Fall Worm Fishing Tips for Bass Fishing

Hey, guys. Michael Neal here with BassResource. I want to talk to you about fishing a worm, a plastic worm in the fall of the year. And that's something that I think gets overlooked a lot. The bass really get keyed in on shad in the fall, and they're feeding up for the wintertime. But a lot of people really like to match the hatch, and yes, that's great a whole lot of the times, but also I think it is a lot better option at times when they're really heavily pressured to give them something different. And a plastic worm is going to do just that.

So a lot of times when you're finding these fish schooling, you're going to try and throw a topwater, or you're going to try and throw a lipless bait. You' re going to try and throw a jerkbait or a soft plastic jerkbait.

But one overlooked thing is just a simple, light Texas rig. I've got it rigged with a 3/16 ounce tungsten, a 3/0 Gamakatsu Round Bend offset worm hook, and just the Baby B2 from Big Bite Baits. And it's just something that falls really slowly, you're not going to be fishing very deep in the fall most of the time. And it's just something that those fish don't see a lot, and I'll take this, and I'll throw it right in the middle of those schooling fish. And believe it or not, it gets a lot of bites. I'm not sure why, if it's just something totally different that sets itself apart from all those shad that they're used to seeing, or if it's just something about the profile or whatever it may be. But a plastic worm like this in the fall, is really, really good.

And a lot of the places that even if you're not fishing schooling bass, you're going to be fishing grass in the fall. And a lot of rivers and lakes have a lot of grass in them, and when it's rigged like this, I like to peg it all the time in the fall, no matter what type of cover I'm fishing around, and you can throw it on these outside grass lines, and it's just a good way to get bites.

The fish in the fall, they feed really heavily, but they're not always just easy to catch, which it seems kind of backwards, but that's the case everywhere I've ever been. And when you can throw this on the outside grass lines and just fish it really slowly, get it through that submerged grass that you can't see, that's a good place that the fish really hang around, and they like to ambush. They can just hide in those really small clumps on the outside, wait on those baitfish to come by.

And then a third option in the fall, still all rigged the same, would just be to pitch this around wood and the bank and lay downs, things like that.

And again, you want a lighter weight in the fall, the water temperature is starting to cool off, so there is no need in throwing in a big heavyweight to get reaction. You're just trying to get the bait in there, real subtly, and you're going to be fishing shallow, so heavy weight is really not that big a deal.

And for our all around set-up, I would use the same rod for all three of those techniques in the fall with this same thing, and it's the Denali N3 7-foot-4 medium heavy. This is my favorite worm rod no matter how deep I'm fishing or how shallow, it's long enough, you can pitch a bait around, it's short enough, you could still cast accurately around the grass lines.

A 16-pound Sunline shooter, that's 16-pound line is just where I like to stay for all around worm fishing, just about any time of the year. No matter how deep or how shallow, if I'm throwing it on a casting rod, I really like 16. And a 7 to 1 gear ratio reel, I like a high speed. When I get the hook in those fish, I like to get them coming my way, and make sure that I've got all the slack taken up.

So in the fall of the year, like I said, they like shad, but they also like plastic worms as well. And this shape has been so overlooked for so many years, there's been so many thousands and thousands of bass caught on it, but a lot of people overlook it. Make sure you check it out, make sure you keep it in your tackle box, just a Texas rig with a light weight in the fall, a seven-inch Baby B2 worm from Big Bite.

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