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Old 01-15-13, 11:59 PM   #1
Bassboss
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Default Weightless worms (other than senkos)?

Watched a video of Timmy Horton talking about pond fishing. Apparently he like a weightless 6" yum curly tail worm. Got me thinking about my pond fishing days in Florida... My little brother would smoke me using a purple zoom u-tail worm rigged weightless. Things flat out caught fish, some days it would out fish a senko 2 to 1.

So anyone ever do this? Definitely gonna have to give a whirl this year. I think it'll do well when the weeds get to thick for a texas rig and start matting up... and what a thrill with 6lb fluorocarbon!
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Old 01-16-13, 12:43 AM   #2
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Are you asking about fishing weightless?
If so, YES.
I almost never texas rig a worm with a nose weight.
Lizards and such always.

The neat thing about the 'dingers' is that with out nose weight you can pop them off the flats and they got this little tail 'squibbling' thing going on.
Very effective.
Basic idea, its like whacky fishing a Texsas Rig, slow.

When you pop them out of grass and weeds, same effect.
Warning though...they are the SLOWEST sinking plastic worm I'v ever fished.
When tossed in like 6-8 ft. of water...you can sit down, call the girlfreind and still be done before it hits bottom. With weight going to weightless ... it at first can be frustrating but effective.
My grandson throws a Lake Fork Hyper Worm weightless.
He's young,5, so pateince isn't one of his virtuals. So he takes that spinnig reel and burns it. But it too can be 'popped and lay' presented.
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Old 01-16-13, 12:43 AM   #3
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Yep, but I usually fish it as a floating worm rig.

Tie on a good swivel, then a short leader, Tie your favorite worm hook and then T-rig a plastic worm. However, with this rig you do not want the worm to hang straight. You want a kink in it. Fish it with short jerks and it looks alive in the water. The kink makes it spin, hence the swivel to control line twist. My favorite worm is a pink Zoom Trick Worm.
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Old 01-16-13, 12:45 AM   #4
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Sam, try this sometime. You won't be sorry. The speed worms are WAY more durable than a senko and cost less per worm. I started using the "Zoomie" in 2011 and have caught hundreds of bass on them (don't have the exact numbers in front of me at the moment). They catch big fish, little fish and everything in between...and we have caught plenty of both SM and LM with them. I have taught lots of "fishing newbie" nieces, nephews, and friends how to fish by starting them out with a Zoomie and many of them have really nice fish to show for it.

P.S. - I don't fish it nearly as slowly as Mac or his wife do, so there are obviously multiple ways to fish it. And I should also mention that I fish almost exclusively in depths that are 8' or less. If it's windy or on the rare occasion when I am fishing deeper, I add a nail weight to get the sink rate I want. I also fish this on spinning gear.
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Old 01-16-13, 01:03 AM   #5
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This might just be a southern thing but down here throwin a Zoom Trick worm weightless on a 2/0 Ewg around shallow cover/weeds/pads is deadly. I use white almost exclusively for this and with a little practice you can make that rascal dance and juke like you wouldn't believe. After a quick set of jukes, pause for a moment as it sinks oh so slowly and hold on. Seems to me that the dark colors want to sink too much plus with the white you get to see what you're doing and it makes your heart skip a beat when your worm "disappears"!!!!

**edit** I have done the kinky worm thing with a swivel like Reb does, but for me I prefer to rig it super straight and impart all the magic with the rod tip..also since I fish this way in weeds a lot the inevitable little clump of muck on the swivel gets on my nerves. I usually spray something oily on my worm to keep it weed free and even if a bit catches on the head of the worm a quick jerk will usually clean it right up.
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Old 01-16-13, 05:23 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kennethdaysale View Post
...with a little practice you can make that rascal dance and juke like you wouldn't believe.

I usually spray something oily on my worm to keep it weed free and even if a bit catches on the head of the worm a quick jerk will usually clean it right up.
X2 on a weightless worm on lilly pads and making it dance in place... then slowly drag it to a small open poket and let it sink... also caught some nice bass letting it sink on the outside weed edge if you have the patience to let is sink to the bottom. (I have an open spool and feed line out to get it to sink without swinging back towards the boat at the outside weed edge- watching your line as it sinks becomes critical when doing this)

I'm gonna have to try spraying something oily to keep it weed free. Are you using a scent or something else? maybe WD40?! ...there's an old wise-tail that a squirt of WD40 on a live worm works well. Counter-intuitive to what I would have thought, but I have friends who swear by it!
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Old 01-16-13, 05:36 PM   #7
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I use weightless worms a lot...I love throughing them in thick hydrilla holes after buried bass....Great in creeks too!
I like the idea of idea a swivel and short leader..That would probably be great in shallow stump fields...
I use senkos mostly but also the LFT hyper stick,and Dingers

Ill have to try the zoomie thingy too
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Old 01-16-13, 08:29 PM   #8
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Thanks for the input guys. And to be clear, I'm talking about using worms like this weightless... not just GY senkos and other knock-offs. I can see where the confusion came from though, lol. Good info none-the-less.

