Holy cow that is pure gold right there!!! I can see so many uses for that rig its incredible!!! Mr Stefan the bait wizard!!!! Awesome tip on this one Matt!!!
Absolute bite-getter. I put this rig to use over the weekend at a local highland reservoir on a bluebird day on offshore structure after trying everything else with no success. Fish were suspended several feet off the bottom, and even the dropshot rig failed to get any bites. Threw this floating worm with a 3/8 oz free rig weight and immediately started getting fish to react. The coolest thing is watching the worm float up on livescope...right before a fish takes it. Caught fish when all others couldn't. Thanks again, Matt.
Just tried your “Floating Worm Free Rig” yesterday (Memorial Day Sunday). Lake was a Zoo with tons of recreational boaters, Waverunners, and just craziness. Water was chocolate milk color. In about 2-hours, I caught three Largemouth Bass with this technique. Largest was close to my Personal Best for this lake. Well done. Effective. I expect to crush them today as I plan to fish a secluded spring fed smallmouth bass pond where weed growth is probably 18” high already. Technique should be perfect! Thank you. Be Well. Life is Good.
Great stuff, Matt. I've been using a "wacky free rig" with a sinking worm, but I will definitely start to incorporate the floating version. Thanks for sharing this secret. Heading over to TW now.
Using it for years for marsh bass. Have an area that they wanted red truck worm which I use H&R as they float better. Keeps the worm next to stumps when the tide or current keeps the worm from staying next to a stump or cypress tree.
I have a similar tech. I use 7'3" medium mod spinning 6lb P-Line Tactical Fluorocarbon with a swivel to 10lb mono with the weight between swivel and light wire wacky and same worm. I work it the same way.
Super clever Matt! I'm going to try this today with some Z-Man Bang StickZ. That's the Elaztech stickbait with zero salt and is totally buoyant. It's a tremendous Neko Rig plastic, now I have a new way to use the Bang StickZ.👍🏻🙌🏻👏🏻🎣
give it a try. not all the zman baits are super buoyant. Im not very familiar with the bang stickz so im not sure it will work. but the zman floating wormz is awesome for this technique.
So do you have a stop of some sort at the end of your line for a weight stop? Could you show a video on how you actually rig it? Tnx for the tips....love your channel.
Thanks Matt. Neet o. Nose hooking the worm would be good also. That way it would look like a worm swimming to the bottom. I tried a tube with a ear plug in it, on a free rig, same principle. Should work, good luck with it.
Excellent idea Matt. I will give it a try on the Potomac River this spring. I assume this will work Texas rigged also when the grass gets growing during the summer?
Your right Matt, this will help catch folks some more fish. I use the same rig with a tube and place a styrofoam ear plug inside to give it a slow rise. Love to toss it around docks.
That's pure juice right there!!! Awesome idea!!! Love it! I've always used floating worms, but that Zman floats way better than the couple different brands I have. This is my second time watching this video! Thanks Matt!!
Whats up Matt . Im pumped to give this a go. Dope idea just a complete different look needed in such an overpressured lake like the big O in my local club tournaments. What size hook is the finese wide gap. ?
Very inventive/innovative idea! I need to try that, so much range of motion in the water column! I have been wacky-shotting a lot of the Z-Man worms but that's even better! I think the bait moves better on your rig... it almost swims around a little bit as it floats up. Killer action.
Tough fishing today, could not get a bite. Switch to the reverse wacky rig and I caught three fish in a matter of minutes, one weighing 4-1/2 lbs. That’s a nice fish for a small lake in Michigan.
OMG U got me ! TNT ! Thank the heavens most guys won't give it the time it obviously deserves...Matt sir best lure tip ever ! Again OMG thank you...........
