WORMS

It’s far to easy to dismiss worms and make loads of excuses why they are not worth using and this is in my opinion a huge mistake.

In the right circumstances a worm is easily the best bait in the world. Carp are crazy about them and usually don’t hesitate to wolf them down once they locate them.

Many carp anglers are beat before they have started with worms as I have to admit they are a pain to use and are messy.

They are also prone to being nuisanced by other fish as they are attractive to everything that swims.

About 15 years ago my good mate Jonny Banister brought it home to me when he turned up on Hardwick Smiths with just two rods and a tub full of lobworms. The lake was in the doldrums and nothing had been out for days. It was high pressure, warm, no wind, and everyone was Spombing the place to death. Jon had no reservations and said the worm would smash it. All he did was string a single lobworm on a longish hair and fluoro carbon hook link, and a small mesh bag of 3 ml pallets to stop tangles. He then proceeded to catch carp constantly whilst all others on the lake blanked me included. I didn’t need a written invitation I had soon ponced some worms of Jon and it was instant like throwing a switch.

Of course, like many I had used worms before on the float for stalking carp but using them on conventional heavy leads on the bottom on carp rigs was not on my radar until that moment.

It very soon became my secret edge where I took it to a different level.

I adapted rigs and tactics to make presenting worms more efficient, using chopped worm, worm casts and soil to bait up with. I also used up to 5 whole worms on a single rig in chopped sections which I named my Kebab worm rig, it looks mad but my god they get the lot in and we have had tench over 10lbs on this set up.

My eldest sons UK PB mirror came on a worm rig I persuaded him to try, it was quite amusing as he put worm on one rod and had boilies on the other two. After a few hours of inactivity he came over and said “dad I’m taking the worm off and changing it to a boilie!” I said “why the boilie rods have done bugger all” as I said it the worm rod folded round as the alarm burst into life. The culprit was the big linear in Swan at Bluebell that I had always wanted to catch and it was magnificent.

On waters where I have had cannibalistic Perch and roach, Rudd etc. I have still persevered with worm. But in this instance I use a boilie, usually a wafter, and use worms as a topper so at least if the worms get stripped off you are still fishing. I can’t tell you how amazing my results have been on that one but suffice to say the addition of worms in combination with any hook bait makes that hook bait far more attractive.