Large worms and setup

[bassheel]

What is your setup for large worms? What brands do you recommend for 10" and up? Magnum Ol monsters,Netbait,Power worms, and Upton's are my target worms. Are there any others I need to add? Anyone tried (Strike King)Bull worms or Mighty worms yet? I have a 7' MH/F Crucial for now but rather have a shorter one because I bank fish mostly. Spooled up with a 15lbs fluorocarbon.

[Turtle135]

Original Culprit in 10" and 12". I fish them on 3/8th ounce Confidence Baits Draggin Heads. A big ribbontail worm will want to spin on the retrieve and the Draggin Head acts like a keel to prevent the spin (and line twist). I throw them on 7' medium heavy / fast Daiwa rods (but I throw everything on that setup). 17 pound test Trilene XT.

 

 

 

 

 

[imagine29028]

10 inch PowerWorm 5/0 Owner Hook....hold on. 

My setup is on MH/F 7' Spinning rod with 20lb braid. 

[WRB]

I prefer Upton's 9" to 13" straight tails for big bass, usually T-rigged with sliding bullet weights painted similar colors to the worm in 3/16 to 1/2 oz depending on the structure depth and wind.

5/0 & 6/0 Owner 5103 hook works good for me using 14 lb FC line baitcasting. Caught lots of 5 lb to 7 lb night tournament bass using 10" Berkley Power worm with 1/4 oz weight.

Tom

[Turtle135]

20 minutes ago, WRB said:

I prefer Upton's 9" to 13" straight tails for big bass, usually T-rigged with sliding bullet weights painted similar colors to the worm in 3/16 to 1/2 oz depending on the structure depth and wind.

do you find certain conditions (water temp, clarity, etc.) that favor a straight tail worm (over a jig, a ribbontail worm)?

[CarolinaBoy4Life]

I use Ragetail worms and Gambler worms. Depending on how deep I am fishing them and weight I use anywhere from a 7' MH/F or a 7'6 X/XF if fishing deep ledges and offshore structure. 

[roadwarrior]

10" Rage Tail Thumper is my go-to, the Anaconda a close second.

http://www.ragetail.com/news/color-charts/rage-thumper-color-selection/

http://www.ragetail.com/news/color-charts/rage-anaconda-color-selection/

Ledge fishing is the predominate application for me with big worms. My gear is a G. Loomis MBR844C/ Shimano CTE200GT/ 40# Seaguar Smackdown with 25# Flippin' Fluorocarbon leader/ 1/2 ounce tungsten bullet weight and a Trokar 6/0 EWG hook.  

 

 

[Jar11591]

I use Culprit 10"worms a lot. I usually use a 3/0-4/0 EWG Gamakatsu, 40lb braid on a 7' MHF. 

[Steveo-1969]

"I don't often fish big worms, but when I do it's a 10.5" Zoom Ol' Monster (plum) t-rigged on a 4/0 EWG with 1/2 ounce sliding bullet weight, on a 7'5" MH/XF BC rod with 12# fluoro."  This is off-shore ledge fishing.

[d-camarena]

I fish magnum flukes, manns jelly worm, magnum lizard and big ol monster on a heavy/fast big bear rod. Works awesome. Double fluke rig with magnum flukes is killer

[MIbassin]

15 inch C-Mac worm or 12 inch jelly worm with a 7/0 hook, MH casting Rod and some quality braid. Has caught me hundreds of quality bass including my pb 

[S. Sass]

Always have fished the Mann's Jelly Worm since I was a kid. Black Grape or Grape 9" or 12" all day long 5/0 or 6/0 offset worm hook T-rigged. 

 

[WRB]

3 hours ago, Turtle135 said:

do you find certain conditions (water temp, clarity, etc.) that favor a straight tail worm (over a jig, a ribbontail worm)?

Big worms work better for me pre spawn through summer when the big girls are in brush, we don't have a lot weeds in our deep structured rocky lakes. Any wood becomes a magnet and straight tails slide through brush easier than ribbon or curl tails. At night the bass tend to roam more and not so tight to cover so lots of things work.

I prefer fishing jigs so nearly always make some cast with them before switching to worms, unless I know it's a worm bite. I also tend to fish worms much slower and saturate an area more than I do with jigs that get fished a little faster making more casts to cover the same area.

Tom

[KyAngler_1120]

Any more it is rare that I just fish a Tex rig worm. My big worms are the Mann's Jelly Worm 12", Berkley 12" and the NewBait Cmac 11" & 15". The Mann's jelly worm is almost excursively rigged on a YUM Pumpkin ED shakey head 1/4 oz/3/8oz with 6/0 wide gap hook. When fishing the other worms I fish them on a jika rig with 5/0 or 6/0 hooks.

These worms will produce a lot of fish from May- Sep in my area.   

