(Editor's note: "Catching Bass with Dustin Wilks" airs at 6:30 a.m. on Sundays and at 3, 7 and 11 p.m. on Mondays on the World Fishing Network. The six-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier writes about various aspects of the sport in these periodic submissions.)
Is it a swimbait or a worm?
Hanging out in a dark corner of a dusty garage is a soft plastic worm with exceptional characteristics – almost a hybrid between a swimbait and a worm or big grub. Is this worm long gone or was it just never discovered in the first place?
In my boat this worm goes fishing. It's a Culprit 9-inch Fat Max. While Culprit sells millions of 6- and 7-inch Fat Max worms to anglers who love flipping them to shallow cover, the 9-inch variation is misunderstood — not really intended for shallow flipping, per se.
You say 9 inches is not so big for plastic worms? Once you see it you’ll agree – it's almost comical until you think about where/when to fish it and especially after you catch a couple big ones on it. The size is why you won’t often find this one at the local tackle shop, with most distributors not understanding the nuances of the bait and possibly not showing it to the shops.
While most of the summer I’m gonna primarily be throwing a 10-inch Culprit Original when I’m fishing offshore structure in the South with plastic, there are times I want something more swimbait-like, but with better action just sitting there or moving slowly. This is where the 9-inch Fat Max comes in. With its huge presence and high appeal, fish will know it is there. Sometimes fishing plastics, you wonder (especially with finesse stuff) if the fish can even see it, but make no mistake – the Fat Max is not finesse and they will either know it is there or have to get out of the way.
I think of this bait as being more like a big swimbait that excels in conditions not typical for swimbaits. I’d much rather get a bite on this worm than say a big weedless swimbait simply because you will hook them better with the Fat Max.
My main scenario for this bait is conditions of low light, like early morning, late evening, cloudy weather, or just heavily stained water -- when you want the fish to be able to find your bait. You're also gonna need a lake that has a good population of 3-pounders or bigger. This bait will catch small fish, but most often when you catch one it's bigger than average.
I tend to fish this bait in two ways – slowly on the bottom on a Texas rig or just like a swimbait with an 8/0 belly-weighted hook.
On the Texas rig, I target any kind of structure — creek channel ledges, humps, points and road beds — the same kind of stuff as a standard-sized worm. With the Fat Max body size however, I have newfound confidence, especially in more stained creeks where the water tends be a little shallower. While I reach for a crankbait typically, in the stained water, this 9-inch Fat Max gives me a quality option for additional presentations, especially if you want to catch oversized fish.
On really shallow stuff like 5 feet or less, I like a 3/8-ounce Eco Pro Tungsten worm weight and a 6/0 wide-gap hook. Down to 12 feet I like a 1/2-ounce. I like to fish this bait a little slower than a standard big summer worm, although sometimes I’ll simply swim it along until I contact good cover, then I’ll just snail it along. The bulk of this bait appeals to big, hungry summer bass. I like 20-pound Yo-Zuri T-7 line with a 7’3’' Falcon Cara Amistad rod for my setup.
My other method is much like a pure swimbait – I fish it on an oversized, belly-weighted hook with a 3/8-ounce for slow retrieve or 1/2-ounce for faster. I like this around shallow grass and trees, especially cypress trees on lakes like Santee Cooper. This works in all water colors.
This setup allows me to cover water like with a swimbait, yet be able to drop it and fish very slowly on the bottom with confidence that it still looks good, which often a challenge for big swimbaits. Once you stop a big swimbait, most don’t look real good with the big boot tail just sitting still. This 9-inch Fat Max overcomes that, with its flowing tail. I’m not saying put all your swimbaits away, but this gives more options – especially if you're practice fishing and you want to fish both slow and fast to determine the mood of the fish before your big tournament and you are also wanting to find bigger than average fish.
I’ll admit, this is not an everyday kind of of lure, but rather a very specialized bait that you can find absolutely irreplaceable at the right times. If nothing else, you may scare some folks at the boat ramp with this thing rigged up.
