Well, as I posted last night in the PWV thread, I landed a finclipped winter steelie yesterday with a rubber worm. First cast in this hole and my first time ever to try the worm! BUT, what I was wondering was which brand you experts think is best. As well as which color, next to pink, is best.

The color I landed my fish on was 'Bubblegum' (essentially pink) and it was a 'PowerBait Tournament Strength 4" crawler' which I had cut the top inch off of. After I broke the pink worm off a few minutes later after landing the fish, I looked in my gear for the package of worms I thought I'd brought with me, but couldn't find it. Thinking I may had lost that package and that this worm thing may become very popular in the future, I went to the store later and looked for these pink PowerBait worms. Nobody had them! But, I did discover some other similar looking worms and bought them. One package has 10 'tango' colored, 5", brine series worms and is made by 'Western Plastics'. The package says these worms are 'hand poured'. The other two packages are made by 'Griffith Rubber Mills'. They are called 'Seducers'. One package has 10 ' Lil Thumper/BC Orange' colored 3" worms with tails that look like a miniature beaver's tail. The other package has 10 'Shot Worms/Steelhead Pink' colored 4 1/2" worms. Both of these packages look as those there is salt in them. Also, both packages have a picture of a bird and below it the words 'Big Poly'. If any of you have heard good things or bad things about these worms or have used/currently are using them and like them/caught fish on them please tell me about it! I'd sure appreciate any feedback anybody give me!

Think I'm going to go fishing this afternoon ( already opened presents and ate Christmas breakfast ) and try some more pink worms now that I have a bunch! Will post again tonight if I hook another fish on them.

Also, one more question for you experts. Do you use some sort of a stopper above the pink worm and birdie while driftfishing the setup? I noticed that when I would cast the worm would sink first and the birdie/beads would slid up the line producing a non-floating worm. Maybe jam a tooth pick in a bead above the birdie an inch or so? Might this work? I think I am going to prefer to driftfish worms over floatfishing them. Just my preference so any input would be great about how to keep the worm afloat out there.

BTW, the river I was fishing in wasn't crystal clear. Maybe about two feet of visibility.

Thanks and a Happy Holidays to ya'll!

The Berkley worms are perhaps the most bouyant of the store-bought worms and driftfish well with or without a bobber above them. I certainly wouldn't toothpick a birdy as it's gonna wind your leader in no time at all. You can fish a corkie above it and should haven't to toothpick it. Remember that your best drift presentation is down and across and once you're into that position (you should be casting straight across and increasing lead / freespooling to achieve the correct drift) the water's push will keep your bobber down with the worm.

Personally, I had a compnay back east pour me a monster load of worms a few years back for drifting and have good luck with them. They are a little more durable than the Berkley's with more of a bubblegum shade than the cerise color the Berkley's have. They are also far more bouyant than anything I have found locally.

I've played around with other colors and HAVE NOT had as much success myself, but I know other fellas that do use colors such as the merthiloate and do very well with them.

Keep at it and you'll become a worm addict like myself!

Hi Chromebright: You might want to give this approach to floating Pink worms a try.
I rig mine by feeding a needle down the worm body from the head and pulling the leader down to an exit point about 1 1/2" from the tail. At the exit point I place a strip of closed cell foam plastic about 1/2"wide around the worm ( the type of foam that they pack electronics in) I colour the plastic pink with a felt pen. The leader goes through both ends of the foam to hold it around the worm.
I then slide a gold or silver bead onto the leader and tie on my hook size 4 steelhead.
When the leader is pulled tight the bead prevents the hook eye from being pulled up into the worm body. The foam band is sufficiuent to just keep the worm floating.
Lots of luck with worms
Coot

sounds like you have got quite the stash, but I have seen Berkleys at freddy's in b-ground. Also Fisherman's has Berkley 4 inchers.
I have fished them and personally dont see what the big deal is. I havn't really fished them with a float. maybe that's the trick.

