Summer around Lake Okeechobee means hot temperatures both in the air and in the water. As the water temperature increases so too does a bass’s metabolism. This means they need to eat more. Yet we often hear in summertime to slow down one’s presentation. So what is a worm angler to do? The answer is to go large. Now is the time to get away from standard 7-inch worms and break out those 10-inch or bigger worms and make it easy for a bass to get a satisfying meal. Since we need to go large and fish slow, the Culprit 10 or 12 inch ribbon worm is a great choice.
The oversized Culprit ribbon worm can be fished in many different presentations. It can be Texas rigged, Carolina rigged or used in a Drop Shot setup. The key is to keep your bait in contact with the bottom substrate whether that is a deep brush pile, a patch of eel or pepper grass, or over a shell bed. You should be feeling the taps of the submersed structure as much as possible. If you’re swimming your bait along the surface or in the middle of the water column then you’ll have fewer strikes. With a very active ribbon tail, the large Culprit worms allow you to slow down your retrieve without sacrificing motion and attractiveness.
In lakes like Okeechobee with dirty or stained conditions, use dark colored worms such as June Bug, Green Pumpkin, Black Shad, Red Shad and Moccasin. In clear lakes and ponds, lighter colored worms will often outperform the darker colors. The nice thing about Culprit is that they have a wide selection of colors with over thirty different colors to choose from for their 10-inch worms and over ten colors to choose from for their 12-inch worms.
Typically in summer the large bass are in deep water or in their lairs and you need to give them something tempting to get them excited and large ribbon worms are just what the doctor ordered.
