How do you retrieve a plastic worm with a Carolina rig?

A Carolina rig is one of the best ways to catch a bass when fishing on a hard or sandy bottom. As the video above explains, you just need to add a weight and a swivel above the worm to create the Carolina rig.

The technique to use a Carolina rig is one of the simplest that there is in bass fishing. You simply cast your rig and let it sink to the bottom. Then you slowly drag it along the bottom and give it a twitch every now and again. That is it. You can also use a slow and steady retrieve with a pause every now and again for great results.

I wrote another article on this website all about fishing with a Carolina Rig. You can read that article by clicking right here.

How do you retrieve a plastic worm with a Texas rig?

A Texas rig is a worm with a small bullet weight above it on the line. This is probably the most popular technique for using a worm to catch bass all over the world. It is very simple to set up and very simple to use.

You simply cast out your Texas rig and slowly work it on the bottom. You can use the old stand by lift and drop method to catch bass. You raise your rod tip to lift the worm off of the ground and let it drop back down to the bottom again.

Your retrieve is slow with a twitch and a pause every now and again for best results. You can fish a Texas rig in structure and cover with great affect. This set up works great in grass.

How do you retrieve a plastic worm on a wacky rig?

You really don’t need to retrieve a plastic worm when you are fishing with a wacky rig. The beauty of a wacky rig is its simplicity. You simply cast it out and let it flutter slowly to the bottom. Then you retrieve your worm and repeat the process in another spot where you think that the bass are hanging out. It is the action of the worm’s fall through the water column that gets you all of your strikes.

How do you retrieve a plastic worm on a drop shot rig?

A drop shot rig is a worm rig where the worm is tied directly to the line a couple of feet above a sinker that is tied to the end of your line. This is a finesse bass fishing technique for when the bass are being picky about what they want to eat.

The retrieve when you are fishing a drop shot rig is very simple. You cast out your rig and let it sink to the bottom. Then you slowly retrieve your rig and give it a twitch or two every now and again as you bring it back to your position.

How do you retrieve a naked plastic worm?

I consider a naked worm one that has just a hook in it without weights or any additional gear added to it. A regular old plastic worm with a weed less hook in it can be fished as is very effective way to catch a lot of bass.

You can swim a naked plastic worm in any part of the water column if you want to. When the fish are being very aggressive, you can burn the worm through the water very quickly to trigger aggressive bass strikes.

You can use a naked plastic worm rig to fish the bottom with a lift and drop technique. The worm will be very lifelike because you are not using a weight to get it to sink. I like to use a light hook that will make the worm sink very slowly in the water column.

You retrieve will be slow when you are working the bottom. The lift and drop technique works great in this scenario.

Why do bass eat plastic worms?

Bass eat plastic worms for two basic reason. They eat worms because they are hungry and the plastic worms look like a prey item to them or they eat them to protect their territory. I am convinced that bass hit bass fishing lures just to kill them as much as they do out of a hunger response.

The bass’ underwater world is a tough place. Big bass eat smaller bass. Otters and alligators eat any bass that they can catch. Wading birds eat small bass in the shallows. It is very hard for a baby bass to grow up to be an old bass because the chances are that something will kill them before they get old.

To thrive in the bass eat bass world that they live in they have to be ruthless and tough. During the spawn, a male bass will try and kill anything that gets near his precious nest and eggs. For the few weeks that he guards the eggs and fry he will be on a hunger strike so he doesn’t eat any of his kids. So anytime a fishermen catches a bass near its bed, that bass hit that lure specifically to protect his nest and not from a triggered eating response.

Other times of the year the bass is eating the plastic worm because it is hungry. Bass will eat birds, rodents, insects, reptiles, amphibians, and other fish species. They will eat just about anything that will fit in their huge mouths. Lots of creatures will fit in those huge mouths.

In the bass’ underwater world there are a few creatures that resemble a plastic worm.

There are freshwater eels that the bass love to eat.

There are leaches.

There are snakes.

There mud puppies (amphibians in the salamander family with very small legs).

My point is that there are lots of different inhabitants of the bass’ underwater environment that resemble a plastic worm. That is why the quintessential lure for catching big bass will always be the simple plastic worm.

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