10 hours ago, Fishingmickey said:

Casts by Fly,

     I use to use these and was very sorry to see that they quit making them.  I used them fishing a T-rig along rip-rap.  They would get hung in the rocks a lot less. I imagine they would be great for swimming a speed worm through grass and cover too.

 

FM

 

My grandma owned a bait shop in the basement when I was growing up and my dad did all of the stocking.  these were standard in the shop at the time (as were the plastic tubes of split shot which were awesome).  These couple bags are 25 years old and the last ones that I have.  I think my dad has a couple bags of the 1/8 oz because that’s what he uses to fish a 6” worm.  Some weights will hang up on grass and you just lightly pop it through.  These never hang and you never feel the grass on your weight.  If you’re throwing an offset hook you’ll catch grass on the bend, but if you’re throwing a straight shank round bend you will never get grass on any of it anywhere.  

21 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

 

My grandma owned a bait shop in the basement when I was growing up and my dad did all of the stocking.  these were standard in the shop at the time (as were the plastic tubes of split shot which were awesome).  These couple bags are 25 years old and the last ones that I have.  I think my dad has a couple bags of the 1/8 oz because that’s what he uses to fish a 6” worm.  Some weights will hang up on grass and you just lightly pop it through.  These never hang and you never feel the grass on your weight.  If you’re throwing an offset hook you’ll catch grass on the bend, but if you’re throwing a straight shank round bend you will never get grass on any of it anywhere.  

How cool is that!

Gotta Love a Grandma who has her own bait shop !!!

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

14 minutes ago, Mike L said:

How cool is that!

Gotta Love a Grandma who has her own bait shop !!!

 

 

Mike

 

It was a one room shop in the basement of the house, about 14x20’.  She had another equal room that was stock storage.  Then the laundry room had two full sized refrigerators in them.  She lived a couple hundred yards from the mouth of a trout creek where it met the big river so she had a heavy trout clientele in April and May.  Then it was guys going down to the river with forked sticks looking for cats and carp.  The bulk of what she carried was joes flies, rooster tails, power bait, salmon eggs, dough ball, and of course worms.  My dad hand picked most of the worms at night, with a flashlight.  I’ve talked about it on here before, but he had two wooden boxes he made that were 18”x12”x12” inside and on good nights in the spring when stocking up he’d fill one and half or nearly fill the other.  But that was an all night session.  If you opened the refrigerators, she had old plastic shirt boxes from the big department stores when that’s how shirts were sold.  They were 12x18x3” and she’d have two refrigerators filled with them with worms of different sizes (they split them into 3 gradings).  I’d help pick worms sometimes, but I was elementary and middle school aged at that time so couldn’t do too many all nighters.

 

Since my dad was a bass angler primarily, he kept a good stock of some more important things- Stanley jigs and uncle josh pork, rattle traps and rapalas, and a bunch of spinnerbaits and buzzbaits that he’d tie up himself (pouring the lead himself).  he also molded sinkers of all types too from lead flashing discards and old wheel weights (lead wasn’t worth the scrap price then).  That’s where the original Tom Mann rats came from that I shared in the original box last year.  Alas, we all age and eventually the steps just got to be too much for her. 

23 hours ago, woolleyfooley said:

Back on topic: Anyone use straight shank worm hooks for speed worms?

I use the G finesse heavy cover hooks in a 2/0 for most worms over 5", you could get away with a 1/0.  The G finesse heavy covers run big.  The 2/0 is about the same length as most 4 or 5/0 round bends, with a bigger gap.  The wire is little lighter than most heavy cover hooks, but its a super strong hook.  

After reading this thread on Thursday, I dug a pack of these out of storage and used them Friday morning... and caught a bunch of really nice fish on them. Thanks for the tip you guys!! UV Speedworm for the win. 

2 hours ago, JackstrawIII said:

After reading this thread on Thursday, I dug a pack of these out of storage and used them Friday morning... and caught a bunch of really nice fish on them. Thanks for the tip you guys!! UV Speedworm for the win. 

Nice! How were you fishing them?

On 5/17/2025 at 1:09 AM, GetFishorDieTryin said:

I use the G finesse heavy cover hooks in a 2/0 for most worms over 5", you could get away with a 1/0.  The G finesse heavy covers run big.  The 2/0 is about the same length as most 4 or 5/0 round bends, with a bigger gap.  The wire is little lighter than most heavy cover hooks, but its a super strong hook.  

Wow. The 2/0 being the same size as a 4/0 or 5/0 is wild. I wish hook sizes were better standardized.

26 minutes ago, woolleyfooley said:

Wow. The 2/0 being the same size as a 4/0 or 5/0 is wild. I wish hook sizes were better standardized.

All the companies are like that.  When you get into the heavier wire hooks, the sizes can really vary.  

17 hours ago, woolleyfooley said:

How were you fishing them?

Plain old texas rig. 3/0 ringed VMC hook with a 3/16oz bullet weight unpegged. Junebug with red flake. A big thunderstorm had just rolled through and the water was fairly turbid with low visibility and the darker color lures dominated that day. 

Had a rain and wind storm blow through this morning and will continue off and on all week. A zoom ultravibe in black/blue and a 3/16 unpegged sinker did the job today. Slow dragged or just swam off the bottom. It was a miserable 20 mph wind for the hour I was there. But caught a ton of 1 pounders 

How do the UV swim worms compare to the Big Bite Tour swim worms?

1 hour ago, ike8120 said:

How do the UV swim worms compare to the Big Bite Tour swim worms?