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Old 01-16-13, 08:52 PM   #9
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Sam I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention to your 1st post. I haven't used weightless curlytails in years, but back when I was your age we used to murderize um throwing 7" Culprits weightless way back into the pads and literally burnin them back to the edge -come to a dead stop on top of the last pad and then s l o w l y let it fall off. Drove them crazy. Thanks for the reminder.
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Old 01-17-13, 12:09 AM   #10
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It isn't something I've done in a long time but I have caught some really nice fish on weightless 7" Power Worms. I'm not sure why I got out of the habit of doing it.

I still fish weightless worms a lot but generally go for straight tail worms. I throw Senkos quite a bit but I really like fishing weightless Trick Worms, Finesse Worms and Roboworms. Like KD said, the action you can get out of a finesse style worm is unbeatable.
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Old 01-17-13, 12:42 AM   #11
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Fishing a weightless "worm" sub-surface I use a Senko-style bait. They are heavier than a 7" worm mainly due to the heavy salt content and are designed to slowly sink without weight. Worms, like a 7" curly tail or straight tail, I fish weightless but on the surface over pads, as Ken mentioned, or when I find grass matted at the surface and I do not want the worm to sink but crawl over the vegetation. I usually weight a worm when I want it below the surface. Try a piece of a nail weight placed in the middle of the worm, that will give you a horizontal fall, which I think you may be looking for rather than the nose dive you get with a bullet weight or slider jig.
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Old 01-17-13, 07:47 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IowaBasser View Post

I'm gonna have to try spraying something oily to keep it weed free. Are you using a scent or something else? maybe WD40?! ...there's an old wise-tail that a squirt of WD40 on a live worm works well. Counter-intuitive to what I would have thought, but I have friends who swear by it!
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I've heard that wd-40 stuff too but can't do it, in fact I won't even pump gas on my way to the lake.....been filling up the day before for years. May be superstitious or overly cautious but I feel better about it.

*I think I like wise-tail better than the more traditional old wives tale
it don't take much to make me laugh this early in the mornin
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Old 01-17-13, 07:59 PM   #13
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Back when I was 15 I had a neighbor who was a very good bass fisherman and did very well fishing local tournyments. His favorite lure was a 7 inch curly tail Culprit worm in white. He rigged it weightless and used a slow retrieve along weed edges. I remember one day we had a strong cold snap. Around mid afternoon he puilled his Ranger into his driveway. There was about an inch of snow on the ground and it was still snowing. I ran over to see how Jim did. His livewell had 5 nice bass in it. I looked in his rod box, and guess what was tied to his rod? You guessed it. That white Culprit worm. A couple years later, fishing with my dad, I saw him catch the biggest bass I ever saw him catch, and it was on that same white weightless Culprit worm.
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Old 01-17-13, 11:55 PM   #14
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That's more like! Thanks guys, cabin feaver's getting bad... even with ice fishin!

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Back when I was 15 I had a neighbor who was a very good bass fisherman and did very well fishing local tournyments. His favorite lure was a 7 inch curly tail Culprit worm in white. He rigged it weightless and used a slow retrieve along weed edges. I remember one day we had a strong cold snap. Around mid afternoon he puilled his Ranger into his driveway. There was about an inch of snow on the ground and it was still snowing. I ran over to see how Jim did. His livewell had 5 nice bass in it. I looked in his rod box, and guess what was tied to his rod? You guessed it. That white Culprit worm. A couple years later, fishing with my dad, I saw him catch the biggest bass I ever saw him catch, and it was on that same white weightless Culprit worm.
Guess I'll have to get me some white culprits then!
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Old 01-18-13, 10:21 AM   #15
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In rigging worms weightless..........texas rig weightless worms about a third of the way back on the worm body to balance the fall of the worm. If you rig in the nose it will nose down on the fall and fall fast. By using the hook a third back it will balance and fall much more slowly and in my opinion....much more enticingly. Each style of worm falls and balances differently but the sweet spot is quite easy to find. The flat fall has caught a lot of fish for me and my friends......Good Fishing, Mac
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Old 01-18-13, 10:30 AM   #16
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sam...i like the worm you posted up. now i'll tell oyu a worm i have used for YEARS. weightless too. and it works. see if oyu can find some MANNS GRAPE COLOR JELLY WORMS, 8 inches. they are heavy enough to sling weightless i promise. my dad, brother and i have used these worms in ponds for as long as i can remember. they ain't got a curly tail, more of a flat tail. but they have produced some fish for a very long time.

