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A plastic worm goes with summer bass fishing like fireworks and the 4th of July. And as a kid, the plastic worm was the first artificial lure top pro Gerald Swindle remembers learning to use on trips with his dad, Tommy – one heck of an angler in his own right.

These days the Team Toyota pro utilizes long soft plastic worms to cash tournament paychecks when water temps heat up, but the 30 years of wisdom he shares about using them might surprise you, and help you catch more fat summer largemouth too.

Ribbon tails, Straight tails and “The lamprey factor”

Swindle uses two types of big worms in the heat of summer – ribbon tails and straight tails, and his choice of which is largely determined by similar looking jawless fish known as lamprey.

“Look, I don’t claim to know much about the life history of fresh water lampreys, but I can tell you based on three decades of bass fishing, they love to live around underwater shell beds on all the Tennessee River reservoirs. And lampreys seem most prominent earlier in the summer, so that’s when I use a ribbon tail worm that resembles them,” reasons Swindle.

Swindle’s correct. At least a half-dozen species of lamprey inhabit his home state’s waters, and most spawn and hatch larvae from late spring into early summer. But as summer enters its final stretch, and the bass have seen a ton of the popular ribbon tail worms, he’ll typically use a straight tail worm to give them a look they haven’t seen much.

Standup Head instead of Texas Rig

Whether he’s fishing a Zoom Ol’ Monster in June and July or the 7” Magnum Trick Worm in the dog days of August, you might be shocked to learn he almost never rigs them Texas style like he learned as a teen. Instead the 2-time Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year usually rigs them on a stand up style jig head.

“Buckeye Lures makes a wide range of sizes, but most of the time, I’m fishing 12 to 20’ deep in summer, so I use their ½ ounce stand up head, and there’s two reasons for that. First, a stand up style head won’t twist your line like a Texas rig will. Secondly, obviously, it helps the worm to stand-up a lot more vertical as you’re dragging it across the bottom,” he explains.

You only need two colors

Like a lot of lure manufacturers, Zoom makes dozens of colors in each of the two large worm style Swindle uses most. But according to the veteran pro you really only need two. “I throw “plum apple” early in the day, or anytime I’ve got low light, and “green pumpkin” under sunny skies,” he says.

Rod, reel, and line

Swindle uses a 7’ 6” medium heavy Quantum rod, and either 12 or 14 pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon spooled to a 6.6:1 Quantum Smoke S3 reel when slinging oversized summer worms. “I just feel like by using anything much faster than a 6.6:1, and you might be prone to overfish it. Plus, I like the spool size on the Smoke S3 because it’s compact in the hand, but holds plenty of line for making long cast across deeper structure.”

There’s a strong chance no lure in history has caught more largemouth bass than a plastic worm – especially in hot weather. Try Gerald Swindle’s tips for fishing them this summer, and you’re sure to help keep that trend as prosperous as it’s always been.

Casey Ashley is sort of professional bass fishing’s version of country music super star Kenny Chesney. The 2015 Bassmaster Classic Champ loves beaches, flip flop sandals, and he’s a highly talented country music vocalist and guitar player.

And while both Casey and Kenny are prone to celebrate life with best friends and a cold beverage, you can count on Ashley to tie on a topwater popper in late spring and never put it down all summer. In fact, the hotter, the better for topwater poppin’ as far as the Lake Hartwell guru is concerned.

“Anytime the water temp is above 75 degrees, I absolutely don’t leave the dock without a popper,” says the South Carolina native. “And where I’m different than a lot of anglers is I’ll throw it all day long, on the hottest days of summer.”

Ashley makes a great point. While throwing a topwater in the lowlight hours of sunrise or sunset is as commonplace as a beer can koozie at a Chesney concert, most anglers disregard its effectiveness almost completely once the sun gets bright.

“The very best time of day to throw a popper is actually at midday between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. for one simple reason – that’s when shadows are most prominent,” emphasizes Ashley.

“In fact, every truly big bass I’ve ever caught in a tournament on a popper has been during midday, but shadows are the whole key. You have to learn to think of shadows as another form of cover for big summertime bass.”

Ask Ashley to prove his point, and his memory is razor sharp of exact tourneys where the popper pulled him to the top of the leaderboard.

“Right off the top of my head I remember catching ‘em all day on a popper during that super hot tournament in Little Rock on the Arkansas River when Denny Brauer won, and another was when I did really well at Toledo Bend by catching four and five pounders on it all day around wooden sea walls,” he recalls fondly.

Go-to-Gear

“My all time favorite was the Excalibur popper, but they don’t make it anymore, so now I throw the Booyah Boss Pop,” says Ashley who is not sponsored by Booyah.

“I tie it to 12-pound mono, and the rod and reel you use is really key because you’re trying to make super accurate casts with a really light lure around shaded objects in tight places,” he emphasizes.

“I use a 6’ 9” Quantum G-Force rod with a really soft medium action tip, and I like the slightly smaller spooled, really compact, Quantum Vapor reel, because I feel like it helps me throw that super light bait a lot easier,” he explains.

“The deal is you’re probably going to get more bites in the morning, and then the action slows on a topwater, so people often put it down and do something else the rest of the day. But the biggest bites on a popper are going to come once the shadows become more prominent. So keep casting it all day – right through the hottest part of summer,” concludes the longtime Chesney fan.