Canadian Dollar
The Worm is Back!
Posted by Walt Matan, Chief Product Designer for Custom Jigs and Spins on Sep 9th 2024
There are some lures that just flat out work. The Worm is one of them. The beauty of The Worm is its simplicity, Put it on, cast it out, reel it in...catch a bass! That’s about it for largemouth, smallmouth, walleye, pike, panfish, trout...just about any fish looking for a meal will take a bite!
Anglers that use it, swear by it. Recently we at Custom Jigs & Spins got a message from a happy angler that just bought a bunch and in one weekend caught over 150 bass on six Worms! They produce.
Simple and effective
The Worm is easy for kids and beginning fishermen to use because it is so simple-yet effective. If you can cast and reel, you can catch a fish.
Expert anglers choose The Worm to fish around docks and piers. On cloudy days bass and other gamefish will be out and about the shallows around docks looking for a meal...cast it out and reel it in slowly. On bright sunny days they will pitch it tight to piers and skip it right under docks. The Worm skips easily when cast with a spinning rod.
Why is The Worm so special?
So what is The Worm and how is it different from other plastic worms on the market? The Worm was originally called Chuck’s Worm before Custom Jigs & Spins acquired it. Chuck had been making it since the 1970’s and it’s been going strong ever since.
It’s a simple design that is highly effective. The Worm is pre-rigged with three high quality Mustad hooks snelled onto a 14 lb Berkley Trilene XT monofilament leader. We make a loop on the end of the line which you attach to a high quality ball bearing swivel and then pinch on a few split shots weights on your mainline about 18” from the swivel.
The Worm is molded into a “C” shape so that when you reel it in slowly, it rotates in an undulating corkscrew action. This action drives bass and other fish species wild! But you really need to use a high quality ball bearing swivel, because all this undulating and spinning will twist your line if you don’t.
The Worm’s action cannot be duplicated
The action of The Worm cannot be duplicated by a Texas rigged or jig hooked worm. BUT, if you ever used a Slow Death hook and a nightcrawler (a highly effective technique) you notice that the whole concept of the Slow Death Hook is to rotate the nightcrawler in a corkscrew movement, slowly.
The upside is that you catch a ton of fish, The downside is that you get short strikes from small fish and you have to keep re-baiting and weeding through these pesky small fry's before you catch a gamefish.
With The Worm, you get this same action, but because we’ve got three hooks, you will catch those pesky short biters every time.
Our Worms are better than ever
Because producing The Worm is very labor intensive, we recently had some manufacturing issues and decided to halt production. But now we have trained a new staff of willing worm-makers and have got our most popular 6-1/4” version in our Top Ten Colors back in stock!
Our top ten colors are: Grape, Black, Natural, Purple, Punkinseed, Brown/Orange Tail, Purple/Red Tail, Purple/White Tail, Black/Red Tail, Grape/Red Tail. These are all hand poured and raspberry scented for the ultimate in attraction!
Our Top Ten Colors will work in any body of water whether it is clear, stained or dirty. They will work down South on those big Florida Strain bass or in the Midwest where we’ve got both largemouth and smallmouth bass.
Where to fish The Worm
The Worm is also highly effective on walleye on rivers in current or in lakes cast around points and reefs. Plus, they can be run behind bottom bouncers in the Great Lakes! You can even run The Worm on a dropshot rig or Wolf River Rig.
When using The Worm with a ball bearing snap swivel and split shots, it is extremely important to REEL IT IN SLOWLY! The slower the better.
Really, actually The Worm is a finesse bait. It is not to be bomb cast as far as possible and then high speed reeled with a 10 to 1 spinning reel. You’ll want to make a nice pitch or lob cast, let it sink to near the bottom and then reel it back slowly. A slight pause and wait will add to its enticement.
Check Out this video for fishing The Worm from a kayak!
Trolling for wins
When trolling for walleye or other species, again SLOW is the key. Use the wind to drift you along or run your trolling motor so your boat runs from. .2 to .6 mph. If you are fishing in the current, you can toss it out with a smaller bottom bouncer and just let it undulate in the current. You could run it off Offshore Tackle Trolling Boards with snap weights also.
Possibly the best way to fish The Worm in current is to use it on a Wolf River Rig or a drop shot rig.
In this situation you will need to tie a 3-way swivel direct to your main line, then attach The Worm to one of the swivels and then a dropper line to a barrel swivel weight or Lindy weight (more snag free). The amount of weight could range between 3/8 to 1 ounce, unless you have real heavy current or deep water, then you might have to go heavier.