Oh wow do I have the worms

[Cgolf]

So as a time killing project I decided to make as many of my back stock boxes one style of bait as possible. I was stunned to find that 70 to 80% of the boxes were of different types of worms that I rarely if ever toss anymore. I am more of a grub, tube, or creature bait kind of guy. I must have thought that worms were the thing to buy back when I was still learning about bass fishing.

 

Do the rest of you have large back stocks of baits that you ultimately found didn't fit the way you fish? I know I won't be ordering worms for a lifetime or two.

[joshuaray83]

I just started getting back into fishing this Spring after about 10 years of only fishing when I go camping - which is two or three times a year. Now, I'm camping and fishing more often and getting more fishing stuff. I've tried square bills and jerk baits a lot over the last few months and haven't had much luck, so those have been stacked and set aside in favor of jigs, YUM Dingers, t-rigged creature baits, and dropshot roboworms.

 

I just don't have as much luck with the moving baits in general it seems. Probably more an issue with me than the bait, though.

[looking45]

If a bass fisherman doesn't have a stockpile of plastics, he hasn't been fishing long or hard enough. Almost everyone has bought a bunch of the "latest and greatest", only to find out it doesn't last very long. 

[J Francho]

There's only a few bait that I really buy in any quantity anymore.  The rest are new baits sent to me or purchased myself that are new to try out, and report back here.  Even then, I don't try enough new stuff like I used to.  

[Tatsu Dave]

I just sold a box of all new plastic baits I never use or tried and didn't like. I was going to put it in classifieds on here and try to sell till I weighed it and realized what it was going to cost to ship. Ran it in a local swap, sell, and trade online site, sold to second caller and I met him local and didn't have to eat shipping. Takes me about 5-6 years to amass 60-80 pacs of plastics that I want to sell, .25-.45 cents on the dollar moves stuff out fast. I buy a lot more than I end up liking and using, fish quickly show me which ones caught me instead of them   

[Cgolf]

30 minutes ago, J Francho said:

There's only a few bait that I really buy in any quantity anymore.  The rest are new baits sent to me or purchased myself that are new to try out, and report back here.  Even then, I don't try enough new stuff like I used to.  

Since I forgot about some of these baits, I can shop in my back stock and treat it as new and give it a toss. Maybe a workaround for the tackle monkey lol. Could honestly do the same with certain crank baits if I wanted too. 

17 minutes ago, Tatsu Dave said:

I just sold a box of all new plastic baits I never use or tried and didn't like. I was going to put it in classifieds on here and try to sell till I weighed it and realized what it was going to cost to ship. Ran it in a local swap, sell, and trade online site, sold to second caller and I met him local and didn't have to eat shipping. Takes me about 5-6 years to amass 60-80 pacs of plastics that I want to sell, .25-.45 cents on the dollar moves stuff out fast. I buy a lot more than I end up liking and using, fish quickly show me which ones caught me instead of them   

I gave away some once and then a few years later said I need this or that bait, but then realized I had given them away. Maybe know that I have more knowledge I can part with some. Heck I still have some Berkeley Squirmer worms. 

[J Francho]

22 minutes ago, cgolf said:

Could honestly do the same with certain crank baits if I wanted too. 

I have SOOOOO many hardbaits that I'll never use again, but don't have the heart to sell.  I love every one of them.

[MGF]

My fishing has changed over the years so I have a lot of baits that I just don't have a use for very often.

 

An example; I used to do a lot of fishing on lake Norfork in Arkansas. There was one year in February that we were catching everything on what we called a "long billed" Rebel. I don't know what it really is because that many years ago and I didn't keep any of the boxes. I bought a bunch of them. Anyway it's a fairly deep diving minnow shaped crank bait. No days I mostly fish a shallow river and shallow weedy lakes. It's funny. I don't think my cousin who lives there has gotten on such a bite since. still I keep them.

 

I just got thinking about when that actually was. My son turns 35 this month and it was before he was born. My grandparents had just moved down there and my uncle was looking for a business to buy.

 

I don't really have large stocks of very many things but I have hard and soft baits that are very old. Sometimes I find them and put them in a safer place and sometimes I go fishing with them.