I am also curious what are some of the brands that people are finding success with.

KB quote: "The color I landed my fish on was 'Bubblegum' (essentially pink) and it was a 'PowerBait Tournament Strength 4" crawler' which I had cut the top inch off of." ... That's what I use most often KB. And primarily on jighooks. That's because the weight of the jig takes all the slack out of your leader/line below the float so you detect bites immediately, even the light bites. With a long leader below your weight, you will have varying degrees of slack at times in the upstream drift and on the seams, where fish often hold and bite; but not as much slack during the downstream drift and swing that Bob refered to. I also drift fish jighead worms and feathered jigs by themselves on the end of my line, and this also has less slack for quick bite detection. However, using the weight and leader method to drift fish them presents the worms in a little more natural looking way in less than the fastest water at the upper end of drifts. The Berkleys are good for that too - but handpoured worms such as Vision pink worms have a little more flexibility, thus a little more action while drifting them in moderate currents.

Hey Bob, the day last spring I came across you and Corey by the Hoh R., I later went into Forks and found a rack of Berkley 4" pink worms and took all 17 packages they had. I'm glad you had a good supply of those other ones.

As for color it's obvious that pink rules. Second to that I prefer the black with the small chartreuse colored tip on the end. Bob mentioned the methiolate color, which is a good one too. And I recently found a version of methiolate colored worms from Zoom brand that are a very bright cross between cerise and the red egg like methiolate of other brands, that I think is going to be more effective in colored water than the others. The first time I put one out in water with barely a couple feet of visability I caught a fish with it, a couple weeks ago.

Don't forget that real worms (the healthy nightcrawlers) not only work great for summer steelhead, they also work well at times for winters. You can rig them any of the ways suggested above for the rubber worms. I like to use a pink corky or pink yarn with them. Summer steelies and big trout love it!

RT

Thanks for all the info guys!

Bob, I wasn't talking about pinning the birdie in place, but rather a bead above the birdie.

Coot, like your method of threading the leader through the worm with a needle. I'll have to try that. I've been pushing it up over the hook point and up the shank onto the line. Really puts a big hole in the worm and I can't put a bead below it to prevent the worm from slipping down the hook. Now I can! Thanks!

Steelheadaddict01, I was at Freddy's a few days ago and at G.I. Joes/Fisherman's Marine and couldn't find any. I think they're getting awful popular! I would try them if I were you-if your gonna be fishing out here that is. Maybe them big Montana trout don't like the worm?

RT, I guess I'll have to try them with a float/jighead, I just like bouncing them on the bottom with a slinky better though...for right now. I did see those black/red worms-should of got a pack of them too Darnit, they're probably all gone by now. Oh well. BTW, I don't think the Berkleys are hand poured are they? The other ones I got said they were hand poured on the package and seemed more fragile. They even started tearing when they would slide down the hook shank. These hand poured ones were also square shaped on one side and fattened out from top to bottom like a tapered fly leader. BTW, did you really buy 17 pink worm packs at one time? Now that's overly obsessive!

Also, what color again is merthiolate or merthiloate or however you spell it?

Thanks again guys!

I know a bit about plastics, (I was a hard-core bass guy for a long time).

The main difference between the worms is this.

Injection molded worms will usually hold up better(like the berkley's) but are not as soft or supple as the hand pours. They will often float.

Hand pours are very soft, supposedly to increase the retention times by fish. But they do not hold up very well.

The other things to keep in mind are this. Plastics, like the ones made by "Zoom" or "Yamamoto" are packed with salt. The salt is actually added to the plastic before it is poured. If you bite a zoom worm in half, you will immediatley tase salt and be able to see salt crystals in the worm itself.

Plastics, like the ones made by "Big poly" aka "seducer" (these are both lines of Griffith Rubber) do not have salt added to the plastic. They are just rolled in salt before packaging. Try the bite test with a seducer worm and you'll see. I don't know about steelhead, but bass seem to hold onto a salt-poured worm twice as long as one w/o salt. Power worms also seem to get better bite retention than non-salted had pours.

