richg99
Well-known member
A few weeks ago, my brother-in-law, who is just learning to fish, came by. He was excited about trying plastic worm fishing.
A friend of his who owns a tackle shop had told him about "Wacky Rigging". To add to his new knowledge base, I printed out some computer LINKS that illustrated Texas rigging; Drop Shot rigging and Carolina rigging.
I hadn't worm fished in any serious way in a year or two. Too locked into "winding and cranking" my many lures, I guess.
Our first two outings were met with limited success. A bass or two, pulled from under docks or boats were all we had to show for a hour or so of effort.
Yesterday morning was a "blue-bird" day. Bright skies; light wind; sunny and...for me...a perfectly miserable time to to try fool a fish. I rarely have good luck on such a morning.
However, the moon charts said that between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m.... the fish should be biting. I motored up to my favorite lake and starting working a Texas rigged; weightless; skinny plastic worm under some docks and boats.
First fish brought in was a small Crappie, but she was followed by two more 12 inch bass.
A fisherman was casting from his own dock, so I struck up a conversation with him while I moved my boat in a big arc, away from his fishing area. While chatting, I flipped the weightless worm into a five foot deep weed-bed about fifty feet from shore. Bang..a nice bass..and it was quickly followed by another.
I can honestly say that I had no intentions to fish the deeper weed beds. Rather, my plan was to continue to work the docks and the anchored boats. By the time I finished I had caught 6 fish, all in 45 minutes or so, on a perfectly horrible looking fishing day.
I closed down my fishing and headed off to a golf match with an old friend.
I returned to the lake that evening, and found even stranger things. The charts didn't show my timing to be very good, but, sun-down was only an hour or so away. I worked the same worms, then a topwater, and finally went back to the worms.
After an hour or so, with the sun getting close to the horizon, I noticed some minnows jumping nearby. Without a lot of thought, I started working the skinny worm back to me quickly, making it look like a minnow, rather than a worm. Bang..one bass, and then another. The first bass that hit was the biggest of this fine day so far.
It was getting near 8:00 p.m. or so, and I didn't want to be out on the water too late.
I decided to work a worm near a fallen tree. I put a fat; smelly and normally effective plastic worm on rigged weightless. I pitched it in and around the tree. Up close, I could see a pothole through the branches.
After flipping the fat worm into that deep crease, I felt a light tug; struck back, and was met with a good pull. By this lake's standards, it was a big fish. She pulled the line and worm deep under the tree and was determined to stay there.
I finally had to run the trolling motor and my boat deep into the downed tree to drag the fish out into the open. Luckily, the hook held and out she came. We fought a quick battle near the stern of the boat and she came to the net.
Seventeen inches long, and fat, .... she was the best bass of my short Wisconsin season.
Not big by many standards... but a fun catch anyhow.
Rich
this is a great report, I love reading stories like this, keep up the good work and looking forward to more stories like this in the future.... =D> =D>
