“it’s a big-fish bait that works real-
ly well on the surface or when fished
up in the water column over grass
and other cover,” he says. “i’m also
anxious to do some experimenting
with it once the fish get on out on
the ledges at Kentucky lake.”
Another staple in cox’s swimming-
worm arsenal is the classic 10-inch
berkley powerbait power worm. he
says its ribbon tail gets the nod in
high-pressure situations or when
water temperatures are lower than
60 degrees.
“that’s when i want something i
can just slow-reel across the bottom
with a more subtle, finesse-type
presentation,” cox says. “the curl tail
works great for that.”
rigging options
1. Weight or no weight – cox
weights his rig based on how high in
the water column he wants the bait
to run and how quickly he wants to
retrieve it.
Going weightless makes it simple
to buzz the worm on the surface, an
approach that he says can pay off
around topped vegetation such as
pads or hydrilla, where he’ll target
holes or small lanes in the canopy.
he’ll peg a small tungsten weight
ahead of the worm whenever he
wants it to run beneath the surface
over submerged grass or wood on a
slow-to-fast retrieve. his go-to weight
Berkley PowerBait
Power Worm
is 1/16 ounce, but he’ll go as heavy
as 3/16 ounce if the fish are aggres-
sive and want a faster retrieve.
“the heavier the weight, the
faster i can reel it and keep it at a
certain depth,” cox adds. “you can
reel it four times as fast with a 3/16-
ounce weight as you can with a
1/16-ounce weight and keep it run-
ning right under the surface. the
weight also allows you to kill it and
let it fall around holes and other tar-
gets, or if you see a fish waking
behind it. oftentimes that will trig-
ger the strike.”
2. Line and hook choices – cox
will use 20- to 50-pound-test berkley
x5 braid with the wind up around
scattered to heavy vegetation. he
prefers berkley trilene 100%
Fluorocarbon around docks and
wood, in really clear water, or when
slow-reeling the ribbon-tail worm
close to bottom.
his hook choice with the boot tail
is a 4/0 or 5/0 wide-gap berkley
Fusion19. A 3/0 straight-shank offset
gets the call with the power worm,
and he tex-poses both hook styles
for optimum penetration.
reel ratios, rod
actions and Hooksets
rounding out cox’s swimming-
worm system is a reel geared to pro-
vide the proper retrieve speed and a
rod built to deliver a solid hookset
when a bass gobbles up the moving
bait. his preferences vary with worm
style.
ribbon-tail worms – cox prefers
a 6.4:1 Abu Garcia revo matched
with a Mud hole MhX-Mb903 medi-
um-heavy rod. he says the slower
gear ratio helps him creep the bait
along bottom while the 7 1/2-foot
rod aids in gathering excess line
quickly before making a sweeping
hookset.
the Wind Up – cox opts for a
faster 8.0:1 retrieve speed or the revo
rocket, which retrieves line at a 10.1:1
ratio, for retrieving the boot tail on
the surface or through the upper
water column. his rod of choice is a
Mud hole neps86hF. the shorter 7-
foot, 2-inch rod helps with accuracy
while the faster reel swallows up
excess line quickly.
cox adds that most strikes on the
wind up will cause some sort of visi-
ble surface commotion.
“when i see that,” he says, “i’ll
usually pause and let the fish swim
with it a second or two before reel-
ing down and setting the hook. it’s
sort of like fishing a frog.”
in summary, swimming a worm
doesn’t work 100 percent of the
time, but it will sometimes produce
when other stuff fails.
“Anytime you are around fish
they’ll eat it,” cox says. “it’s a good
way to get paid, for sure.”
Berkley
Trilene 100%
Fluorocarbon
Berkley
PowerBait
Wind Up
Berkley x5 Braid
5/0 wide-gap
Berkley Fusion19
spring 2019 i fLWfisHing.com
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