Now I just need to start using these things on steelies. What rod should I use, my flipping stick? or do you think my drift rod would be ok

Aaron

Krome,
I just found some worms.
www.fishusa.com has the 4" steelie power worms. I just ordered two packs.

Go to the steelehead section on the main page, then select power worms.

Probably paid more than fisherman's, but I wanted to make sure I had some for my trip in January.

Steelh'daddict

Holiday Market has had the PowerBait 4" Power Crawler in Bubblegum in stock most times I have been in there. Just bought some a week ago.

Well, let me tell you, I am overly convinced now! Went fishing today on a semi-zipperlip river with my dad. Between the two of us, we hooked four chrome winter steelies with sea lice between 6 and 10 pounds using rubber worms! I lost one of them, but I got two and my dad got one. My dad also got another fish plunking a spin'n'glow with scent. We both ended up limiting out on steelies-all in all, going 4 for 5! Two hens and two bucks. Two of the fish were hooked on pink power worms. And two were hooked on the salted red/orange seducer worms. And then the one my dad got plunking was on a rainbow 'cheater-glo' is what I actually like to call it. Don't know if such a thing really exists, but I created my own little invention. Took a spin'n'glow without any wings in it that I just found laying around and shoved/superglued in some perfect looking mylar cheater wings that I took from a severely damaged large cheater body. I put the wings in sideways. Dang, I wish I had a digital camara so I could post pics of this neat looking thing and also so I could post fish pics of the four we got. We're strictly bank fisherman and don't like to fish in crowded areas, so limits aren't very common among our types anymore. It's been a few years since my dad limited out on winter steelhead, and I can honestly say I've caught my fair share of steelhead, but have never never limited in one day of fishing. I want to take the time to personally thank all of you who have helped me and others to learn about this effective technique (you know who you are). Thank you all very very much. Today was Awesome!!! I hope to repeat it again soon. Not tomorrow though. Working around the house, smoking fish, etc... We fried some of that fish I caught the other day (on the worm) for breakfast and it was great! Going to do it again tomorrow. And the next day, too!

Jellyhead, thanks for the info. I tried the "suck test" on the seducers. Yep, definitely salt on the outside! I'll take your word for it that there isn't any inside these worms. Seems to me the fish we hooked on both the power worm and the seducer held it for a while cause we let them have it for a couple seconds before setting it to them. And they held it in the meantime! All fish were hooked in the lower jaw except one which was in the nose. Also, I've found that you better use light line in the clearer low water with these worms and the smallest lightest rod you can use. I'm no expert yet, but that's what I would recommend as that's how we hooked our fish. I tried drifting these worms with my 8'6" lamiglas 1000 northwest special and it was too big IMO, if that helps any. Me and my dad both used spinning reels, 8 pound mainline/and either 8 or 6 pound leader (light I know, but...it worked!). My dad's rod was 8' and mine was 7 1/2'. Both were heavy enough to fully be able to control average+ sized steelies, but sensitive enough to feel bottom and a subtle hit. Also, we used light lead like I remember somebody on here suggesting to do. We only tapped bottom about every two feet or so.

Steelheadaddict01, thanks for the site, I'm gonna check it out right now. One thing I wonder though-could it be that just the fish on this one river are crazycrazy about the worms and other river's fish don't get that crazy over them? Like I believe RT said, maybe hatchery workers wore pink rain clothes while feeding fish in the hatchery or there were automatic pink feeders in the concrete ponds? This maybe attracts them, since they remember getting food when they went towards the pink stuff. Who knows. I'm just happy we got fish! Maybe I can experiment in another few rivers soon.

ONTHESAUK, what/where is Holiday Market? I live down here in Battle Ground near Vancouver, WA. I don't think there are any of those near here-are there?

