The plastic worm is the original soft-plastic bait and it has gradually evolved into myriad shapes, sizes, textures and colors that work in fresh, brackish and salt water. So-called saltwater plastics have become wildly successful, and there are models that resemble shrimp, assorted baitfish, crabs, eels and sandworms. However, if you have not tried a plastic “bass” worm on the flats, you may be overlooking a lure that even the most jaded saltwater fish have never seen.

Rig worms with weedless hooks.

I frequently use a small bass worm when sight fishing for redfish during the summer. Worms work well all year long, but I find that they excel when redfish split up from the schools and feed nose down in shallow vegetation. Some time ago, after presenting the typical 4-inch soft-plastic jerkbait (baitfish version) in front of, behind, alongside and across the tails of redfish busy rooting on the bottom, it dawned on me that a fish must see a lure to eat it. Since a baitfish doesn’t crawl on the bottom, where redfish do much of their foraging, a plastic worm seemed a logical alternative. Jigs work in this situation, but they frequently get hung up in the grass. Now I simply rig a 1⁄16-ounce bullet sinker in front of an offset worm hook I use with my baitfish imitation soft bait and rig it with a small plastic worm. I cast beyond a tailing redfish and swim the worm to the nose end of the fish. When it’s a foot or so in front of the fish, I let it sink to the bottom. This, I am sure, looks like a marine worm burrowing in the grass to hide. After letting the worm sit on the bottom for a few seconds, I twitch it ever so slightly, moving it perhaps a couple of inches. Try this. You are going to get bit, so be prepared.

A 6-inch plastic bass worm looks very much like a sand worm. It is up to you to make it behave like one. Rig one with a 1⁄8- to 1⁄4-ounce sliding bullet sinker, or use a similar sized jighead. This should be enough weight to make a reasonably long cast and sink your worm to the bottom in the areas where fish feed on sand worms. Of course, you can certainly cast and fish a worm sans weight, particularly with light line and light winds. On the retrieve, do not try to impart a lot of action. Use a retrieve slow enough to crawl it across the bottom and make it look alive.

Retrieve bright-colored worms quickly for barracuda on the flats.

Redfish are going to eat a sand worm regardless of the time of year, so I have a package of plastic worms in my tackle bag at all times. But plastic worms work for species other than reds. They also appeal to spotted seatrout. As a guide in East Central Florida once told me, “If it looks alive, how else is a fish going to know if it is good to eat unless it puts it in his mouth?” Good logic, agree? During low-light hours in warmer months, I rig my plastic worms Texas-style so that they are weedless (more on this rigging technique later) and fish them over shallow grass for trout. When the trout go deeper, typically after the sun climbs in the sky on summer mornings and during winter months, add a bullet sinker or rig the plastic worm on a jighead. Bright-colored worms seem to work best for seatrout.

Let’s go a bit more oceanic and talk about bonefish and barracuda. Plastic worms for bones? You bet. Stomach surveys have shown that bonefish the world over love to slurp marine worms out of the bottom. Picture a kid eating spaghetti! I’m not sure whether they are still available, but Berkley once produced the Hookworm, a rootbeer-colored, 4-inch worm with spines that worked wonders fished alone or on a skimmer-style jighead. Shallow Water Angler Editor Mike Conner used to pitch them at tailing bones and reds in Biscayne and Florida bays, and only added a small splitshot to aid casting. He says they were dynamite, though it was sometimes necessary to soak the worm in “shrimp juice” to get the sometimes finicky bones to eat. There are plenty of small worms on the market today that would surely do the trick.