In slightly deeper water, or in the presence of highly aggressive fish, jig-wacky cigars excel. Wacky-rigging with a jig allows the cigar to work its magic, trembling all the way down. A wacky-rigged cigar on a jig falls much more slowly than a cigar rigged with the weight forward in jigworm fashion. The same technique can be applied with a jighead, using 6-pound line and a 1/16-ounce bullet-, ball-, or darter-head jig instead of a bare hook. But methods that allow both ends of a cigar worm to vibrate on the drop are potent indeed, especially in clear shallow water, on calm days, in highly pressured fisheries, or when any of these conditions are combined. It's fairly aggressive but works well for smallmouth and largemouth bass, at times. Shaking or vibrating the rod tip makes a worm jump, flap, bob, and weave while it more or less levitates. Make it shake and the fish take.Ĭigars shake all by themselves, in a manner shaky-worm techniques can't duplicate, though you can certainly shake a cigar with positive results. Repeat that process throughout any fish-holding zone, often until the worm is directly under the boat. The object is to allow a jigworm to hit bottom, then lift and shake it by snapping the rod tip up and down.

These techniques involve a jigworm, but any kind of worm rigging can apply.

Little else about a cigar worm proclaims, 'Yes, I really am alive.' Subtle, constant movement like that is hard to duplicate by manipulating the rod tip, though we try.

Let it fall horizontally, squash your nose on the glass and watch both ends wobble ever so slightly while the bait is in free-fall. It's tough to see the real magic of a cigar worm in the water.

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