Tips on Fishing a Texas Rig Worm

Lift and drop

Cast your worm into heavy lily pads, waterweeds, grass or where there is bottom structure like brush or stumps. Watch your line as the worm slowly descends to the bottom. Set your hook hard if you detect a tap on the worm or if you see a movement in the line where it enters the water. Use a lifting and dropping motion once your worm reaches the bottom. Keep the line taut as you slowly lift the worm a few feet. Let it settle back to the bottom, keeping "in contact" with it by having no slack in the line. The key to this presentation is to be methodical and keep lifting and dropping the worm. If you are directly over the worm in your boat, you should stay with a spot for a few minutes before casting elsewhere. If you are a distance away in a boat or on shore, then reel in a little bit each time you lift the worm. This will eventually bring the worm back to you and still cover a large amount of the water. Always be on the alert for a bite. Watching the line often is the only way to tell a fish is taking the worm. It may move sideways or even back towards you as a fish swims with the lure in its mouth.

Swimming

You may swim the Texas rigged worm along the bottom of a lake or pond. Cast the worm out and let it sink before starting to reel it in. When you feel the worm touch on the bottom, you can reel in a bit quicker to keep the worm up. Every now and then, you can let the worm encounter the bottom. By doing so you will have a better idea where the bottom is in relation to the worm. Typically, you will reel in the worm with a slow pace. You will have to detect bites by the tapping feeling that the fish transmits through the line when it offers at the worm.

Hookset tips

The hookset is an important factor when using a Texas rigged worm. Once you think that a fish has the lure in its mouth, lower your rod tip, carefully reel in your slack and then with a strong motion pull up on the rod tip. Accomplish this with great force and drive the hook into the jaw of your quarry. You may want to invest in a strong fishing rod that is a heavy action type. With these, you can pull up with the gusto required to set the hook without worrying about your rod having enough flex to get the job done. Once the fish is on the line you may want to set the hook again just to make sure that you buried it in the lip of the fish. This may be needed since the hook in the Texas rigged worm isn't exposed.