Hey, I was wondering when is the right time to use a bulletweight with a weedless rigged worm? Here in NJ the areas I fish are only about 1-3 feet deep. (I fish the shoreline). Anyways I have never caught any bass with a bulletweight rigged bait. I have only tryed the bulletweight about 3 times. But never to any success. I usually just weedless rig the worm without any weight and I catch bass like that. I don't know but when I bulletweight the worm, it sinks real quick and to me it looks like a bass would like something that sinks a bit slower. I don't know maybe its just me, help me out and give me some tips on the right time to bulletweight baits. I have seen many people bulletweight their bats and catch fish, so Im wondering what im doing wrong.

You use a bullet weight when you want to penetrate cover or if you need it to be able to feel your bait in deeper depths or if you want to have contact with the bottom. In the lakes that you are fishing with all those weeds and such you are better off with a weightless worm or a heavy salted lure or splitshot rig.

A T-rigged worm is my confidence bait.  I will throw that when nothing else works....  shallow water seems to me the perfect place for it as well.  I caught all my fish this spring on a Texas Rig.  It was a great learning tool for me, in that I actually got to see fish hitting it in clear water when I was fishing off of a fishing pier.  

I was casting away from shore or parallel to shore, and caught fish both ways,, the key IMO is to work it slow.  As soon as I slowed down I caught fish.  I used trick worms, U-tails, finesse worms, they all caught fish.  

I do not know if it was just dumb luck, or if it was the way I was fishing.  Some of the more experienced guys will probably be able to explain it better, I am sure.

Both weighted and unweighted worms will catch Bass.  From the shore, I'd surely be throwing a weighted(max-1/4 oz) worm so I could cover more water and more deeper water.  

Many times, a Bass will strike a weighted worm on the fall because it is falling 'fast'.  It's called a reaction strike and is triggered by bait movement.  And then when Bass are 'moody' , a slow falling, unweighted worm may be what they want.

Overall, I'd throw way more weighted worms.

Dan

Here is what I do:

I start with heavier T-rig .If i dont get bites I decrease the weight and If I still dont get bites then I switch to weigtless T-rig

Experiment every time 2 find what they prefer.

Vyron, I go in the exact opposite direction -- starting out weightless and then adding weight (up to 1/4 oz max) depending mostly on the wind and the water depth.

I make a distinction between worms. Senko/Tiki stick/heavy salted type worms get fished weightless and conventional Culprit/Zoom trick/Jelly worms are fished with bullet weights. There are exceptions when conditions dictate it, but that's how I fish them. JMHO

Ronnie

 

 

I do this cause I can cover water faster

Use them when you are on deep drop offs or when you need to puch throug heave vover at all depths.

I like to texas rig them so I can get the worm or soft plastic to the bottom and still be able to feel the

samll quit bites.

To answer you question one must consider that you're fishing water that is only 1-3' deep. I grew up fishing the marshes of Southwest Louisiana were the average depth is only 2' deep and is covered with various types of vegetation.

There are 2 tactics that produce consistently one is a Johnson Spoon and the other is a Texas Rigged worm. When rigging worms we would use at the most a 1/8 oz bullet weight and the smallest a 1/64 oz bullet weight. Bass in water this shallow tend to spook easily so long casts are required and the additional weight would give us another 25+ feet per cast.