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How to Fish Worm Imitators in the Salt

Marine worms are a staple forage for many saltwater gamefish. Find the bite with soft plastics and other artificial.

How to Fish Worm Imitators in the Salt
Straight tail and curly-tail plastic worms should be fished weedless for grass flats, and can be weighted for casting distance. (Photo by Mike Conner)

In the mid to late ‘80s I fished the Hookworm, an amber-colored, translucent, curly-tailed worm made by the Burke company. It had “spines,” which added to its appeal. It is no longer produced.

That tells me that far too few anglers knew about it, and certainly did not fish it. I found it deadly for redfish on the mud flats of Florida Bay, and I was quite pleased to discover that bonefish ate them with gusto in Biscayne Bay as well. I even nailed a few Florida backcountry grand slams with it—baby tarpon, redfish, snook and seatrout—in one day. Did the fish take it for a marine worm, or a shrimp? They never told me. They just took it!

Before that time, I recall tipping jigs with standard plastic worms both offshore with my bluewater buddies, and when fishing salty creeks, but the purpose was not so much to mimic any specific marine worm as it was simply to make the lure look bigger and longer. Most of those somewhat basic, stiff worms came in white or yellow, and were available in coastal tackle shops. It was popular for snapper and grouper on the reefs, and big snook in deep water.

Green-colored soft plastic fishing lures.
Flats jigs tipped with straight and curly-tail plastic worms. (Photo by Mike Conner)

The Johnson weedless spoon (officially the Silver Minnow whether silver, gold or black) is still made, and was (and for some anglers still might be) the go-to lure for reds and snook over the grassy, shallow flats of Florida Bay and other Florida shallow estuaries. I found that by adding a 3-inch tail segment of a standard bass plastic worm, or an entire 5-inch worm, the hard lure tended to land quieter, when you were forced to pitch it close to a fish close to the boat.

When curly-tail plastic worms hit the bass market, I started using those in the same manner, rigged Texas-style with a Tru-Turn or similar hook, either weightless or with a split-shot or two. Some anglers prefer sliding bullet sinkers. The tail of such worms twist like an auger when retrieved, or when it free falls to bottom. I often used the Culprit brand, a 7-inch curly-tailed worm. They are still popular in bass-fishing circles, in numerous colors. I cut off the first three inches of the bait. This worm has a 3-inch slender taper at the tail end, which twists freely. The thing looks alive! I’m figuring that saltwater gamefish take it for an eel, if not a burrowing marine worm of another type.

A Major Food Group

Worms are filter feeders using tentacles to capture micro food particles. Others are deposit feeders that feed on microorganisms in mud and sand, or seaweeds. Types include segmented, bristled and flat worms, which can actually swim. One of the most mysterious segmented worm in Florida is the palolo worm, a segmented worm that can grow up to 16 inches in length. Each segment had paddle-like appendages with gills. Sounds like a sea monster, right? They swarm in great numbers in May in the Florida Keys, (see below). Most of the worms that turn the tarpon on are only a few inches long.

Flies for saltwater fishing.
From top, rabbit strip (zonker) flies are impressionistic worm imitations; a hackle tail bristle worm fly; the deadly tarpon Palolo Worm. (Photo by Mike Conner)

The Great Hatch

Without exaggeration there are hundreds of fly patterns designed to mimic marine worms. Striper anglers swear by sand eel patterns, bonefishers can choose from many worm flies (which normally incorporate a tail of chenille tied in) and it is no secret that tarpon fly fishers who are fortunate enough to time things right for the springtime (May is the peak), palolo worm (polola viridis) “swarm” flock to the middle and lower Keys to soak one of many fly versions of this segmented marine worm. The worm swims surprisingly fast at times, probably sensing the tarpon in pursuit. The best retrieve to move the flies in long, even strips, and some fly fishers employ the 2-hand strip.

Keys fly fishers call it “worming” now, and some anglers fish the worm flies year-round even when the “hatch” does not exist. This hatch does not occur on the grassflats. It happens at the bridges and basins where the bottom has some coral outcroppings normally. It is said that tarpon gather for this phenomenon and get “drunk” on the worms.

Curly tailed worm lures next to a ruler.
Photo by Mike Conner

Action-Packed Worms for Fishing in the Salt




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