Not sure. But I wish more company’s made a color like the big bites baits 1099. I love that mix green pump /black blue 

Mike Iaconelli taught me this secret and I'm gonna share it with you. Take your speed worm and in the crook of the inside of the cut in the tail use a metal straw and cut a round circle out of the tail. It will make that thing flop like a crappie that just got tossed in a cooler full of ice.

23 minutes ago, IYAOYAS said:

Mike Iaconelli taught me this secret and I'm gonna share it with you. Take your speed worm and in the crook of the inside of the cut in the tail use a metal straw and cut a round circle out of the tail. It will make that thing flop like a crappie that just got tossed in a cooler full of ice.

I’ll have to give that a try!!! I hit just the thing in the tool box to do that. 

19 hours ago, Joedodge said:

Not sure. But I wish more company’s made a color like the big bites baits 1099. I love that mix green pump /black blue 

 

Buy green pumpkin speed worms and a black marker 👍🏼

I give up.  This thread has had the Monkey jumping up and down screaming for over a week now.  I have limited my worm selection to Zoom Magnum Trick worms, Zoom Ole Monsters, and Senkos for a long time.  If a person searched, they could probably quote me in a post, where I claimed if a bass didn't hit one of these worms they didn't want worms.

 

I am tired of fighting a loosing battle.  I am going to have to give the Zoom UV Speed worm a try.  When it comes to the Monkey, I have to pick my battles.  Buying couple packs of speed worms is better than buying some expensive swimbaits he is always crying about. 

Atta Boy!!

 

If you have light to moderate submerged grass of any kind in 3-6 fow rig it with an unpegged 3/16. 
 

If you see any open areas, holes or isolated clumps of anything, slow down just a little approaching it and drop your rod with a tighter grip. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

1 hour ago, Pat Brown said:

 

Buy green pumpkin speed worms and a black marker 👍🏼

Way to legitimize my complaint!!!!! lol!!! That’s actually pretty good idea @Pat Brown

47 minutes ago, Mike L said:

Atta Boy!!

 

If you have light to moderate submerged grass of any kind in 3-6 fow rig it with an unpegged 3/16. 
 

If you see any open areas, holes or isolated clumps of anything, slow down just a little approaching it and drop your rod with a tighter grip. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

That’s the plan. I have a local spot to me that has very similar to that grass structure! 

1 hour ago, Mike L said:

Atta Boy!!

 

If you have light to moderate submerged grass of any kind in 3-6 fow rig it with an unpegged 3/16. 
 

If you see any open areas, holes or isolated clumps of anything, slow down just a little approaching it and drop your rod with a tighter grip. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

It really is a deadly bait. I need to try some of the magnum size though. And the 3/16 unpegged is perfect weight I think. It did better than a 1/8th.  

I will only say that pegged 3/8 oz works better *for me* fishing in heavy cover and clear water personally.  Dunno why.  I been experimenting a lot and I just get more bites when it's all one unit for some reason.  Seems like I always do better with faster ROF with any bait also.

9 minutes ago, Joedodge said:

It really is a deadly bait. I need to try some of the magnum size though. And the 3/16 unpegged is perfect weight I think. It did better than a 1/8th.  

It is…

Personally I only use the Magnum and 90% of time with a 3/16. 
The 1/8 is more suited for the standard size which I rarely use. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

1 minute ago, Pat Brown said:

I will only say that pegged 3/8 oz works better *for me* fishing in heavy cover and clear water personally.  Dunno why.  I been experimenting a lot and I just get more bites when it's all one unit for some reason.  Seems like I always do better with faster ROF with any bait also.

The grass at one of the insane fish has come in real thick and the scum has subsided. I was literally thinking a 3/8 would be great. I tried a 3/16 with a uv worm and a baby d bomb. It just wasn’t a fast enough fall. But I didn’t wana re rig this morning. 

Yeah I can keep everything clean and work the cover and feel the bites much more efficiently with 3/8-1/2 oz pegged tungsten out front but that's magnums - the regular I feel like 5/16 would be fine for a pegged heavier weight.

 

3 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Yeah I can keep everything clean and work the cover and feel the bites much more efficiently with 3/8-1/2 oz pegged tungsten out front but that's magnums - the regular I feel like 5/16 would be fine for a pegged heavier weight.

 

5 minutes ago, Joedodge said:

The grass at one of the insane fish has come in real thick and the scum has subsided. I was literally thinking a 3/8 would be great. I tried a 3/16 with a uv worm and a baby d bomb. It just wasn’t a fast enough fall. But I didn’t wana re rig this morning. 

Like in all things, experience and confidence will dictate where and how to throw it in your particular waters. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

On 5/15/2025 at 9:20 AM, Mike L said:

 

I don’t even own 2/0 hooks and wouldn’t even consider using one or a 3/0 for that matter for a Speed Worm. 
 

I respectfully disagree about having poor or missed hookups with 4/0 or bigger  ewg. 
Thats all I use and have a pretty good track record. 
 

How you guys get a solid set and not lose a fish during a strong retrieve through any type of grass where the Speed Worm shines, using such a tiny hook is beyond me. 
 

To each his own. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

 

 

Agreed. I’m fishing thick islands of lily pads & grass. I want a stout hook that’s not gonna bend or straighten, so I use the Gamakatsu superline hooks. 

17 minutes ago, wdp said:

Agreed. I’m fishing thick islands of lily pads & grass. I want a stout hook that’s not gonna bend or straighten, so I use the Gamakatsu superline hooks. 

Good choice

I’ve always used those until I changed to the Trokar line almost exclusively 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike