I've been doing homework all morning and was thinking about my trip for a bit. Couldn't stop thinking what makes these fish jump on those 6in pink worms so much. I have heard a few opinions but still curious. What do you guys think is the reason why they hit these so well? It just baffles me, cause we caught a few goofing around in air clear water with the 6incher and managed to hit 2 steelhead with them, couldn't believe it. It is one of the most obscene things I can think of for steelhead but it catches them like crazy.

Downtime: It still baffles me as well. I have yet to hook one on the wiggler but, I have not given them hard time as of yet. I am curious to see what people will say about this one

I think they resemble a night crawler.

Let's see, Light pink, good action, soft, yum, yum

I think its the action they make, depending on the current the worm really flutters, why do fish eat jigs, they just look tasty! I started using them 3 years ago and I am impressed with them, you can fish them in gin clear water to marginal vis and do well!

I fish 'em a ton, and I still don't know why for sure.

From what I uderstand, their use first came around from BC steelheaders on VI fishing a river that often saw pinkish colored nighcrawlers get washed into the river after rains and local anglers started trying them just off hand ... sure enoguh they, worked and their use slowly spread from there.

That might just be river legend, but that's what I've heard.

I do know that tend to be most effective in pocket situations and wild fish witll bite better than hatchery fish.

Your comments as to fish biting them in gin-clear water are the same as I have found. You'd think a fish would run from some a gaudy offering, but that's usually not the case.

Some things about these fish we'll never know.

Anybody out there try any lil thumper or any other pink worm on there spoons, I just got some wobblers (secret someones own make of spoon) I was headed west tomorrow and was just wondering if pink worms work good as a trailer? Any advice will be much helpful and is much appreciated! As for why they bite them, i don't know either, but Baitcaster, they bite jigs(especially marabous) cause it pisses them off and its in there territory! Tight lines Chris

GrandpaFB,

should worn, I have got steel with a spinner and pink worm trailor.

I don't know either but I have as much confidence in them as I do bait!

... I would think that the worm is more of a "Meat and Potatoes" meal, rather than some Mcnugget egg,etc. The worm is something they can grind their teeth on. Now if I can only tie a fly that resembles and is as effective. I tried long strands of pink rabbit to no avail. Oh well, I'll keep trying.

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Fish have small brains.. even smaller than mine if you can believe that. With that in mind i think it best not to try to out think them.
We should be content just knowing that they will strike pink worms and leave it at that.
I fished them for the first time this winter and both the fish i caught on them absolutely nailed them ( drift fished).. I kinda wanna skip the summer and have a replay of this winter:)

But the truth is we do not know why steelhead take them and unless stelhead evolve into creatures that can speak english we never will...

All that said when are we gonna start fishing slug-o's for coho??? everyone knows what a slug-o is right??

Has anybody else noticed that when you fish bait the fish kind of just hold it and milk it, which of course makes it difficult to detect but when they hit a worm they swallow the thing?

biggest difference I notice when the fish hit the worm compared to bait or other things is they kill it. When the float goes down it is like you are looking at it and then before a blink of an eye its just gone, and with bait they do hit hit hard from time to time but the bite seems to be a lot mroe subtle.

Good question...

...but I would expand its scope a bit and ask why steelhead strike many of the things they do strike?

A worm probably looks a lot more like something that actually could be "alive" than many other lures that have been catching fish for decades.

Let's see: big chartreuse/orange spin-n-glos, day-glo plugs of all types, glo balls, etc. the list goes on and on.

You might even ask why steelhead respond to bait, since the majority of the time they aren't going to actually eat it!

I think they hit worms for the same reasons they hit the other stuff...and there remain on-going arguements about that too. Basically, to catch fish a lure need not "represent" anything in particular. It just has to trigger a strike based on some combination of latent feeding instinct, territoriality, aggression, curiousity, or other factors we may not even realize.

And that is what helps make steelhead such a special fish!

It's a bright color, it's moves, and when it drifts by the fish, it pisses them off so they attack it. Hmmm, just like every other salmon or steelhead lure.

How about other colors?

Ive had good luck with pink, some caught on black, a few on white, and nada on green, chart, orange or other colors.

Any other colors work consistently for you?
thx in advance.

Peter the FF:

You can use pink rabbit strips, I do.

When you tie them it's important to "rib" the front end of your strip with thread wraps since the front end of a worm is segmented. Leave just the tail end unribbed and use the lingest hooks you can find.

Peter:

that should read "longest hooks you can find"

-Captain typo

Peter: Try something like this.

What we see as pink most likely looks grayish brown to a fish. Look at it with UV filters from a camera that replicate river water.