(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
JT Kenney originally hails from Maryland and now calls Florida home, and he’s made a career on the water out of picking apart massive grass beds in minimal time. A big tool in that regard has been his long-term use of a “swimming worm,” a soft plastic with a slit paddle tail at the end.
“Not only does it catch fish really, really well, but it’s a great – I mean absolutely great – search technique,” he said. That’s because unlike traditional vertical flipping and pitching presentations, most of the time he’s retrieving it horizontally. It may look like a traditional Texas Rig, but the flapping tail makes it function more like a spinnerbait or swim jig. “It really looks like the tail of a minnow, just swimming through the water like that.”
It’s also more snag-resistant that just about anything else.
“You can reel this through just about anything and it will not get hung up, other than in a bass’s mouth,” he joked.
While the swimming worm technique can be nuanced at times, you can start off just by throwing it out and retrieving it. “When it hits the water, start reeling,” Kenney said, and you’re doing it right. That’ll often pick off the aggressive feeders and the pure reaction bites. When those easy pickings slow down, you can slow your worm down, too. “It’s almost like changing baits,” he added. The third way to fish it is to put your rod tip up and reel it across the surface like a buzz frog or buzz toad.
The key to making it swim properly is to rig the worm ultra-straight and with the open end of the tail facing down (when the hook is facing down). Kenney prefers a 5/0 Trokar TK150. He pegs his tungsten sinker with a bobber stopper, and will occasionally go as heavy as 1/4-ounce. That’s in heavy wind, or when he’s fishing in water 10 feet deep with grass coming up 3 or 4 feet off the bottom. He’ll often go lighter, and 3/16- and 1/8 ounce are probably his most common choices.
He fishes this rig on a 7’5” Halo KS2 Elite heavy-action rod, paired with an Ardent Apex Grand baitcasting reel featuring a 7.3:1 gear ratio. He’s tried going to an 8:1, but noted that “I tend to overwind it.” He’s also gone slower, but when he wants to buzz the worm on the surface his hand gets tired out too quickly. Most of the time he relies on several different options of 50-pound test braided line, although in sparse cover and really clear water he might drop down to 17- or 20-pound fluorocarbon.
One of his favorite presentations is to reel the worm up to a clump of grass, pop it out, let it flutter down and then reel it up to the next clump, but the beauty of this setup is its versatility: “You can do all three in the same retrieve.”
If you want more information about how Kenney makes one worm do triple duty, including some more of his rigging secrets, check out his full video filmed on the water, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
