Hey Fellas i see a lot of experienced fisherman talking about putting a nail into a plastic worm Can someone explain that in detail? When do you use such a rig?

it just adds a little bit of weight and sometimes you can balance the bait on the fall.

Thanks Cabela 10 What kind of nail. where do you put it and what kind of rig?

Muddy I use a nail in two techniques, in both the nail is inserted horizontally into the tail of a Zoom Trick or Finesse worm. The type of nail I use is 1 paneling nails that you can buy your local lumber yard. The length of the nail varies with the desired weight needed of each technique.

Wacky Rig: With this technique a straight tailed worm is hooked through the egg sack causing the worm to fall in an eradiate fashion. A nail to the tail adds weight allowing easier casting in windy situations and changes the fall to a slightly faster one.

Texas Rig: Rig a straight tail worm in the normal Texas Rig fashion but with no bullet weight in front of the hook. Insert a nail into the tail to obtain the desired weight needed for casting, this will allow the worm to fall horizontal like a senko would.

How often does the nail come out of the worm?

Paneling nails have little ridges on them which hold them in place  8-)

Never had a nail come out a worm ever

use a 1-2" finishing nail.

I use much larger (3"-3.5") framing nails, due to the girth.  I also have an old pair of nippers in the boat to cut them to whatever length I need.  I use nails in flukes for deeper water presentation and also in worms or lizards for t-rigs when a weight seems to turn of the bite.

They actually sell a lead (saw them at academy by worm weights and hooks) "nail" which is about the size of a finishing nail... it also has ridges for stability and to make it easier to break at the needed length.

Thank You Much, I'm gonna definitly try this now

How often does the nail come out of the worm?

Normally I hang up and loose the bait long before I have a chance to experience "nail protrusion".  

Another thing the nail does, that I have not seen mentioned is after the initial fall, you can lift the worm off the bottom, and then let it fall on slack line and it will fall backwards (away from you) similar to a fat ika.  This just gives the bait a different action.

The use of a nail allows for finese fishing of certain baits.    As Hawgin mentioned, placing the nail into certain baits makes them fall different.

I use the lead nails as flechero mentioned, you can bend and brake a nail easy with your hands, and use the amount of weight you see fit.

I recommend the use of a pool or clear water area to experment with the placement of weights and fall rates.

Learning which rigs will give you backwards motion on the fall helps get baits under docks and structures easier.

Matt

Muddy man,

Check out this video (scroll to bottom and click on the shaky head video).  One of the pros uses a finishing nail to rig up a "digger" worm.

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/news/story?page=b_fea_BMM_webContent_launch_Dec06

After I watched this I gave it a shot late last fall.  I used a nail in a senko and liked the movement a lot.  I am looking forward to using this technique a lot next year.

Thank You much fellas. Now I gotta find a place to keep my nails BAD %#^$^MONKEY

Can someone explain the nail in the plastic worm

It gives you something to bite when you get nervous  

Reasons for using paneling nail is they are painted (less likely to rust), cheap (couple bucks for 50), can be found every where, come in storage boxes.

Hawgin has it correct.

The nail can cause the bait to fall backwards, towards the fish.

It can drive a bass nuts and he will hit it as it falls towards him.

This is another presentation that the pros use but don't tell us about.

And one more tip...use a bait with a FLAT bottom, like a French Fry, and insert the small finishing nail into it's rear end and fish it just as you would fish a plastic worm.  The flat surface makes the bait swim better backwards.