In fishing it's funny how often anglers try something they think is totally new, only to find later someone else already thought of it, sometimes years beforehand.
That happened to me about a week ago. As I scrolled through my Facebook feed I came across a blog by Bassmaster Elite Series Pro Mike Iaconelli.
He titled it "Speed Worming" and I thought, "Sounds interesting, might be something new I can try this spring."
So I clicked on the link and started reading through. Ike explains "Speed Worming" this way:
"There’s a regional technique out there — in the South mostly — that’s been around for a while. It’s called speed worming, and it’s super effective. Basically it’s about speed, splash and a little noise with some subtlety.
I can’t think of any reason why it won’t work everywhere. So, here goes…
Start with a paddle tail worm with a somewhat thick body. The Berkley Havoc Subwoofer is exactly that. I designed it for speed so it’ll run true no matter what, and the pre-cut tail will really kick up a fuss."
He goes on to list the three ways he fishes the rig. The first two deal with rigging the bait Texas-style, one with a weight and one without. Cool. I never fished that bait in that way before. Then I get to his third presentation called "Speed worming with a swim jig" and my eyes bugged out of my head.
"This is a very subtle presentation but one they probably haven’t seen. I cut the nose off my Subwoofer at the gill so that it fits tight up against my jig head. After that swim your jig just like you normally would.
The worm gives the jig a tail that waves back and forth like nothing before. I’m telling you, this is a dynamite technique whenever you’re fishing a swim jig and you want more action but at the same time you want to keep it subtle and quiet."
All I could think was I tried this a couple of summers ago just as he described it and it hammered them! I was at a pond fishing with my dad back then. He was getting bit on a green pumpkin swim jig so I switched over to one I made at home. I had a pack of Subwoofers in my bag and they were the first thing to match the color I needed so I put slid one on as a trailer. A couple casts later and I hauled in one of four keeper bass that day. Back then I thought I figured out something new that no one else was doing. Wrong!
Now I'm not here trying to help Ike and Berkley sell baits, Lord knows neither of them needs me for that. It just struck me as so ironic that I had done this two years ago and now here I am reading a blog from a pro I respect a great deal telling me to try a technique I already figured out on my own.
The ultimate kick in the pants is I stopped using the Subwoofer after finishing off that pack. Now I'm going to run out this weekend and pick up more; not because I knew they worked but because Ike tells me they work.
*Jeff Herman is the assistant news director at WMAR | ABC2 and a member of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association. His main passion while not at work is fishing. This column is part of a series of columns he writes for our outdoors page . You can read more of his columns here . Follow him on Twitter @JeffABC2News and @TightLinesABC2