I was looking back at the history of bass fishing and noticed anglers were using worms in the 6–8 inch and 8–11 inch range. I’m curious — were they mostly using straight tails, curly tails, or something else back then? And which brands were the most common at the time?

For me, it was curly tail worms like the Berkley Power Worm 7in and the Zoom Ol Monster. They still work today.  

Back when I started bass fishing in the mid 1960's we used straight tail worms made by Creme, Delong, and Fliptail. Another straight tail worm was the Flutter Tail worm made by Champion Tackle which  was especially popular on Toledo Bend in it's early days.

 

The first curly tail worms that I recall were made by Mister Twister in the early 1970's. After these came on the market most companies started making their own version of curly tail worms.

 

 

31 minutes ago, FishTank said:

For me, it was curly tail worms like the Berkley Power Worm 7in and the Zoom Ol Monster. They still work today.  

When do you use the 7 inch over the ol monster

3 minutes ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

When do you use the 7 inch over the ol monster

Never

I still use ol’ school Mann’s Jelly Worms. 

54 minutes ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

When do you use the 7 inch over the ol monster

 

I fish the 7in only once in a blue moon. My fishing buddy uses it all the time but based on his catches, it seems to be a late summer and fall bait. I fish the Zoom Ol Monster when I'm hunting something big and when they want something big and slow on the bottom.  Junebug seems to be the color.

7" and 10" Berkley power worms (pumpkinseed in the 7", green pumpkin in the 10").  5" Lucky Strike ring worm, black with chartreuse tail or purple with the yellow tail. Culprit worm in the shad color was another.

FM

I first fished a worm in Lake Castaic and bought 4" straight worms from a custom pourer in Burbank.

7" Power worm = GP, black, and tequila sunrise.

 

Allen

Interesting discussion.

The oil! OH the oil!!

 

If you know, you know.

7 hours ago, Alex from GA said:

I first fished a worm in Lake Castaic and bought 4" straight worms from a custom pourer in Burbank.

Smitty’s worms or Zanks who poured “neon” worms.

Tom

12 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

I still use ol’ school Mann’s Jelly Worms. 

Mann’s made 2 types of worm's; Jelly worm 6” to 12” and Sting Ray worms and grubs. The Sting Ray had a broad flat tail, the Jelly Worm a spear tail.

12 hours ago, river-rat said:

Back when I started bass fishing in the mid 1960's we used straight tail worms made by Creme, Delong, and Fliptail. Another straight tail worm was the Flutter Tail worm made by Champion Tackle which  was especially popular on Toledo Bend in it's early days.

 

The first curly tail worms that I recall were made by Mister Twister in the early 1970's. After these came on the market most companies started making their own version of curly tail worms.

 

 

US Bait Co. John Pasalich* has the Flutter Craft tooling and will make custom colors.

Tom

*858/395.0198

14 hours ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

I was looking back at the history of bass fishing and noticed anglers were using worms in the 6–8 inch and 8–11 inch range. I’m curious — were they mostly using straight tails, curly tails, or something else back then? And which brands were the most common at the time?

The 60’s worms were straight tail starting with Crème worms who invented the soft plastisol worm in the 50’s. The early worms were 6” long until Steimbredge introduced the Flip Tail 8” worm followed by De Long 10” straight tail Otay Spl.

Curl tail I believe Mr. twister was the 1st retail curl tail in the 7O’s,Bass Assasin  the 1 st ribbon tail in the 70’s as I recall.

We boiled the DeLong worms because they were like tent pegs out of the bag!

The Texas rig with bullet weight was used with Crème worms. Split shot rigged DeLong worms were “stitched” retrieved.

The biggest/longest hand pour worms were Uptom Custom 18” Dragon tail. Don’t know if Josh is still in business?

Tom

3 hours ago, WRB-2.0 said:

 

Mann’s made 2 types of worm's; Jelly worm 6” to 12” and Sting Ray worms and grubs. The Sting Ray had a broad flat tail, the Jelly Worm a spear tail.

 

 

Don't forget about the Mann's Mannipulator triple action tail! I still have bags of them from 40 years ago.

 

7 hours ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

 

Don't forget about the Mann's Mannipulator triple action tail! I still have bags of them from 40 years ago.

 

I still have a bag too.

 

  I caught thousands of bass on 6 inch Manns jelly worms. Both the original and curl tail. Bought them in 100 packs.  I still have a few bags. 

Started with the Crème 6” scoundrel ( original purple) in the 60’s. 6” straight tail. Then mister twister curly tail.

Next progression was to Producto 6” in black grape and on to culprit 7.5” ribbon tail in moccasin, red Shad and junebug. 

My brother and I started out with black Creme Scoundrel worms in the later 1960s. From those, we went to Man's Jelly worms. The first curly tails I used were Mr. Twister. We always used 6" worms.

Some that come to mind:

Creme Scoundrel

Berkley Powerworm

Sluggo

Zoom Ole Monster

Mann's Jelly Worm & Augertail

 

In the 70’s went with Creme worms and Mr. Twister grubs, finesse  was Don Iovino hand poured which I still have a few left used for drop shots.

Today I mostly use Nikko 6” and Culprit 10”, and still Mr. Twister or Kalin’s grubs, Don Iovino for finesse.

Here's one you don't hear about much any more. The culprit sticky worm with a glued in velcro patch.

 

True story... I once caught a small bass on a culprit sticky worm just by reeling in fish using velcro only. No hook in fish! The velcro had a good enough hold on his small teeth that I was able to reel in a small bass on just the velcro!

 

According to the wording on original bag, it says the velcro was to help fish hold onto lure longer so an angler could get a good hookset. In my case, the velcro was all I needed for one small fish.

 

I often wonder if the velcro actually impeded the hooksets? And why was this idea discarded and never repeated if it was such a great idea?

 

The velcro did hold onto fish longer once tangled up in his small teeth. But was it now preventing hook from going deep enough in mouth to set the hook I wonder? I can see where the velcro may help sometimes and hinder at other times.

 

Don't think I have seen this idea since.

 

The Iovino hand pours offered in sizes and colors that were unique like 3” Tiny Weenie, 4” spade tail, 6” Reaper etc. Rhythm & Blues was his signature color.

Tom

 

“Old School in 2006” that is a oxymoron !

Tom

^ Ya, I would have said at least as far back as the 70s when I really got into fishing. Mr Twister Grubs and Phenoms were my mainstay then.

Creme 6" Scoundrels have been one of my mainstays for years.