Peter Larmand Outdoors

Tiki Sticks….the other plastic worm.

Everyone knows that the plastic worm has been a bass fisherman’s favourite bait now for years; proven to catch bass in any weather condition and in any sort of cover or structure. So, there is nothing more that can be said about the worm, until now. Tiki-sticks made by Wave Industries in Alba, Texas are the bait that we will be talking about in this article. In particular the ways to fish them that have been successful for me in tournament situations.

The tiki-stick is very versatile bait and there are several ways to fish the tiki-stick. Depending on the conditions on the water and the cover that you will be fishing. The tiki-stick can be fished as soft jerk bait for top water. You can fish it in a drop shot rig, which is good for fishing drop offs for suspended bass. You can it wacky worm style, using a 1/0 or a 2/0 Strike king weed guard hook. I like fishing the tiki-stick texas style. This allows me to fish it in various cover along with different rigs. I have had some success fishing it texas style weightless as top water bait over lily pads twitching (walking the dog) type action as I reel in the bait. If the action is not happening on top you can stop it in the openings in the pads and just let it sink down. If you find that the tiki-stick will not sink because it’s hung up on the lily pads, add a ¼ oz. pegged tungsten slip sinker and it will fall nicely into the openings in the weed beds. Some of the more successfully colours for me have been the black and blue flake, watermelon and red flake, baby bass and pearl in the 5 inch Tiki-stick model. I’ve also had success on the black and blue tiki-crawdude as a trailer on a Strike King Pro model-flipping jig.

The 2 in the picture below starting in my right hand are a 6.3 lbs and a 4.5 lbs large mouth respectfully. Both of these were caught on a slightly modified 5-inch black and blue flake Tiki-stick during a Bass Anglers Association tournament on the Rideau River on July 3, 2004. The bait was modified slightly in that the 5-inch tiki-stick was cut down to 4 inches on a 2/0 owner worm hook with a 6’10” Quantum PT HSX62 and a Quantum Energy PT E600pt model bait casting rod and reel combination with 30 lbs Berkley Fire line. The reason for the modification was that I wasn’t getting the bite with the longer bait. I wanted to keep the same diameter of bait and just change the length. As soon as I made changes to the bait is when the 6 pounder was caught.

Wave worms make a variety of baits from the 4-inch tiki-baby and the 5-inch tiki-stick to the thicker tiki-bamboo. They also have lizards and snakes as well as tiki-crawdudes in various lengths and colours. The next time that you are at your local tackle shop ask about Wave Worms’ Tiki-Sticks and baits and if you fish them in one of the techniques mentioned above you will catch more and larger fish.

Remember to go out and have fun. Tie on a tiki-stick and you too can catch a lunker like I did. Practice catch and release. Fish hard and take lots of pictures.

By Peter Larmand

No Comments

Submit Reply