[roadwarrior]

I give most of my unused stuff away. I hope some other guys can get

some use out lures and plastics I will never fish. I have five packages

in process to BassResource members right now.

 

[PourMyOwn]

I run them through a meat grinder, remelt them and pour things I will use. I also donate to a local hs team where I used to coach football.

[fin]

Sometimes you might want to come back to something you haven’t used in a long time.

 

For example, I’ve caught a few nice fish on flukes years ago, so naturally I bought a bunch. I never got to where I could consistently catch good numbers with them, so I pretty much quit using them. Recently I figured out some things and have been having great success with them. They have become my favorite thing to fish with.

 

Another example, I had a bunch of worm colors I didn’t really like, so they would sit in the drawer and I would keep buying colors I preferred. A few months ago, I started running low on my favorite colors, and at the same time I was slaying spotted bass with worms. The spotted bass were also slaying my worms, I mean literally tearing them to pieces. I found they really didn’t care about color during that period, so I got rid of a bunch of my old worms and I saved a lot of money.

[DitchPanda]

7 hours ago, J Francho said:

I have SOOOOO many hardbaits that I'll never use again, but don't have the heart to sell.  I love every one of them.

This is me with crankbaits. I use them but they aren't a go to for me. I'm much more of a spinner bait or swim jig guy. That said explain to me how I have 75 spinnerbaits, 20 swim jigs and 86439 crankbaits.

[813basstard]

An American Large Mouth Bass will still bite a worm. I’ve heard.

 

Longer I fish it’s like starting all over again 

Ill bring 5 baits and throw them until I need Tommy John surgery. Ima run into 5 of them..that I know

[Sam]

Yes, but we keep them as we may need them in the future.

 

And that keep the Bait Monkey happy.

[Munkin]

Not just worms it is everything for me. The craziest is deep diving crankbaits? I have 25 deep diving crankbaits for every fish I have actually caught on them. Sold over 300 packs of plastics like 3 years ago and still have another 100+ to get rid of.

 

Allen

[WRB]

When I sold my boat recently and made the decision to sell the majority of my tackle my worm collection was overwhelming. I kept 17 Pano soft plastic boxes in my boat, all labeled by size and color groups. Making up a list to put in the Flea Market became a project. I ended listing over 4,000 worms, grubs, craws, swimbaits etc. 

They will catch bass and surprised how many that hadn't seen water in a long time that worked great. The vast majority today's bass have' ever seen and local hand pours no longer availble.

Tom

[Hammer 4]

I was lucky enough to get a portion of Tom's worm and swimbait  collection. I think I'm pretty well stocked on various sizes and colors for a good while.

[fishwizzard]

I got really into bass fishing about the same time I rediscovered eBay, the results were predictable.  About a year or so ago I went through all of my plastics and filled up bankers box full of stuff I thought I was never going to use or had bought too much of a gave it to my teenage nephew.

 

Of course I’m constantly regretting it and I always feel like a huge chump when I go out and rebuy something that I gave away.

[Mbirdsley]

Craw chunks for me.  I was buying a lot of craws and craw chunks at one time.  Craw chunks just seem redundant.  A plastic craw can be used a jig or t-rigged.  Craw chunks can only be thrown on a jig 

 

terminal tackle would be extra wide gap hooks.  There are a couple situations I use them.  However, I’ve realized that I only really need either a 2/0 or 4/0 offset worm hook for 95% of them fishing I do 

[Ratherbfishing]

For a few seasons I was big into creature baits.  Now, inexplicably, I rarely toss them.

[WRB]

The 2 colors I have a lot if are Green weenie w/ blue flake and Cinnamon blue neon vain w/ micro red flake.

My experience the Green weenie w/blue flake ( translucent green top half, cinnamon brown belly) w/ blue flake, (also black flake is the mix in green weenies) is far better the todays green pumpkin variants. This worm started the popularity of finesse hand pours in SoCal followed closely by Cinnamon with blue neon.

Gareentee both will catch bass today everywhere Shad and bluegill are a prey source.

Tom

 

[Brayberry]

I have huge tubs like 2 feet high, 3 feet long and 2 feet wide full of packages of soft plastics. Some full packages, some a few baits missing but clearly enough baits to last a few lifetimes. Probally should sell off most of it to buy more baits I use.