What made the worm such a breakthrough invention? First, it catches fish consistently. I’ve probably caught more black bass on plastic worms than any other bait. In fact, I remember long ago when my father and I were casting worms on a lake in north Florida at night. I felt the telltale pickup and opened the bail to let the fish take line. I whispered that I had a fish on and about that time my father said, “I’ve got one on, too.” He decided to set the hook on his fish sooner than I had chosen to and suddenly his rod was bent over as he fought the fish. I lifted my rod to set the hook then and got nothing. Darn, I thought, the fish struggling on the end of my father’s line must have spooked my fish. I starting winding in my slack line and suddenly I had another fish on. I began fighting the fish just as my father said he had lost his fish. Long story short, the four-pound bass had taken both our worms. We still argue over who had bragging rights to that one.

Second, worms are cheap. One worm costs just a few pennies and will catch a dozen fish if one doesn’t break it off. Compare that to live bait or hard plastic crank baits and you’ve got a bargain.

Third, Nick Crème’s invention inspired an entire industry of fake bait that gives both freshwater and saltwater anglers a huge arsenal from which to choose. You can get rubber shrimp, frogs, eels, and all manner of fake bait fish and most will catch a fish, at least occasionally.

I hadn’t used plastic worms in years since most of my fishing is in salt water, where plastic shrimp and fish imitations seem to be preferred. But driving along the Tamiami Trail a few weeks ago, I decided to fish in the freshwater drainage canals along the highway and my first thought was to pick up some plastic worms. Unfortunately, nothing chose to chomp on my offering, but it was fun casting the light lure and slowly retrieving it to create the right action. Plastic worms really come into their own in heavy weeds around the shores of lakes where they can rigged to be weedless, either Texas-style in which the hook point is hidden just inside the worm’s body or, as I prefer, with weedless hooks that have a thin wire bent around the point that keeps the hook from hanging on weeds, but gets pushed out of the way when a bass bites.