Fishing with soft plastic stick baits can be very productive if you use the correct technique. While there isn’t a lot of action other than tail movement generated from hopping or jerking the lure, you can switch between a few rigging techniques until a fish is caught.

There are several stick products on the market, but this article will be talking about only four—Natural Forage Baits Limit Stick 5; Z-Man Bang StickZ; QC Lure Works Meatstick; and Yamamoto Senko.

I use three basic colors with all the mentioned baits: black/blue fleck, green pumpkin and June Bug. These may vary slightly depending on the company, but these are the three colors, just as with tubes and worms that I use. They seem to cover all situations and catch fish.

I use four different rigging techniques, not one of which I would say was better than the others. The first is a simple Texas rig, with or without weight, using a 1/0 to 3/0 ProX Wide Gap hook, with the most used being a 2/0. Next is a Neko rig using a ProX Neko/Wacky hook, also in the 1/0 to 3/0 size, and a Z-Man Neko Shroom weight. The ProX Neko/Wacky hook is also used with the Wacky rig, which has no weight. Another way to rig the worm Wacky style is to use a lightweight head, such as the one produced by Stanley Jigs. The fourth technique is using a jig head, such as a Z-Man Shroom or B-Fish-N H2O Precision.

All the rigs, except for the no-weight Texas and Wacky rigs can be bounced along the bottom. The Texas-rigged “sticks” without a weight can be used by casting and letting the worm drift down with a twitch; twitched like a jerk shad; and swum with a steady retrieve and pause. The wacky-rigged worm is fished similarly, but being hooked in the middle, a twitch retrieve is best, making the two ends of the worm move at the same time.

A worm rigged Texas-style with a weight, or on a jig head, can be fished as any other worm, but it can also be finger jigged, swam, and bounced on the bottom, using the tails upright position to the best advantage. All the worms mentioned will work with these rigs, but the Z-Man Bang StickZ has an advantage of the tail having tentacles that add a little extra action when paused.

The Neko rig, with the O-ring positioned about 1/3 of the worm up from the head, is where the hook is placed. Be sure to place the hook with the point going towards the tail to have the most positive hooksets. This rig provides the best action with the “nail” weight placing the head on the bottom and the tail upward. When twitched along the bottom, the head part will flex while the tail goes down and then floats back upwards. This works great with bottom weeds, rocks and sand.

Selecting which rig to use is really up to the angler, but I use some general ideas. If fish are holding tight to the bottom, and a bit finicky, the Neko rig would be the choice. Wacky rigs work great for suspended fish, or ones that are taking baits on the fall. Texas rigging is the most versatile for fish at different depths and on various structure, or as a soft plastic jerk bait, but the jig head works best for bouncing and pausing on a barer bottom or used for finger jigging.

Stick worms don’t look like much more than a chunk of plastic with a slightly tapered end, but those “chunks of plastic” will definitely catch fish, and many times out-fish other types of lures.

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