[Mike L]

Anaconda's and Thumper's are my main ones but gonna try some Jelly Worms next weekend based on comments here. 

All are thrown on a Fenwick Techna AV rod, Curado E7 spooled with 16# Sniper. 

 

Mike 

[Basseditor]

I use 7/0 Owner worm hooks. (Not EWG.)

edit:

i was interrupted earlier. Let me finish. 

I've caught a lot of 8-10 lb. bass on 10" worms. 

Heavy and extra heavy 7'6" Kistler Rods. Daiwa Tatula reel. 20 and 25-pound Invisx line. Half ounce tungsten weights. 

It is big fish combat gear for sure.

[fishwizzard]

I am interested in trying out big worm fishing, but my heaviest rod is a M Aub Vendetta casting rod.  It seems to cast them all right on a 1/4oz swimbait hook, but I am discovering the rolling that Turtle135 mentioned.  I ordered some 3/8ox Draggin heads, but have not had a chance to try them.  

Assuming they cast ok, do you all think I have enough rod to get good hooksets?  I got the rod for $40 at a flea market so I am not super attached to it, but I fish my casting set up so rarely that I am not excited to upgrade it if I don't have to.   

[j bab]

3 minutes ago, Bunnielab said:

I am interested in trying out big worm fishing, but my heaviest rod is a M Aub Vendetta casting rod.  It seems to cast them all right on a 1/4oz swimbait hook, but I am discovering the rolling that Turtle135 mentioned.  I ordered some 3/8ox Draggin heads, but have not had a chance to try them.  

Assuming they cast ok, do you all think I have enough rod to get good hooksets?  I got the rod for $40 at a flea market so I am not super attached to it, but I fish my casting set up so rarely that I am not excited to upgrade it if I don't have to.   

I'd go with a medium heavy

[Airman4754]

I fish four types, a regular plastic 11" ribbon tail, a buoyant 11" ribbon tail, 12" Power Worms, and Rage Anacondas. I usually only fish them in the summer in 35'-60' of water. 6/0 punch hook. 

My secret is I peg a 1.5oz tungsten punch weight and a matching punch skirt. I throw it on a Dobyns 805 Punch rod about a mile and almost dead stick it. It will take me 5 minutes to retrieve it. Almost all the fish I catch over 5lbs past June is on this rig.

[Bluebasser86]

I like the Zoom Ol' Monster, Netbait C-Mac, YUM Mighty worm, Strike King Bull worm, and the 10" Power worm.

I fish them on homemade swinging football heads that I pour with a 5/0-7/0 EWG hook. I usually just drag them slowly along the bottom. 

[doyle8218]

Strike King Bull worm I like very much.

I also like :

Strike King Recon

Strike King Thumper

Berkley Federale - floats up nice.

[Catt]

Once the spawn is over & big momma has found her home on deep water structure I breakout the big guns!

[Turtle135]

12 hours ago, Bunnielab said:

I am interested in trying out big worm fishing, but my heaviest rod is a M Aub Vendetta casting rod.  It seems to cast them all right on a 1/4oz swimbait hook, but I am discovering the rolling that Turtle135 mentioned.  I ordered some 3/8ox Draggin heads, but have not had a chance to try them.  

Assuming they cast ok, do you all think I have enough rod to get good hooksets?  I got the rod for $40 at a flea market so I am not super attached to it, but I fish my casting set up so rarely that I am not excited to upgrade it if I don't have to.   

I also have a couple of those Vendetta rods that used to be in my regular lineup. They are stiffer than the typical medium casting rod and I had no problem sticking bass with jigs or plastic worms with that rod.

Due to the shape I find that the Draggin Heads sit on the bottom with the hook point up. On other weighted swimbait hooks the hook has a tendency to fall over on it's side (exposing the point to more frequent snags).

[Turtle135]

12 hours ago, Bunnielab said:

I am interested in trying out big worm fishing, but my heaviest rod is a M Aub Vendetta casting rod.  It seems to cast them all right on a 1/4oz swimbait hook, but I am discovering the rolling that Turtle135 mentioned.  I ordered some 3/8ox Draggin heads, but have not had a chance to try them.  

Assuming they cast ok, do you all think I have enough rod to get good hooksets?  I got the rod for $40 at a flea market so I am not super attached to it, but I fish my casting set up so rarely that I am not excited to upgrade it if I don't have to.   

I also have a couple of those Vendetta rods that used to be in my regular lineup. They are stiffer than the typical medium casting rod and I had no problem sticking bass with jigs or plastic worms with that rod.

Due to the shape I find that the Draggin Heads sit on the bottom with the hook point up. On other weighted swimbait hooks the hook has a tendancy to fall over on it's side (exposing the point to more frequent snags).

[atcoha]

I like the ol monster's, cmac, bruisers and gamblers. Bringing some bruisers tomorrow with me, why not.

Dragging them on a 1/2 oz. swing jig.