You can peg that sinker with a toothpick and flip the worm into heavy weeds or brush. You can put a leader ahead of it and fish it on a Carolina rig so it darts and settles like a wounded baitfish. But of all the ways to rig and fish a plastic worm, perhaps none is currently making more waves than the so-called wacky worm. No wonder lure makers across the country are jumping on the wacky worm bandwagon and creating new products to milk this fast-growing segment of the bass market. The origin of wacky wormin' is the stuff bassin' mythology is made of.
Accounts vary, but here's the gist of the story.
They arrived at a marina on the lake bright and early one morning and asked what the bass were hitting. The Yankees bought a few packs, together with some hooks, and set out across the vast reservoir in a rental boat to catch some bass. Fishing had been tough all week. Even the guides had been having a hard time scraping together enough bass to warrant a decent tip. Several of them were hanging out at the dock late that afternoon after their parties had left, complaining about the poor fishing, when a rental boat carrying those aforementioned Yankee tourists headed in.