スモールマウスバスが釣れるワームと言えば【アメリカ版】

Worms are versatile and can be presented on drop-shot rigs, Carolina rigs, Texas rigs, and all manner of jigs and hooks. Consequently, smallmouths take worms on shallow structure, deep structure, and suspended in between. Smallmouths eat worms in rivers, in lakes, in reservoirs, and in the Great Lakes.

But any ol’ worm won’t do. The best smallmouth worms are small–in the 4- to 6-inch range–and we usually cut the 6-inch worms back an inch. Color, texture, thickness, and action are equally critical and have to be carefully matched to every situation. But, rigged right, with the proper care given to all the variables involved, a worm is dangerously right for bronzebacks. Most of the time, nothing works better.

The idea of swimming a plastic bait is old, but even old dogs get new ticks. A worm is, perhaps, at its best for smallmouths when brought back on a straight retrieve–no lift-drop of the rod tip, no speeding up, no slowing down, no drop, and no rise, just a straight, horizontal retrieve.

The trigger is in the action of the tail and the mesmerizing slow-and-steady progress of the bait through the water. Often as not, especially during spring and summer, smallmouths seem to gauge their chances of actually capturing prey by approaching it slowly and watching for a reaction. If they get really close and their target doesn’t spook, chances are they’ll bite–that’s if the bait looks, smells, and performs just right.

The right size, color, and action is critical with smallmouths. Smallmouth bass, as I mentioned, seem not to be worm-oriented in most environments when traditional tactics are employed. But the uncanny thing about worms is how well they imitate minnows. In minnow-imitating colors like smoke, smoke with metal flake, smoke with black flake, green smoke, white, salt-and-pepper, clear-blue, natural shad, amber with black flake, or any of a wide number of related shades, a swimming worm becomes a perfect minnow imitation.

When rigged on jigs, actiontail worms in that magic 4- to 5 1/2-inch range look most like a minnow smallmouths want to eat. Most actiontails have a small sickletail or a fairly long rippletail. Either can be effective, depending on the time and place. Sickletails put out a constant but subtle pulse on a steady retrieve. It’s a hum rather than a buzz, compared with a 4-inch grub or a long actiontail. Sickletails like the Persuader Curly Tail and the Berkley 4-inch Power Worm excel in clear water, in highly pressured venues, after cold fronts, and in cold water.

“Snake tails” or rippletail worms put out as much vibration as a grub, but probably sound and feel different to nearby smallmouths. The profile is certainly different–long and slender. The blur of the tail imitates the swimming action of a minnow. Rippletails tend to excel in stained or cloudy water, during activity peaks and during summer or whenever the water is warm.

In spring, during prespawn, smallmouths love smaller sickletail worms presented on a 1/16-ounce jig with 6-pound monofilament.

On a retrieve so slow that the worm is barely moving forward, a 1/16-ounce head almost perfectly counterbalances the resistance of the worm and the line, Water striking this head pushes it up slightly, allowing an ultraslow presentation. The worm moves forward so slowly, in fact, that the tail has to be designed perfectly to create action. The right sickletails look more natural and work more efficiently at a tedious pace.

The best jig for summer is a little heavier, and my favorites remain Gopher Tackle Mushroom Heads and Inhaler Legacy Locs from 3/32 to 1/4 ounce. Over a pure rock field, the Mushroom Head with the VMC Vanadium-series hook excels. The hook is light and thin, so it doesn’t add much weight to the package while delivering sure hooksets with 6-pound line.

“My favorite is a 4-inch Berkley Power Worm with a sickletail,” he says. “Most fishermen who split-shot for largemouths fish it to maintain bottom contact. For smallmouths, I feel it’s more efficient to swim it. I cover open water with it. It’s not a slow technique. Even with a fast reel, I’m crankin’ it almost at a slow spinnerbait pace, holding the rod tip down in a ready position for hooksets.

“The split shot takes the bait down, like a jig. But unlike a jig, you have separation between the bait and the sinker, so the bait has a slight side-to-side action. You have to rig the worm perfectly on the hook.

I place the shot anywhere from 8 inches to about 18 inches from the bait, depending on how far I want to cast. The closer to the bait you place the shot, the farther it casts.

Senko-style worms in the 4- to 5-inch size range that now flood the market are, as should be expected, highly effective for smallmouths. “I rig Yamamoto Senkos on a Texas rig, unweighted, with a 1/0 Mustad Mega Lite hook,” Hoffman says. “Just let it fall and drag-hop it along bottom. Just a slow lift. Actually, I’m trying to drag it, but it lifts off bottom and I let it fall back.

“The fall is the key to a Senko. It’s a dropbait for smallmouths. The tail vibrates on the drop, so I use this bait when smallies are pinned to the bottom. The Senko is as close to a magic bait as you can find.

The art of dragging a worm is simple. I prefer dragging a white, black, crawdad, or smoke blue-flake actiontail worm on a 1/8- to 3/8-ounce ballhead jig like the Owner Ultrahead or Yamamoto Round Head. Carolina rigging works, too–especially with a floating finesse worm, like the Venom Air-Light.

Just about any worm style can be dragged effectively, but I usually start with a rippletail style, like the YUM Ribbontail, which is a 6-inch worm. A 6-inch worm cut back to 5 inches is perfect for draggin’ and one of the go-to styles for strolling, because its added bulk keeps it from falling fast on a light head. By late summer, lots of smallmouths in natural lakes and southern reservoirs are down 20 feet or more on humps, submerged islands, gravel flats, and other features.

Lots of anglers drag tubes for these deeper bass, but worms work better in many cases because bass aren’t conditioned to them. Just drift in the wind with the line out at anything from a 60- to a 45-degree angle and keep the jig right on or just above bottom. Use a drift sock to slow the boat in a stiff wind, or use the trolling motor to aid the drift in a slight breeze, but keep the boat moving between 1.5 and 3 mph. Match the weight of the jig to the depth and speed, from 1/8 to 3/8 ounce, on 6- to 8-pound line.

Worms For Smallmouth In the Great Lakes, southern reservoirs, and northern natural lakes, some or all smallmouths drop deeper by midsummer, down to deep humps, shipwrecks, rockpiles on flats, and gravel bars in the 18- to 25-foot range. This move to deeper water accelerates through fall, as more and more bass leave shallow habitat.

Drop-shot rigging is relatively simple. A hook is attached 6 inches to 6 feet up the line, depending on where you’re marking fish on sonar or how far off bottom you’re getting bit. This is accomplished by tying a palomar knot, leaving a tag end long enough to place a worm the desired distance above bottom.

Drop-shot rigs probe every nook and cranny of those deep holding areas smallmouths use from late summer through fall. When smallies turn off completely after a cold front, a drop-shot-rigged worm planted right in their faces and left there to work for several long minutes can at times be the only way to catch any number.

Some of my favorite drop-shot tools are worm variants with a minnow profile, like the Reeper Tail from Bait Rigs Tackle. On a drop-shot rig, the Reeper rolls, twists, and undulates like a baitfish in severe pain or distress.