you can bounce it, drag it, hop it or dead stick it. sling it all over the pond. straight out in the middle, up in the shallow and along the sides all the way to the dam and then along the dam side. i have slung one form the dam out to the middle and drug it towards me. when standing on the bank, throw it in a fan pattern. then move to another spot and repeat. moving slowly al around the pond.
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Old 01-18-13, 08:18 PM   #17
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Man we used to do it all the time slow rolling them! Caught a ton of bass, too. The we got "smart" and started using weights and bla, bla, bla...Thanks for the reminder to try it again!
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Old 01-18-13, 09:03 PM   #18
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sam...i like the worm you posted up. now i'll tell oyu a worm i have used for YEARS. weightless too. and it works. see if oyu can find some MANNS GRAPE COLOR JELLY WORMS, 8 inches. they are heavy enough to sling weightless i promise. my dad, brother and i have used these worms in ponds for as long as i can remember. they ain't got a curly tail, more of a flat tail. but they have produced some fish for a very long time.

you can bounce it, drag it, hop it or dead stick it. sling it all over the pond. straight out in the middle, up in the shallow and along the sides all the way to the dam and then along the dam side. i have slung one form the dam out to the middle and drug it towards me. when standing on the bank, throw it in a fan pattern. then move to another spot and repeat. moving slowly al around the pond.
Used to go this ALL THE TIME with life night crawlers, used to catch some big ol bream doing it! I could see it being deadly for a mann's jelly worm! I've been wanting to get some Jelly Worms for a long while, don't know why I haven't yet? lol
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Old 01-19-13, 10:10 PM   #19
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I fish Yamamoto's 6 1/2" Kut Tail worm weightless with great success. They are fragile (I repair them) but they have a great action, subtle but distinct, the perfect weight for longer casts and they have good texture. They come in other sizes as well.

Here is one compared to a senko

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Old 01-20-13, 04:15 PM   #20
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I'm gonna have to try spraying something oily to keep it weed free. Are you using a scent or something else? maybe WD40?! ...there's an old wise-tail that a squirt of WD40 on a live worm works well. Counter-intuitive to what I would have thought, but I have friends who swear by it!
You would think so, but the main ingredient in WD-40 is fish oil. I once watched a guy spray WD-40 in live minnows and proceed to load the boat with crappie.

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In rigging worms weightless..........texas rig weightless worms about a third of the way back on the worm body to balance the fall of the worm. If you rig in the nose it will nose down on the fall and fall fast. By using the hook a third back it will balance and fall much more slowly and in my opinion....much more enticingly. Each style of worm falls and balances differently but the sweet spot is quite easy to find. The flat fall has caught a lot of fish for me and my friends......Good Fishing, Mac
Great idea, Mac! Going to have to try that

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sam...i like the worm you posted up. now i'll tell oyu a worm i have used for YEARS. weightless too. and it works. see if oyu can find some MANNS GRAPE COLOR JELLY WORMS, 8 inches. they are heavy enough to sling weightless i promise.
First bass I ever caught on a plastic worm was on a grape Mann's Jelly Worm. Haven't thrown one in years. Maybe ought to bring you out of retirement
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Old 01-21-13, 01:38 PM   #21
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I've used a 6" white culprit worm with a white floating bullet style weight that was reversed (gave it a small popping action) over grass and in duckweed before. Caught a few bass and then a big bowfin sucked it under and broke me off. Swimming a weightless ribbontail is a great way to catch fish in pads or over grass.
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Old 01-21-13, 08:44 PM   #22
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Thanks again guys! Why do you guys think white works so well for this? Guess it just stands out well against the weeds.

Thoughts?
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Old 01-21-13, 10:51 PM   #23
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Thanks again guys! Why do you guys think white works so well for this? Guess it just stands out well against the weeds.

Thoughts?
If you think about it 75% of all topwater plugs are white on the bottom (the only thing a bass looking up at one can see)...............but in the case of worms I think the white color is more important for me to see. I've used watermelon colors for this technique but I seem to focus better and therefore get a better hookup ratio with the white.
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Old 01-23-13, 04:47 PM   #24
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Quote:
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I've used a 6" white culprit worm with a white floating bullet style weight that was reversed (gave it a small popping action) over grass and in duckweed before. Caught a few bass and then a big bowfin sucked it under and broke me off. Swimming a weightless ribbontail is a great way to catch fish in pads or over grass.
I have a few of those bullet style floats. They really work. I like to use them for swimming a ribbon tail worm across the surface. you can pause occationally and the worm stays at the surface.
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Old 02-15-13, 06:18 PM   #25
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I used to throw a 7.5 or 10 inch red shad Culprit or copperhead color Gillraker worm like that when I lived in SW Oklahoma. Deadly in the spring but worked pretty good all year. OK is eat up with water snakes and if you reeled just fast enough to keep it on the surface they would nail it. That long ribbon tail looks just like a small snake easing along.
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