The Old Reliable Ring Worm

As we get into the summer and the bite continues to get tougher and tougher and old time bait comes to mind that I have had great success on when it抯 tough! That being what we called for many years a ring-worm, it is a 4 to 5 inch worm with rings around it and a little tail that moves rapidly thru the water.

The movement of the short tail, coupled with the rings; move a lot of water for the size of the bait, and actually create bubbles along the edge of the worm from the rings. The worm is actually short enough to get a variety of bites; I have seen it catch small and big fish alike; the movement is nearly irresistible for a bass. In fact rigged on a drop shot, working it down to 20 plus feet of water can be deadly in the heat and bright sunny summer days.

A ring worm comes in many colors but for me the color I have had the most success with is a dark blue with a powder blue tail! The trouble is I don抰 know anyone that makes this color anymore; I am still fishing it from some inventory I bought many years ago! There are several colors that have worked for me like watermelon with a chartreuse tail, or red with a pink tail! They are all bright colors that can be seen in clear water, and the summer time is generally the time of year we have a lot of clear water.

Lastly I rig a ring worm several different ways, but I get the best results from rigging it with light weights whether it is set up on a drop shot or just a traditional worm weight. The ring worm has so much movement that you don抰 want to weight it to heavy, the slow drop is just as deadly as any while fishing it; and it seems to catch more fish if you leave it in the strike zone longer by dropping it slowly.