Has anyone ever tried to twitch a pink worm with a bullet lead or heavy jigs like bass fisherman?

I am just curious for a new method.

I haven't tried it, but people do it and catch fish. I think I'll put it on the list of things to do.

Did it for Humpies and it worked but that isn't saying much

Yes...I fish them like bass worms in heavy cover...been working on it for a few years up on the Sauk for fishing the massive log jams, especially during low water when the rest of the river is only two feet deep. I tried it on quite a few other streams last spring with the really low water, too.

Short leader (less than 24", which is really short for PW's), really heavy slinky weight...

Does it work?

I'll let the few guys here who have seen me do it chime in, if they wish, but I'll tell you this...you better keep two hands on the rod if you are going to fish them this way...

...and if you suffer from a heart condition that might make you keel over in the drift boat if large native fish start jumping around in the middle of log jams with your pink worm attached to them, you might want to consider NOT fishing them this way.

...and if you're one of those guys who breaks his rod over his knee when he loses trophy size steelhead, especially ones that have been jumping around inside of log jams while you are fighting them, you should use your cheapest rod for doing this, and watch out for fiberglass splinters in your knee.

Fish on...

Todd

Thanks Todd, now I've got a reason to haul out (or should i say "break" out) the old yaller Eagle Claws. And thanks for the word to the wise. I'll be sure top wear my yellow bib Helly Hansen's so the splinters stickin' out my knee won't be so obvious.

Good moves, Mooch!

As I was getting at above, when the rivers are especially low and clear like they were last spring, this technique was working well for me...but when you hook big native fish back in the middle of log jams, let's just say your "hook to land" ratio is not as good as if you were hooking them on plugs in open water!

"Better to have hooked and lost, than to have never hooked at all!"

Fish on...

Todd

Todd,
Are you going "weedless" with a bass type worm hook?

WB,

I've tried it, and it doesn't seem to help with hangups, at least in the jungles I'm casting it into...but I haven't experimented with it too much.

Fish on...

Todd

I use the worm slid on 1/4 to 3/8 ounce plain jigs and do well for twitching for salmon - especially silvers. I've had a little luck with steelhead, but not as much as with silvers and pinks. You need to slow it down with with winter runs, chums, and kings and keep it in the strike zone longer. The silvers will chase them down from 50 feet away...

Hey Todd,
So you are setting it up drifting then?
I am wondering about putting a pink worm on a heavy jig like you do with bottom fish and twitch away down a rift.

While I caught my first steelhead on a jig in the early 1970s it wasn't until the early 1990s that I tried "twitching a jig". At the time I was doing quite a bit of bull trout work that required catch a fair number of fish. The by-catch of summer steelhead was a problem and in an effort to reduce that by catch I tried a 1/4 oz bucktail jig with a plastic worm trailer. I would cast it out and hop/twitch it along the stream bottom (ala bottom/bass fishing). As pointed out by Dave in the other PW thread the bull trout liked the presentation however the experiment to reduce the "steelhead by-catch" failed as the incidental encounters with steelhead increased.

Tight lines
Curt