Section: Ontario Bassin'
| Best Bass Baits
Plastic Worms© Bill Rivers |
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| Plastic worms (and more recently plastic lizards & craws) have caught more bass than any other type of bass bait. Inching a worm along the bottom, crawling one through the weeds, climbing it over / through timber or working it down a breakline are effective ways to fish for bass. It is slow goin', but if there are bass to be caught, the worm will get them. In shallow water or deep, clear or stained, in open water or in cover, hard bottom or soft, for smallmouth, largemouth or a mixed bag, plastic worms and creatures repeatedly demonstrate their versatility and consistency. | |
| For largemouths, 6 or 7-inch worms and 6-inch lizards (black, black/blue, tequila sunrise, junebug, pumpkinseed, watermelon) are best for most bass fishing conditions. No longer just for largemouth bass, plastic worms / lizards have become a favourite smallmouth bass bait. The best worms for smallies include the smaller 4-inch size and/or more typical 6 to 7-inch dark (black, purple) and pumpkin-coloured worms and lizards. Bass hate 'em, kill 'em, eat 'em ! Wormin' also lends itself well to both spinning and baitcasting tackle, so the right gear is always at hand. |  |
 | Most experienced bass anglers rig plastic worms in one of two ways - the Texas and Carolina rigs. Texas- rigged worms are fished with the hook point embedded in the worm so that they are relatively weedless. Carolina rigs are slip rigs on which the worm is fished "weightless" and off the bottom on a long snell (yet still might be hooked Texas-style / weedless). Texas-rigged worms are cast to / fished at specific locations and structures, then fished slowly. Carolina rigs are used more in open water, as "trolling" presentations for bass which may be suspended a bit off the bottom or hunkered down in short grass / weeds. A large slip sinker is used to get Carolina rigs to the bottom and attract any bass in the area. |
| Today's new scented / flavoured impregnated baits have revolutionized worm fishing all over again. Bass will repeatedly pick up and hold these plastic concoctions, enabling sure and solid hooksets. And, unlike live-bait approaches, bass seldom are deeply hooked on plastic worm rigs, facilitating live release. Neither are bass, even energetic and aerial bronzebacks, likely to "throw" the single hook used in plastic wormin'. |  Topwater Plugs |