Ringworm help

I have been this site for a few years here and there, changed my name a few times. I have been reading about ringworms I have used them but I am not real confadent with using plastic baits could some please help me out. Do I jig with them cast and retreave them or cast and bounce off the bottom real slow any help would be greatly appreaciated.

while there may be a bad way to fish a ringworm.. there must not be too many of them… Ive trolled them slowly upstream… Ive drug them downstream.. I vertical jigged them in various ways.. . though the best 2 for me have been what I call a pop… where you “jerk” them up 6-12 ” then let them flutter down… Ive done this either with the worm starting and ending on the bottom… or with it suspended some distance off…. usually less than a foot…..

Ive also cast them and “hopped” them back……. Ive caught fish with ALL of these…. and Im sure there are more ways to use them…. Ive just not done it yet… one way Ive always heard of as good but have not tried it casting them up stream then letting them “drift” down…… I used to do that with twisters.. and Ive SEEN it done with worms with success… but Ive not done it…..

Wingshooter,

To be honest with you the ring worm has been my top producing bait for most of the year. It can be presented in many different styles, and ways. I have the best success rate on them in the Spring and Fall and on in to the mid winter months. They work best for me pitching in to the shoreline and sand flats on the main river with a light 1/16oz jig or a 1/8 oz jig. You can cover more water than vertical jigging in the same area which usually will put more fish in the boat.

To fish a shoreline I like to use the trolling motor and pull the boat slowly up river. Some guys will do the opposite and drift down river along a shoreline, but I feel that I have better boat control while going up river when targeting a shoreline. Just let the ringworm slowly fall along the shoreline until it gets to far behind the boat that you can not tell what it’s doing. To cast a sand flat I will position the bow of the boat up river, with the trolling motor on a low speed to allow me to slowly slip the current, then cast slightly upstream from the boat and let it slowly drift down river until it gets to far behind the boat that you loose all control and can’t feel the bait ticking the bottom. If your jig is staying up river of the boat, you are using to heavy of a jig for this presentation.

Going vertical is a sure way to fish them as well. I find going vertical when the bite is a little tougher will get more of a reaction strike when snappin the bait no more than 6″ off the bottom of the river. I will use this technique only when the finesse approach of casting with lighter jigs has failed me.

The other day I had the walleye going on jigs and crawlers just drifting with the current and letting the bait drag along the bottom of the river only to find I was catching 15 sheephead to every 1 walleye. A buddy of mine that I was fishing with for the day threaded on a ring worm and just dragged it in the same fashion as the crawlers. He just started to nail the eye’s. I stuck with the crawlers for a little while longer to only catch more of those pesky sheephead. He was out fishing me on walleye 4 to 1. I soon switched over to the ringies and it paid off we never boated another rough fish the whole time we fished the ringies. I knew the eye’s were thick in the area I was fishing, using the crawlers did not give the eye’s a fair chance at their turn to snap, with all the rough fish present. I am going to mess around with this presentation more often when I have a good crawler bite going and you can bet I will post my results on one of my reports!

Good luck!!

Thank you guys both so much for the help. I suppose I will have to go down to [censored] and pick some up.

Good fishing

Brian