There are many styles, shapes, and colors of plastic worms available for bass fishing. On top of that, there are dozens of different plastic worm strategies and riggings that it can be a bit overwhelming.
Despite this, fishing with soft worms can be a great way to get those deep-lying bass. Especially, in the summer heat. If you’re not finding any bass near cover, you may want to hunt in some of the deep pockets of the water and send out a worm.
In the summertime, we have great success with 10″ worms and are personally fans of the tequila sunrise color.
Something about that combo just does great.
You can play around with different sizes. Typically, the smaller the worm you use the more bites you’ll get, but you’re going to be getting bites from small fish.
If you want to hook a big largemouth bass, put something down there that will help intimidate some of the smaller fish and be an appetizing meal for a lurking monster.
Some of the best ways to fish a plastic worm will be to throw it out and let it sink. Once it reaches the bottom go ahead and bring in your line slack.
After waiting a few moments, go ahead and twitch your rod up a few times. This will cause the worm to hop around a bit at the bottom of the water.
Keep the movement relatively small. Only moving the rod tip 6 inches or so. This will make the artificial lure look more natural in the water.
You want to avoid large and dramatic movements as it will make your bait look unnatural.
When you’re first starting out fishing with plastic worms, it may take some time to get used to detecting bass strikes. Sometimes the feeling can be very subtle.
Take your time and most importantly don’t give up. Fishing with soft plastics may not be as glorious as a top water frog or a crank bait, but the payoff can be just as big.
My two favorite rigging styles for soft plastic worms are the Texas Rig and the Shaky Head Worm.
The Texas rig is going to be made up of a plastic bait, sinker, sinker peg, and a hook.
When fished, the Texas rig will make the worm look like it’s twitching along the water floor. Which will look like an easy meal for a nearby bass.
The Shaky Head worm is typically just the plastic worm with a shaky head jig.
When fished, the shaky head will look like a worm hopping along the lake bed. The way the rig works makes the plastic worm look very real and life-like.
Like we said earlier, there are a huge selection of plastic baits to choose from, but we really like Berkley’s PowerBait selection. Particularly the Power Worm in Tequila Sunrise.
Berkley incorporates flavor and scent into their Power Bait soft plastics that attract more bass and causes them to hold on longer than most other plastic baits.
See the full recommendations below for Texas rig and Shaky Head setup.
