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Give It a Spin: Tail-Spinner Worms Catch Big Bass

Keith Poche, a professional bass angler from Pike Road, Ala., shows off a bass he caught on a tail-spinner worm while fishing West Point Lake. (John N. Felsher photo)
Keith Poche, a professional bass angler from Pike Road, Ala., shows off a bass he caught on a tail-spinner worm while fishing West Point Lake. (John N. Felsher photo)

Long before I ever heard the phrase “Texas-rigged worm,” people used “harness worms.”

Adapted from a rig designed to tempt walleye with live nightcrawlers, these pre-rigged baits came with two or three hooks protruding from the belly of a soft-plastic worm and linked together with fishing line. On the nose, a straight wire held several colored metal, glass or plastic beads and what looked like a miniature metal aircraft propeller.

Early one July 4 many years ago, Dad took me fishing at a pond near our home. By mid-morning, the sun began to beat down on us and several people arrived at the popular swimming hole.

Dad said, “We haven’t caught anything. Not a bite. Let’s go.” My natural response to that was always, “One more cast, please?”

Without waiting for Dad’s answer, I quickly tied on a bright red harness worm, the first time I had ever used any kind of soft-plastic bait. I tossed it past a sandbar and let the bait sink to the bottom in the trough between the bar and the shoreline. Then, I began reeling it steadily fast enough to turn the propeller.

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