. The darthead has been my personal savior this season. When my partner and I needed a fish it gave us 5 in the boat and was responsible for the 6 lb. 13 oz. Spot I caught at Foslom back in May. 4" or 6" worm doesn't seem to matter when they're on it, they eat it and don't let go. My ste-up is a Competitive Edge Dropshot rod and an Abu-garcia spinning reel spooled with 8# test Yozuri Hybrid line. A friend pours my 1/4 oz. dartheads for me and I thread on a Robo in Aarons Magic, New Ayu, Bold Bluegill or Holigram Shad and shake away. There has not been much difference in the pace of my shake no matter if the water has been 49 degrees or 69. Shake on a semi-slack line much like a dropshot and wait to feel the weight on your line. If your ever up around Folsom, shoot me an email and I'll be more than happy to show you our pond. Good luck and I hope this helps.

[MrSkeeter]

http://geocities.com/ninja0@sbcglobal.n ... oville.htm

[Vernonn]

My question to the forum (mainly for those motherload clear water fishermen) is how exactly do you fish a finesse worm? What rod specs, line and action do you put into the worm to catch fish in clear water conditions this time of year with a finesse worm?

Up in the Motherload, the normal ways to finesse a 6" worm are dartheading, splitshot, shaking, and dropshotting. All can be accomplished with 6 to 8 pound test line. Most people use spinning gear with 6'-6" to 7' light rods.

Shaking or doodling is similar to dartheading and is more of a vertical presentation. A short cast away from the boat, let the bait sink to the bottom on slack line. Shake the bait without pulling the bait toward you. (this takes practice and a light touch). I like to use 3/16 oz bullet weight sometime brass and glass. In the spring, this technique is very good. Later in the fall, a more subtle shaking with a lot of deadsticking works best.

The other way to finesse fish a 6" worm is to splitshot or carolina rig it on 8 pound line. The weight is 18 inches up from the bait and the rig is dragged very slowly on the botom. Maintaining contact with the bottom is crucial. I uses weights up to 1/4 oz. The worm is either wacky rigged or texas rigged on an offset shanked worm hook (1/0).

I'm sure there are more ways to finesse a 6" worm.

Hope this helps.

-vernon

[Riplip]

Vince, the replies are on the money. As far as setup, I personally prefer a 61/2 ft med action quality rod,Okuma reel filled with 6lb Mcoy, and a very light darthead (1/32, 1/8) painted to match any 4 or 6 in. worm you feel good about. Shake 'em on the way down in a vertical presentation such as along a dock or steep wall . My absolute favorite is a watermelonseed baby brush hog on a 1/8 darthead. Flat kills 'em! Go thru the fish with that untill they slow down, then follow it up with a Yammamoto 4 in. salt n pepper grub on the same setup. You won't believe how many good fish you will catch on the second or third pass. Good luck, hope this helps.

P.S. This stuff works in the delta too when you NEED a fish!

[Vernonn]

The 11-13, a new Lewisville lake record, was caught on a 6" Strike King 3X Finesse Worm rigged on a 3/16-ounce Bite Me Shakey-Head jighead.

You may or may not know that Strike King's 3X worm is made of Cyberflex material. Cyberflex is extremely bouyant. The worm will be in the head down position with the tail pointed up due to the bouyant nature of Cyberflex. The jighead must be heavy enough the overcome the floating tendancy of the worm.

Hmmm, this could be the reason this guy caught his lake record fish. Interesting!!!

-vernon

[Johnny C]

Vince I believe you were at melones this weekend..I was out on a trip Sunday after being in Indiana for a week..It took me just a couple of good spots to realize the the topwater bite went south. Knowing the problem with the grass (sumberged weeds) I went to a drop shot with a five foot leader. The fish were suspended and diving down to feed on balls of fry in the grass in 15 to 25 feet of water. This was visible on the screen. To make life easy in the grass I used a mojo weight on the dropshot. We caught the piss out of them. Melones is a great drop shot lake. And they stay hooked better than the dart head which seems to work better on bald rocky banks..Just my thought...Johnny C

[Vernonn]

Vince, you should read the article at Bassfan regarding the Biteme Shakey Worm Jig.
http://bassfan.com/docktalk.asp?archive=c

-vernon

[Triton Mike]

Jig worming is and has been a very hot trend here in the South for several years now. Surprisingly it's just getting popular on the tour. I find that a 6ft Medium croix with 8lb Triplefish fluorocarbon and a Biomaster 2000 reel is the ticket for my area which has minimal structure and lots of docks. Most folks only know of the ball head type jigs which are fairly prone to getting hung in brushpiles. But in reality the actual key to catching fish on a jig worm is shakin it like a dropshot. Keep the head on the bottom and just shake the worm.

I'm a little bias since I helped design a weedless jig worm head for one of my sponsors called the Spot Stalker. It's as weedless and as versatile as a jigworm is going to get. Skips too. I actually flip with the bigger sizes in the grass on Guntersville when I visit there and do very well with it.

http://www.bassstalker.com/catalog/prod ... ducts_id/8

T Mike

[rickd]

I fished day 2 of the BassMasters with a finesse fisherman that was drop-shotting. I wasn’t at the time a big finesse fishermen more of a power fisher, blades, traps pitchin and stuff. I had no choice but to watch him stroke fish on that drop-shot rig, kida was pissin me off in a way watching him catch hogs on that little worm. So I swallowed my pride and started asking questions.

He was using a Symetre 2500 with a Shimano CSS-70M 7’ rod with a 1/8th ounce drop shot weght with a purple Roboworm. The worm was 6-8â€