When you open the plastic container for plastic worms, they are moist, slippery and smelly. One outing and they are not. Just caught a few small bass on brand new worms and I wondered how much it matters if they are fresh. Usually, I will fish them until they are torn up in some way. How about you? Do you think fresh worms are better?

Some of them are advertised as being scented.

I don't know if this makes an enormous difference when using plastics but I prefer to keep them in their original packaging and pull from there as needed.

Most of my shaky worms and Ned baits are several years old as I have walked into places that were closing them out and bought their entire stock. I’ve bought as many as 150 packs at once. I don’t pay attention to their age. I just fish them.

Whenever I open a new pack of Rage Tail baits with the coffee scent, i immediately get hungry. I control myself.

I think the action the bait possessed in water would be the determining factor for me on a worm I wasn’t fully confident in. You can always add scent if you need to. I’ve certainly caught fish on plastics years after acquiring them.

Put almost any bait in the face of an aggressive, feeding bass and it's more likely than not that they'll bite it. It's hard to know what'll trigger an inactive bass or what might turn it off even more. I bet largemouth really don't care either way.

I've used baits that are probably over 10 years old with no issues.

Somewhere in my hoard is a pack of purple jelly worms that have to be 50 years old, might have to unearth them and give em a try, also have some I think they were Rebel ring worms and Charlie Brewer slider worms.

I do keep them in the original packages except for dingers, cause I get them in 100 packs so they go in a zip lock for space sake on my kayak.

Greetings SJS, and others,

I am just a recreational angler sharing observations on the topic. Occasionally, I will purchase a new package of soft baits. Based on those limited experiences, I don't have anything to confirm that 'freshness' makes a significant difference in my catching.

I can confirm, the fresh baits are generally softer, thus may have more action based on that suppleness.

I will share that when I'm shore fishing, I'm often cleaning up after folks. I fail to understand why people leave stuff all over when there is a park trash bin just a few meters away.

Anyhow, over the years of cleaning things up. I've harvested usable bits of soft plastics. I do ultra-lite angling. Which works out to make use of the broken portions of soft plastics. Over years, I have collected and used those bits to the point where I've really not been compelled to buy new stuff.

The bits and pieces work really well. Well enough that even being exposed to the AZ UV and heat, those bits catch a lot of fish.

As an example, stick worms. In the past I would purchase the 3 inch versions of those popular brand(s) of stick worms. I use the smaller size 4 EWG hooks so that works with just a couple inches of soft plastics. Frequently folks use the 5 or 6 inch stick worms. Through use the bottom half breaks off. I find it and use it with the smaller hooks with plenty of multi-species success.

Given my observations, I believe as PhishLI where it is more important to put it in front of the fish. They can decide. Most of the time there is very little hesitation which is why accurate casting is helpful.

Be well, Cheers!

It’s,,,,,,plastic,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,thats why there is recycling

They last forever in a sealed package

"They last forever in a sealed package"

Yeah, that kind of got lost in my original question. I am not asking how long they last in the sealed package. But, once you take it out of that package and use it, do you continue to use it outing after outing when that particular worm has been out of the sealed package and sitting in the tackle box? Of course, it is plastic and will last forever, but the question is, will it catch fewer fish than if you use a new worm, fresh from the sealed package, each trip?

I run soft plastics until they won't stay on a hook. Old stuff catches just as good as new.

1 hour ago, SJS said:

But, once you take it out of that package and use it, do you continue to use it outing after outing when that particular worm has been out of the sealed package and sitting in the tackle box?

Once I found Mend-it I use the same bait over and over again. I hardly ever dig out new ones from the package anymore.

Also, the lakes where I wade at most often have a beaten path ringing them outside of the tree line. I often fish at night, so I need to keep my headlamp on while walking from one break in the tree line to another. The beaten path has crisscrossing raised roots everywhere, so to avoid faceplanting, I look down when walking. I pick up tons of discarded plastics, chuck 'em in my bag, then fix them during the winter or whenever I have nothing better to do. Even though totally repaired, they're well-worn. I've ended up catching tons of fish using these "trail baits", so my opinion is cemented in thinking that new or old doesn't mean shiznit.

I too fish a plastic bait until it falls apart or the bass steal it, whichever comes first. Mend It and a lighter help prolong the life of a plastic. As for opened packs of plastics, I've got packs that were opened 5 years ago and still work as though they were new.

As long as they are in the original container, they should be good to go. Some of my plastics are over 10 years old.

20 hours ago, SJS said:

………but the question is, will it catch fewer fish than if you use a new worm, fresh from the sealed package, each trip?

No