The Mountain Eagle
WHITESBURG WEATHER

Gabby’s fishing fever

Worm fishing for deep summer bass


The high water temperatures and the lack of oxygen in shallow water drives most bass into deeper water where they will stay until the fall weather starts to cool the water down.

Until then, fishermen need to focus their fishing on deep water presentations, and one of the best lures to do this is the plastic worm. The plastic worm can be fished very slowly and very tight to and through deep water cover. Some bass will hold onto or close to deeper cover such as downed trees, brush piles, stumps, old fence rows or humps.

When you talk about deeper water on most of our area lakes, you are in most cases talking about around 20 feet of water. The use of a good depth finder that marks fish is a real help to get you started in finding deep water bass and to see the type of cover they are holding to.

When bass are holding tight to cover, the worm is a top lure choice to fish. The worm looks like natural food to a bass and some worms are made to smell and taste like a live worm. This makes the bass hold onto the worm longer, giving the angler longer to set the hook.

A good rod to fish a worm is a long rod in the six-and-a-half-foot to seven-foot range. The long rod helps in casting and retrieving the bait, plus gives extra leverage in setting the hook. A good worm rod will have a strong bottom part and a fairly strong tip. This extra stiffness will help work a big bass out of heavy cover.

A good bait caster reel works best in most situations. A spinning reel is OK for small lightweight worm fishing, but for deeper water and heavier worm rigs a bait caster is the way to go. Use a good quality line in the 8- to 10-pound test range for worms in the six inch and smaller size and line up to 20-pound test or a braided line for the big 10- and 12-inch worms.

Of all the ways to rig a deepwater worm rig, a Texas rig is by far the most widely used and most effective. Start by sliding a bullet-shaped weight up your line (use smaller weight on lighter line and heavier on bigger line). Then choose an offset worm hook. For smaller worms up to around six inches use a No. 2 or No. 3/O hook and for larger worms use a No. 4 to a No. 6/O hook.

Tie on the hook and you are ready for the worm. Start by pushing the head of the worm about half an inch onto the point of the hook and then turn the worm to where the hook point is in line with the line on the side of the worm. Pull the hook point through the line on the worm and slide the worm all the way to the end of the hook and onto the off set area. Now turn the worm till it hangs perfectly straight and bend the worm body slightly and push the hook tip into the worm and pull it until it hangs straight. Now you have a Texas rigged worm ready to fish for deepwater bass.

Once you locate the spot you want to fish, make your cast out and let it fall all the way to the bottom. Always be aware of what your bait is doing because most strikes will occur on the fall of the bait. Slowly work your bait along the bottom and through the cover feeling for any type of tap or strike. If you think a bass is running with your bait, reel down and set the hook hard.

Deepwater bass fishing takes some time to learn and may not be for all anglers, but for those that learn and fish a worm slowly and close to key cover areas the results can pay off with some big summer time bass.

You can e-mail me at gabbysfi shingfever@yahoo.com.



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