Big/worms/grubs

[carrollton-fisher]

So my local 800 acre reservoir I fish is about 10 feet low and I went fishing from the bank yesterday. I saw numerous BIG worms and grubs laying on the bank. When I say BIG, nothing like i've ever seen before. This worms are 12-15 inches long, but they are over an inch THICK, the grub i saw was about 6-8 inches long and almost 2 inches thick. Sure would like to find the guy fishing them to see if he's been catching the big ones with it. Numerous 10+ pounders have been caught out of the lake and I've never fished anything that big or thick

[ChrisAW]

Thats just because they become waterlogged and expand. They were probably no different than the ones you normally fish before those guys decided to leave them in the water, which is not good. If you didn't already, I would grab a bag and grab any I could find and throw them away so they aren't eaten by any of the bass when the water levels come back up.

[SAC2]

ChrisAW hit it on the head. These worms have been submerged in the water a while and expanded. they are just your average size worm.

[merc1997]

i am going to disagree about the water bit. could be a small amount, but would not amoun to even an 1/6 of an inch. big soft plastics are probably the next best thing to a jig for catching big bass. a friend of mine used to live in georgia and fished a lot of different waters there, including slow moving rivers. he used lots of 12 to 13 inch worms for catching big bass. we use them every summer here on table rock lake. i fish big worms often behind a bare jighead instead of texas rigging them. sounds to me like you have stumbled onto what you need to be throwing at times to target the big bass in your lake.

bo

[Shane J]

Merc, a soft plastic can expand to 10 times it's original size by being in water long enough. I've found Senkos that were 2" in diamiter, and over a foot long. I do agree with you on the use of big worms, though. They do catch big bass!

[Bair]

It's perfectly possible that is the original bait but, the only reason I say that is I use the big saltwater versions for offshore fish. Interesting idea using it for bass though.

[ChrisAW]

i am going to disagree about the water bit. could be a small amount, but would not amoun to even an 1/6 of an inch. big soft plastics are probably the next best thing to a jig for catching big bass. a friend of mine used to live in georgia and fished a lot of different waters there, including slow moving rivers. he used lots of 12 to 13 inch worms for catching big bass. we use them every summer here on table rock lake. i fish big worms often behind a bare jighead instead of texas rigging them. sounds to me like you have stumbled onto what you need to be throwing at times to target the big bass in your lake.

bo

It amounts to a LOT more than a 1/6 of an inch. I had left water in my aluminum boat over the winter, with a 4" curltail worm soaking in it all through fall and into march of the next year. After uncovering it, it was now a 10" curltail that was originally a 1/4 thick, had became over 3/4 of an inch thick.

People use big baits, but I'll guarantee these that he had found were not out of the ordinary worms.

[WRB]

The plastisol soft plastic worms and grubs are made from are only slightly hygroscopic and shouldn't expand more than 20%. I have seen some soft plastics that have been in the water for years and they lost coloration, but haven't swollen to 3x their original size.

There are some big salt water grubs on the market and striper size senko's. I know Josh Upton makes worms that are 18 to 24" long and about 1" in diameter, lots of home made stuff out there!

Tom

[merc1997]

maybe we have different water here in the ozarks, but we find lots of plastic hanging in trees that have been in the water a looong time, and they are pretty much the original size, but the color is long gone from them. if plastic, which is petroleum base, can swell as much as some are claiming, how is it that we have plastic everything and none it swells three times its size?? just my observations.

bo