The first year that I started fishing, I fished for largemouth bass.  The only ways that I knew how to fish were with a real worm or a spinnerbait.  And as far as bass went, the only thing that worked for me was the spinnerbait.  I learned that I had better luck with chartreuse or white spinnerbaits on bright days and clear water, and the black ones worked best if the water was muddy or at dawn and dusk. 

I also practiced my bass fishing on the computer.  I had this game once… a bass fishing game for the computer.  It was pretty cool.  I tested the different spinnerbait methods on the largemouth bass in this game.  Sometimes I’d cast it and let it drop clear to the bottom, while other times I’d rip it back to my boat (in the game… remember, I am talking about a computer game here) I had read about bumping a spinnerbait on things to attract bass.  This game had objects to bump, and I did that.  I also varied my reel speeds to be erratic as I reeled in the lure, and I’d shake the rod tip, causing the computer spinnerbait’s skirt to bounce. It’s sounds crazy, and I know that they were fake fish, but someone did their homework when they created this game. What was cool is I could watch and see how these computer fish reacted to each method.  I would test it out on my computer, then go try it at a pond.  The bouncing of the rod tip while reeling in the spinnerbait always seemed to produce a bass for me.  And, if the bass are biting, it still does.

Now that was my first year bass fishing.  The second year I decided to experiment with “soft plastics”.

The Stickbait was the hot topic in online fishing message boards.  I read a whole lot about them and then started to ask questions.  What size should I get?   What kind and size of hook will I need?  How do you put them on a hook?  But the question that I seemed to have the hardest time getting answered was. “How do you fish them?”  People would say, just throw it in… and from there, the options were endless as to what method to use.  So finally, I had to just hook one on and try it.  I had heard of Texas rigged, wacky rigged and Carolina rigged.  I can honestly say, I have YET to try Carolina rigged.  Seems like a lot of work.  And wacky rigged?  I wasn’t so sure about that either, so I went with Texas rigged.  First things I Texas rigged were real nightcrawlers, because I still wasn’t sold on soft plastics.  Well, my first Texas rigged nightcrawler landed me a 17-inch largemouth bass.  Biggest bass I had ever seen.  And the picture turned out black, so I have no real proof except that my whole family DID see it. Later on, I couldn’t find stickbaits, but I did buy some power worms.  They were quite productive.  I caught a lot of bass the first year and even a bullhead!  Nothing really big, but fun nonetheless my method to fishing a Texas rigged plastic worm is to fish it weightless for starters.  I cast it to near where I suspect there are bass.  I let it fall to the bottom, always feeling for a tug.  Sometimes it sits at the bottom a few seconds, and then the line starts to move away when a bass grabs the bait.  Now I take my rod and move it forward slightly and gently pull it straight up and back to set the hook.  If you pull it too hard and fast you will either rip it out of the fish’s mouth, or end up with a plastic worm in your face, or whatever you are fishing with.  Seeing that there is a hook involved, that is NOT a good idea!  I let it sit in this spot for a minute, maybe.  If I get no bites, I might reel it a tiny bit and stop, and wait 10 seconds more.  I usually reel it back in and toss it out again.  Nine times out of ten, that strike will happen on the fall or just after the worm settles on the bottom.  The great thing about Texas rigged soft plastics, is that they are virtually weedless.

Texas Rigged Stickbait

The next fishing season, was the season of the stickbait for me.  Now unfortunately, the pond at the campground we stay at received no spring runoff due to debris blocking the streams, and all of the bass died due to lack of oxygen in the water.  This summer, I only fished on occasion at a pond near my house, but the results were great!  The bigger bass jumped on the stickbaits.  Two and three pounders easily, as well as many smaller bass.  I even learned how to wacky rig a stickbait and caught a few that way too.

Wacky Rigged Stickbait

Now stickbaits and plastic worms are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to soft plastics.  I have also caught bass on plastic crawdads, grubs, and swimbaits.  BUT, there are still more plastics out there, more than I will ever try in my lifetime I bet.

Here are some great looking bass that I caught. 

All but ONE was caught on stickbaits…

The other one, was caught on a live nightcrawler!