Spawn Floating Worm Patterns & Techniques

The Spawn is the best time of year to target shallow bedding areas with the bright colored flare and slow aggravating presentation of a floating worm. Having a lightweight and thin profile, the floating worm excels when subtly skipped into shallow, weeded or overhanging cover. Weightless worms are known to be ultra weedless and highly buoyant, so try targeting docks, tules, brush, laydowns, pontoon boats, or any shallow bays and flats where you think fish are spawning. Even if the fish doesn’t eat the worm, often the bright color and erratic action of the floating worm can evoke a reaction that will give up the location of a bed.

What’s most important when selecting a rod for the floating worm is that you choose one you feel comfortable accurately casting very little weight with. Try using a Medium to Medium Heavy powered spinning rod in the 7’ - 7’3” range with a Fast taper for floating worms. Most anglers will agree that a spinning outfit is more convenient for skipping worms. A Medium Heavy casting rod with similar specifications will also work well if you are more comfortable with casting gear, using a large worm, or the situation simply calls for heavier line or tackle.

Choose a large spinning reel with a slower gear ratio (4:1 – 5:1) when fishing the floating worm. Your goal is to keep the worm near a bed or in the strike zone for as long as you can to trigger a reaction strike, so you may find that high-speed gear ratios will have the tendency to pull the worm away from your target too quickly. The wider spool of a 3000-size spinning reel or greater will help you cast a lightweight floating worm, deal with big fish, and pick up more line with every turn of the handle. Any mid-size casting reel in the 150-200 size with a similar gear ratio will also help you fish the worm slowly and provide plenty of line capacity if you prefer using a casting setup.

Most anglers look for the no-stretch performance of braided line, and the translucency of a fluorocarbon leader when fishing the floating worm. Typically, you are using a stout, wide gap hook, so braided line helps provide the power you need to set the hook. The floating worm is often fished near extremely shallow, heavy cover, so you need line that offers plenty of abrasion-resistance and strength. On a spinning outfit, 10-20lb braided line with a 8-15lb fluorocarbon leader will cover most floating worms, and with a casting setup, 10-20lb fluorocarbon will do the trick.

Hook size is dependent on preference and what size worms you choose to fish, but many anglers prefer an offset wide gap hook, Texas-rigged, with a good bait keeper to keep the presentation weedless. Floating worms have a tendency to spin or tumble, so you may want to incorporate the use of a swivel and leader to reduce line twist. Keep a pair of pliers handy because often times you may need to bend the hook eye to match the natural lay of the worm, so that is swims straight during your retrieve.

When the fish are more active a twitch-pause retrieve can be very effective, but the slow-falling action of the floating worm also shines when paused over beds or other targets for long periods of time. When fishing the floating worm, it is important to be highly aware of what’s going on around your bait. A lot of times when a fish eats they will flash, roll, or swirl on the worm when your line is slack, so you need to be ready to set to the hook when you see them bite. To keep the worm as weedless as possible, try rigging the head of the worm completely over the hook eye and knot so your worm can pull through vegetation with ease. Upsizing your swivel or increasing the gauge wire of your hook can also help you vary the sink rate of your worm.

The floating worm is a subsurface and highly visual technique so bright colors are commonly used to help the angler easily spot the worm in the water. Try using colors like Bubble Gum, Chartreuse, Merthiolate, or White during the Spawn, so you accurately fish near beds, visibly see when you’re bit, and be able to replicate a retrieve or twitching action when a fish interacts to your worm. When presented with extremely clear water, bright colors can be too intrusive, so having a natural color or shad color option on hand provides a good backup plan.

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