Arizona Custom Baits' Fat Worm

On April 12, we published a profile about Arizona Custom Baits and eight of their soft-plastic finesse baits. We failed, however, to provide any details about its 4 1/2-inch Fat Worm. We hope that this Midwest Finesse gear guide rectifies that mistake.

Like all soft-plastic worms, the Fat Worm is an abstract rendition of an earthworm.

Its belly is flat from its mouth to its anus, and the skin of its belly is smooth. It is interesting to note that many Midwest finesse anglers prefer soft-plastic worms to have a flat belly, thinking that it accentuates the gliding feature of their swim-glide-and-shake presentation.

Its back and sides have the shape of a semi-circle.

It has a clitellum or egg sack, which begins about three-quarters of an inch from its mouth. The entire clitellum is smooth-skinned. The belly portion of the clitellum is flat, and its back and sides possess the shape of a semi-circle.  The clitellum is an inch long; it has the circumference of about an inch and a quarter; it is about five-sixteenths of an inch wide.

The back and sides of the Fat Worm's torso, which stretches from the tip of its head to the beginning of the clitellum, possesses six prominent sections or ribs.  This section is three-quarters of an inch long and about five-sixteenths of an inch wide. The circumference of this section is about an inch and a quarter.

Its mouth or tip of its head is flat and a quarter of an inch wide. Its circumference is about an inch.

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From the end of the clitellum to its anus, there is a segmented section that is  one and seven-eighths inches long and adorned with 18 ribs.

The anus of a real earthworm is cone-shaped or pencil-point-shaped. The Fat Worm's anus area is flat and paddle-shaped.  This area is about thirteen-sixteenths of an inch long, and its skin is smooth.

According to Jon Shook of New River, Arizona, who is the proprietor of Arizona Bait Company, the Fat Worm is the bait "to use when you want to target big bites."

Shook caters to a lot of drop-shot anglers.  Midwest finesse anglers, however, shun the drop shot. Across the years, we have found that affixing a worm like the Fat Worm to a small mushroom-style jig with an exposed hook, rather than on a drop-shot rig, is a much more efficient and lucrative way to catch largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and spotted bass in the waterways and around the relatively shallow-water  lairs that we ply.   Our focus is to catch at least 10 black bass an hour, but every outing is graced with the aim to catch 25 of them an hour. In the eyes of Midwest finesse anglers, the Fat Worm is a classic finesse worm that we can use in our quest to catch 10 to 25 black bass an hour. We will affix it to either a 1/32- or a 1/16-ounce mushroom-style jig and employ all six of the standard Midwest finesse retrieves or slight variations of those retrieves.

It is available in the following colors: ABC Magic, Blue Madness, Cotton Candy, Green Pumpkin Pepper, Hart Attack, Hologram Magic, Light Oxblood Red Flake, Morning Dawn Madness, Orange Crawler, Oxblood Blue Vein, Prizm Shad, Purple Madness, Red Hot Cinnamon, Scooter Special, Sexy Shad, Smoked Pumpkin, Watermelon Pepper, and Watermelon Red. Customized colors are also available by contacting Jon Shook. To the delight of many Midwest finesse anglers, it is not impregnated with salt. It is also devoid of scent.

It is important to note that Shook makes customized colors for anglers, and he will also add salt and scent on those special-request orders.

A package of eight costs $4.29, but a package of eight Hart Attack and Sexy Shad costs $4.75.

Endnotes

(1)  Here is the link to the April 12 Midwest Finesse column about Arizona Bait Company: http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/arizona-custom-baits/#ixzz5I8Yxz4ve.

(2) Here is a link to a Midwest Finesse column that explains how Midwest finesse anglers execute their six standard retrieves: http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/six-midwest-finesse-retrieves/.

(3) Here is a link to Arizona Bait Company's website: http://www.arizonacustombaits.com/store/index.php/dropshot-baits/dropshot-worms.html.

(4) In the near future, we hope to publish a gear guide about Arizona Bait Company's Twitch Fish Fluke.  And we have heard that Arizona Bait Company is working on a soft-plastic Midwest finesse bait, and when that comes to fruition, we will publish a gear guide about it.