Thanks again from me and my dad, everybody!

Excusde me!!
Vison Worms !!!!!!!
Nuff said
Peace Superfly

Krome Brite - - - Sorry, should have mentioned. Holiday Market is just off I-5 up in Burlington, famous up this direction. And, Congratulations!

Krome,
I was in kalispell Montana today and found some more 4" Berleys. I found the methiolate worms. When I saw there color , it hit me. Methiolate, yeah that's the stuff we had in the medicine cabinet to put on cuts and scrapes. It is a flourescant reddish substance that you brush on as a medicine. Now I know what color it is. I guess the reason I didn't figure that out right away, was that my dad always called it methiolade ( he was a southerner)

I also found some of the black chartruese. Now all I need for my trip is some rain!!! :p

Hey Steel'addict, I remember as a kid scrapping my elbow or knee and my parents putting orangish red liquid stuff on it - similar to what you desribe. But I remember it being called something like micure-crome (don't know the spelling). Same or similar stuff? Might be a good egg additive.

RT , that's the stuff. Dad called it by both names ( macria-chrome, mathiolate ). Yeah, that stuff is pretty flourescant, might be just the trick for eggs! If those steelies have any knocks or scrapes they will be taken care of.

Stlhd'addict

Merthiolate....Mercurochrome. Old enough to remember --- dang!

What size of jig would you normally use for a 4" worm?

yeah I am only twenty five, and I used the stuff all the time. It probably was at least 25 years old at the time I used it!!!


On jig size, I am trying to figure that out also. I guess it depends on clarity, if the worm fits, and you still have enough hook there to do the job. I am still a little confused on what size jig head to use. I just usually by the ones in between.

Carl,

As a general rule of thumb, try using 1/4 oz jigheads for rubber worms during winter steelheading and 1/8 oz. for summer steelies. Or just use the bigger one for moderate flows (add weight to that up the line a couple feet for heavier flows, if necessary) and the smaller size for low flows (also cut the worm down to @ 1/2" to 3" for clear water). ...

I like to use Mark's shinny nickle plated brass jigheads for the pink worm. It weighs slightly less than 1/4 oz., and works real well in braod ranges of atger conditions; from gin clear water up to almost murky water. If needed I add one of those 1/4 oz. barrel line lead weights with the rubber center to hold it up the line about 30" from the worm jig; putting it at 1/2 oz. to get down in stronger and deeper currents. They are easy to quickly put on and take off for good water type flexability.

Edit: BTW, I came up with a new killer worm rig up and presentation. New to me anyway. I have used the 'pink conehead' above threaded pink or black worms, and also very small Spin N Glos instead of the cone. Works real well drifted and swung. What I'm trying now works even better so far. I thread 3 1/2" of rubber worm onto a hook leader; or a double hook rig, which is a bit challenging to do, but gets better rolling action with the slight bend I can put in the worm. I im-bed the lower hook about 3/4" above the tail so that the worm covers it over onto the upper part of the hook bend. This angles the worm tail into a curve that puts a wiggle roll to it; which is killer in clear water as is. But for a little bit to moderate water color I slip a corky and then bead down the leader onto the worm front, and follow those with various colors of size 3 spinner blades (depending on water color) with the use of an 'in leader' plastic spinner clevis. This allows you to use the blades without a spinner wire and not have to be concerned with weakening the leader as a steel clevis can do. I use enough slinky lead to do a combo of drifting then swinging this rig thru holding water. Works great! I haven't tried this on a baitdiver with long leader yet, but I know this should be steelie deadly with good scent added to all that action, blade vibs, and color. I will put up some pics of some of them I made in a couple days or so. You will love this rigup!

RT

[ 12-31-2001: Message edited by: RT ]

RT, where can you pick up those shiny nickle plated jigs? I tie some, and those sound like they would work for me.

Also, is that picture of (BTW) the pink worm, spinner rig talked about in the post still available?