I have never done it with a free rig, which is a good idea. But I fish dropshot & wacky drop shots with zman worms & other zman baits. I have ton of zman baits & really like most of them! The razer shads on texas rigs also good. Looks like a small fish pecking on bottom
@@MattStefanFishing I'm definitely going to be trying it. Using the zman worm because it's very buoyant is something I hadn't thought of and I'm new to the free rig
Good idea! I have tried this rig with TPR shrimp. The shrimp is 3", but it is not floating enough, so I have canceled this rig, as your info, the worm is big enough, and the floating rate is higher; the potential problem is between the hook and the dropshot or free rig weight special, maybe we need a bead, or rubber stopper to protect the line broken. I have caught a big fish yesterday; I will see the details.
WOW, never thought about doing this with a worm. I have done something similar with an original floating Rapala. Thanks for the videos Tight lines and Godspeed
Now that's one cool idea. Wish I had thought of it. I use a bobber stop to limit how close to the bottom I would get. Don't have to worry about that with the reverse free rig. You got another one on me!
Man that sounds awesome! Would you say a 1/0 or a 2/0 hook size and also what size of drop shot weight do you typically use for this rig? … love your videos man, one of if not the most informative channels on RU-vid! keep up the great content! 🎣👍🏻
Alright! now that is secret! So versatile and subtle. longtime fisherman who prides himself on my bait creativity and I can't believe I haven't tried that...floating worm on a free rig? ..you bet💪thank you Matt
Ingenious idea Matt, keep playing around with your imagination and who knows when you will come up with the one that leads to massive wealth. You deserve it.
Thanks for that tip Matt!! Will have to keep this one from my nephew!! lol Been telling him of tips and he's crushing them but I'm not on this one. Stay Safe & God Bless!!
Great Stuff here Matt. I really like fishing the FREE Rig. This is a great alternative that the fish probably Don't see often. I can see this Reverse Wacky Rig really catching them. Thanks and keep up the great content......
Cool video Matt. I fish a floating worm alot...but never like that. Gonna give it a try and send this video to my tournament partner and my dad. Love it.
This is a local secret in my area. We fish alot of ponds so we mainly do this as a very finesse set up with light gear and we mainly use the TRD ned worms especially if the full size worm is not working.
@@MattStefanFishing I was watching one of your videos that you showed like a flashy swimmer but this clipped on the hook that you we're using and had the weight stamped on it also.Were can I get those for my Bass Tournaments. Tackle warehouse????.I forgot the company name you said it was chatbor something 🤔 like that. It was 2:30 this morning I was watching it.
I wonder if you can do that with a regular bullet weight. I make my own floating worms that I use on the Baby Carolina rig. Next time I head out, I'm going to try it and see what happens.
Amazing !! Going to try it out this weekend! Wondering Is there any other finesse style worm that comes close to the buoyancy of the zman with smaller hook? 🤔
Nasty bro. I’ve never seen this rig before. I’m going to modify it for brushpile fishing but This is going to replace the dropshot for me with spotted bass fishing in brush piles 30-45 ft deep. Have you ever tried fishing it vertically? I actually hand pour roboworm style plastics that float and that’s the application I immediately thought of when I saw the opening clip?
killer deal .man that's a good one .That 1 on 1 is too. Can you tell fall is on the way. I can down here bet up there for sure .I bet top water is getting crunk up.
Sir, let me tell you that I love how honest you are about these things. KVD and Zman both make fluke style bait in various sizes that I have been using on this style of rig for a while now. They work awesome!!
I like the pearl and green pumpkin year round and the buble gum and methiolate as well in the spring months. Here are all the colors TW offers. www.tacklewarehouse.com/Z-Man_Floating_Wormz/descpage-ZMFWM.html?from=MSFG
Awesome. Thanks Matt. I've been trying to perfect some "non-traditional" (at least to me) presentations. I think in fly fishing they call this an emerger. Aquatic life like mayflies at their most vulnerable stage as they float or swim from the bottom to the surface. Maybe it is hardwired, or maybe bass just get nostalgic about gorging on these type of creatures when they were kids 🙂. Cool idea for roaming fish in the shallows. I a geek for this fish biology stuff.
