Wacky worms may be the most popular types of worms to fish weightless. The wacky style rig has swept the country and bass anglers can’t get enough of this technique. You can use some different rigs when fishing wacky worms, but these worms were made to be fished weightless or with a light weight jighead.
Popular Techniques
Let It Free Fall
Fish them with a twitch and pause retrieve and you are going to get a lot of bites as the worm falls through the water column. If you cast the bait into a good spot, you can literally just let it fall and do nothing and you will get bites. It is one of the easiest baits to catch smallmouth bass when these fish are in the shallows.
Go Light Weight
Adding a little bit of weight to this bait will let you fish a little deeper and cover more water quicker while trying to fish down deeper. Some good ways to rig it for adding a little bit of weight are weedless finesse jigs or a split shot rig. The weedless finesse jig is tough to beat, but a split shot rig can be effective too.
Jerkbait Retrieve
Some anglers will use a jerkbait retrieve for wacky worms and this technique can work as well. It may not be as effective as a free falling wacky worm, however, it has its time and place. When the bass are a little more aggressive, a jerkbait retrieve while fished on a Texas rig can draw a lot of bites.
Skipping Wacky Worms
The skipping technique is an awesome way to get under overhanging trees, around wood and under docks, boat lifts and pontoon boats.
Go Vertical
Most anglers will not fish wacky worms vertically, but they should consider doing it when targeting smallmouth bass in deeper water. Big smallmouth bass will readily grab a 4 or 5 inch wacky worm fished around the bottom or higher up in the water column from summer through fall. Catching bass 20 to 30 feet down with a wacky worm may not be as fun as it is to catch them in the shallows in the springtime, but it can be super productive.
How To Rig Wacky Worms
O-Ring (Wacky Style)
Using an O-ring is the easiest way to increase your ratio of fish caught per worm. One of the negatives of using wacky worms is that the bait comes off the hook very easy when you rig it wacky style. You can easily land 4 to 5 bass or even more per worm by adding an O-ring. Without an O-ring, it’s possible to lose a worm per bass, which can get costly.
