The Worm

wollychop

New member
Greetings. I have had incredible success with dropshot, especially with the Gulp 2" pearl minnow. However, pretty much everything has been effective - except the most scrumptious looking of them the Gulp Worm. How the hell are you rigging them up to get hookups? I saw the ESA blokes hammering Kob on it, but I just end up with the tails getting bitten off!
 

Reefman

Sealiner
wollychop wrote:
 except the most scrumptious looking of them the Gulp Worm. How the hell are you rigging them up to get hookups? I saw the ESA blokes hammering Kob on it, but I just end up with the tails getting bitten off!

Wolly, I had the same problem... tails get bitten off when the fish are small peckers, too small to swallow the hook, but big enough to chomp the tail..!

What I did was to downsize the hook and cut the worms into shorter pieces so that there is very little tail exposed - the "loose" piece of tail at the end was lined up perfectly with the hookbend - it solved the problem.
 

wollychop

New member
Shot Reefman - I had always thought the dangly bit would be more attractive. I'm gonna give it a shot next week.

Fisher Bobby, the most success I've had in a day was at Anstey's. That was species count and quantity, not size. +-200 m south of Anstey's main beach is a little pier type thing. Fish just to the Anstey's side. Having said this, I have had great success everywhere in the area with shallow reef - even on low tide, standing on the exposed reef and fishing into the small gullys. Flagtail, blacktail, pipefish, yellow-belly rockcod, cat-face rockcod, 3-spot pompano have all been caught here. Best was 5 fish in half an hour - 4 different species. I was most surprised as I have never got those results in Moz.
 
Wollychop

I dunno much about Da Big Blue and fishing there, but you're mentioning the tails get chomped off by the little ones, and shortening the worm is effective.

Now like i said I dunno much (if anything) bout that dam (yeah water is water and that is a dam, A VERY BIG DAM but still a dam) okay, anyhow to get back to the point, have you tried hooking the worm deeper starting from the front? meaning that at the end of the worm rigged you'll be having the front section of the worm basically slid over the line and the hook protruding further to the rear?

Dunno if this makes sense, but we use it when our fish are biting "short", nabing the tail end leaving the hook bend and point far up the worm.

Hope it helps (Dunno how yuo's guys really rig the worms to the hooks and what hooks you's r using)

Maybe I could post you an example of this deeper rigging of the worms?

LGF
 

wollychop

New member
Yup LGF, being of the opinion that a full length worm looks more realistic and would be more likely to attract a bigger specimen, I tried using the jig head and another hook to mak sure that if the fish took at the tail I would still have a hookup. I rigged the worm onto the jig and then tied a length of line with a hook to the jig's shank and threaded the hook and line all the way through to the tail. Anyway, after two drifts down the river, I got stuck and lost the whole rig. I have always maintained that a natural worm would not swim very well in a turbulent/high current area where we try to fish them - and so I do not retrieve them but leave them at the mercy of the elements. The resulting problems are slack line and getting stuck both of which are as appealing as 9" piles. I actually need to know of success stories and how the take occurred. Retrieve? Static? Water conditions (ie current/turbulence)?
 
Wollychop

I've bought myself a pack of trailer hooks with the latex tubing.  Now the only diffs between these hooks and the regular hooks is that the eyelid of the trailer hooks are bigger to allow for the regular hooks barb end to slip through, you then secure the trailer hook with the latex tubing that also keeps the hook upright when say you're using a leadhead or jig weighted at the bottom, and the nice thing about that is that you can still rig the worm the way we do for short strikes as the trailer hook will then cover the rear half of the worm and the rgular hook the front half.  Only thing is you might lose a bit of the natural movement of the worm.

Have you tried rigging those worms what we call weedless style yet?  After rigging the worm on the hook you reinsert the barb piece back under the skin of the worm thus preventing hook up on things that are not fish?

Again this is what I would suggest from a freshy point of view, perhaps it could be applied to your needs.

LGF
 
Wollychop

If you can post me a pic of the dropshot rig and worm you are having this dilema with, maybe then I'll understand better and perhaps then I can give you more fitting advice in relation to our experience/s

LGF
 

wollychop

New member
Yup have considered the weedless style setup - actually got hold of some tiny Gamakatsu wide gape fluke hooks. Will it work with grunter and pignose though? I lacked the confidence to try 'em when the opportunity arose - the fish were going beserk and I settled on old faithful: mudprawn. I am not experienced at catching these fish, but am under the impression that their method of taking would probably not be positive enough to expose the point??!
 

wollychop

New member
Anyways, will have an opportunity to try again next week and will try the above-mentioned suggestions - will get back to you.
 
Okidoki there Wollychop

I'll still see if I can't post you a pic before the weekend, anyhow Good Luck and Tight lines without break offs, getting stuck and or tails nibbed off the worms.

LGF
 
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