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On Wednesday, April 24, 1996 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-7, Kevin Power wrote:
Return of the Ringworm I distinctly remember thinking, This is the dumbest looking plastic worm I've ever seen. It was 1981, and someone had just handed me a bag of odd-looking worms at a one-day bass tournament for float tube anglers. They were a dingy purple color with embedded metal flake. The ringed shape of the body looked bulky and not very appealing. I thought about giving them away but instead stuffed a dozen into a sandwich bag and put them in a pocket in my float tube. The rest went into a storage box, probably never to be seen again. A few days later, however, I was fishing a tiny reed- encircled pothole lake on the lower Colorado River. The bite wasn't all that great, and out of boredom, I rigged up one of the peculiar ribbed worms and picked out into a pocket in the reeds. It dropped out of sight, and the line twitched sideways. I set the hook and discovered a fat 3- pounder had swallowed the worm on the drop. Thirty minutes -- and four more bass -- later, I was convinced. These plastic worms with bodies made of rippled rings definitely worked. It's been nearly 15 years since my first encounter with the ringworm, and may opinion hasn't changed -- it has long since become one of my favorites. It's a favorite of bass, too. Something about that ribbed body sends a signal that says, "I'm alive and good to eat." It might be that the ribs around the body feel more lifelike when a bass mouths the worm, or because the shape will hold liquid scents longer than a conventional worm body. One angler I know reasoned that it was because the rings trap air, leaving a trail of bubbles as the worm descends. It's a distinct possibility. I've played with them in a fish tank, and the rings do trap air bubbles. What's funny is that this was not the intention of the lure's original inventor -- he was interested in designing better baits for catfish, no bass. "My dad, John Hendricks Sr., was trying to develop a worm for catfishing with dip baits,' said John Hendricks Jr., president of Luck "E" Strike U.S.A. in Casville, Mo. "He basically took the idea from a wood screw to come up with the idea of rings or ribs around the body to hold the dip bait. A fellow name Dewey Bain had an idea to put a curly tail on it, and that because the ringworm." Luck "E" Strike makes a wide variety of plastic baits, but several of the company's worms follow the ringworm design, including the Original Ringworm, Guido Hibdon's Ringer and the Shaw Gribsby Ring-It multi-tail, ringed grub body. A number of other companies make similar ringed or ribbed worms. Greg Hines, An Arizona bass pro with back-to-back tournament victories on giant Lake Mead last fall, thinks vibration is a major reason for the ringworm's success. "The ribs and the curly tail attract fish from a long ways as the lure falls," Hines says. "It's actually a finesse-type bait -- I've used it in just about every situation, but I thin it's probably best used as a flipping worm. I rig it with a 3/16 ounce slip-sinker, a size 2/0 Owner hook and 15 to 20 pound test line. I've caught a ton of fish using this rig." Saying the ringworm is a finesse bait probably will startle some anglers who think of finesse as meaning a skinny, California-style, straight-tail worm 3 to 4 inches long. But it's true. The ringworm can be -- and often is - - fishing on light line. TO me, the best use of the ringworm is as a drop bait. i think of it as a flipping or pitching worm, rather than one I would retrieve across the bottom on a Carolina Rig. Usually, I drop the ringworm into a likely looking spot and watch the line as it drops out of sight. If it's going to be hit, chances are it will happen on the initial drop. It's also a highly successful swimming bait. The ribbed body probably creates unusual vibrations as it moves through the water, and I've had much success fishing ringworms Texas-rigged outline line. In many of our clear Western waters, a 4 inch ringworm rigged with a 1/8 or 3/16 ounce sinker on 4 to 6 pound test line is a deadly bait when bass are active. You can also get good results rigging it on slider or dart-head jigs. It's not a particularly good worm to drag or pull across the bottom -- with the exception of fishing it slowly in timber where you crawl the worm up through the branches and let it free-fall (a deadly ringworm technique). I thin the action suffers if the ringworm is rigged on a heavy worm hook. Light-wire hooks are much more productive. Recently, Claw's Featherlite hooks in the in- between 1.5/0 size on a 4 inch ringworm. In the West, where I live, many anglers don't think of the ringworm as a successful lure. George Kramer, a long- time bass angler, said he never considered the ringworm a first-choice lure for Western waters, but acknowledged he caught his largest bass on one. "We were down at Otay Reservoir, near San Diego, in the winter of '94, fishing a rock-pile," Kramer said. "I had been fishing the finesse-type, straight- tail worms and wasn't getting anything. I thought I might try something with a little more bulk. So, I put on a camo Berkley Power Ribworm, rigged on a dart- head jig, and got up on top of the rock-pile and fished it up the steep side. "The line go a little heavy, and I actually didn't have to set the hook," Kramer said, "The line jerked down, and the fish weighed 11 to 12 pounds." Another successful angler who thinks highly of there ringworm is Rick Clunn. "I think there ringworm generates more strikes and bigger fish," said Clunn. "Both U.S. Open tournament I won in the 1980s were won with ringworms. In 1980, I fished the ringworm as a traditional Texas rig. For the other win, I was using the ringworm as a trailer lure." Clunn, who gets the most out of any bass lure, said he fishes ringworms two primary ways. "I go to ringworm under very touch conditions. i like to flip a Texas-rigged ringworm. I sue a lighter, longer rod and flip it on lighter line. Flipping in heavy cover, I'll peg the sinker." Clunn noted that flipping produces a reaction bite, rather than a deliberate feeding response from bass in cover, and said he normally doesn't spend a lot of time in any one spot. "With ringworms, i keep it here a little longer, shaking it a bit instead of hopping it, for about 30 seconds or so." Clunn also likes the ringworm as a light bait for casting to spawning bass. many bass anglers think tube baits are the best lure type for bass on nests. Clunn disagrees, saying he's had a lot of success with the ringworm during the spawn. Clunn's other primary ringworm method may surprise most anglers. "Most of the ringworms I use now are added to spinnerbaits as a trailer," Clunn said. "I don't know if it's the ribs on the side of the worm or what, but they make an incredibly effective trailer." Clunn started using ringworms as trailers by accident. He was fishing in clear water, using spinnerbaits with clear skirts and glitter, and wanted a trailer that matched the transparency of the skirt. Older plastic trailers were solid colors, as are pork products. "I had ringworms with some clear sparkle and chartreuse tails that matched the skirts, so I started suing them," Clunn said. "I was fishing for spotted bass a the time, and spotted bass are notorious for plucking off the trailer. I noticed that with the ringworm, they started taking the whole bait. And over the years, I've found the ringworm generates more strikes rigged that way." The next time you're searching for something different to offer bass, think about the ringworm. It's like a pitcher throwing a change-up to fool a batter. The ringworm makes them strike. By Richard Alden Bean Richard Alden Bean |
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