Plastic Worm Fishing...

I have gone through a fixation of fishing for about every species of fish, at least the local ones. My dad liked to bass fish and usually we were chunking and winding hard baits. Every now and then some one that liked plastic worm fishing might take us somewhere and say toss that worm in there, they will take it and we did ok. The plastic worm was not usually my first choice and with the focus on the catfish game the past few years my bass fishing skills have eroded a bit but yesterday I caught them on the worm.  

I was canoe fishing, small water, skinny water fishing on Sam Rayburn. I had a few half hearted strikes at a spinner bait but seemed nothing really wanted to bite hard. I switched to the purple flake Zoom worm shown here, fished it weightless and they hammered it. No a lot of big fish and in fact this photo of a 15 incher is the only keeper size but what fun. I think maybe one of the factors that helped the worm presentations was that I was using an old 1970s Diawa spin casting reel that did not have a high enough gear ratio to keep a Hot Spot lure out of the grass but took in line at just the right speed to creep a wiggly worm along. 

I really love a canoe trip in winter. If there has been low rainfall totals with no run off the water is crystal clear. In fact I think in the right lower part of the photo you can see the hydrilla beds. Water was 3-4 feet where I found fish with a foot or so of growth. Bass fisherman like hydrilla. It's good for the fish and I think this past spring the lake was so high that the beds did not receive enough sunlight to thrive. If we don't flood looks like the weed will be back. 

I have mixed feelings on hydrilla. Sometimes for shallow water catfish it will clog the pockets next to the brush and I can't get my bait on the fish. If I find a sandy bottom hole I can present the bait there and the fish find it. Just a little different technique. Most of fishing is boat positioning and where you put the lure. 

Hopefully we can get one more catfish report in before the end of the year.