“I cast it on a 6-foot 10-inch or 7-foot rod, the same ones I use for spinnerbaits, with 17-pound fluorocarbon line. The size of fish you catch on this swimbait is amazing. It looks so natural in the water, it seems to mesmerize bass. Strike King is coming out with a waking version, too, but, honestly, I wish this lure had never been introduced and I still had it to myself.”

Heavy Worms

Ever read about the “heavy-water” experiments by the Nazis during World War II? They thought it was the key to developing nuclear weapons, largely because the Allies kept blowing up the facilities that produced water with three parts oxygen. If that ingenious ploy had not succeeded, we might be flying swastikas instead of Ol’ Glory today.

This year we embark on the heavy-worm experiments. Several companies have produced plastic worms that sink like rocks without benefit of sinkers, and most of them come in sizes and colors smallmouths find irresistible when presented wacky-style. Under a float, on a drop-shot rig, bare bones, or on a jig, smallmouths chew wacky rigs like few other things. This new wrinkle provides fascinating options for replacing weight systems and getting deep quickly.

When dropped into our fish tank, Berkley’s new Heavy Weights SinkWorm looked more like a bell sinker going down than a softbait. During a hot bite, the worm sinks faster, meaning SinkWorms could be the perfect tools for keeping a hot wacky-rig bite going. When fished under a float, no additional sinkers should be required to take the worm down to operating depth in a hurry.

Heavy worms suggest presentation wrinkles, too. Tru-Tungsten’s Weighted Worm comes in two versions, tail-weighted and head-weighted. Small clumps of tungsten powder are molded into the body. “Tail-weighted baits are great for gliding back into cover,” says Bass Guide Editor Steve Quinn, “and when nose-hooked, you can make one back beneath docks, fallen trees, or weedy overhangs by lifting the rod then giving slack. These worms also give a different action when wacky-rigged, and you can vary the hook position to produce different effects.”

And speaking of wacky rigs, another hot ticket last year was the addition of jig tactics. A worm wacky-rigged on a jig can be worked deeper and faster while retaining a much slower drop rate than a traditional jigworm, because the flapping action resists water on the pull as well as on the drop. Jackall’s Wacky-Jig Head incorporates a thin, short-shank hook and a tungsten ball head sans collar. It enabled development of a technique called “flick shakin’” that combines shaky-worm tactics with wacky-rigging. According to Jackall, “Flick shakin’ is already more widely used than drop-shotting in Japan.” Check the feature article in this Bass Guide on its origins and applications.

Jackall also introduced the Cross-Tail Shad, which might give Berkley’s Gulp! Goby and the new Venom Goby a run for their money on drop-shot rigs in Great Lakes venues. When shaken, the tail flaps while the body vibrates, a key action attributed to success in the goby-saturated markets around the Great Lakes.