In today’s Throwback Thursday historical photo, you can’t talk about plastic worm fishing or history without talking about Dave Hawk. He’s largely credited with popularizing the “Texas Rig” as we now know it and has written a couple books we have mentioned before on our site.
In this article, originally titled, “If Bass Won’t Bite, Hawk Will,” news reporter Herb Owens had half-day guide trips set up with Dave and his wife Elaine back in 1966. You might recall that Elaine pretty much ran the table in 1959 at the 4th annual Texas State Bass event. The news story talks about those trips, and the 19 bass they caught that day, most all on plastic worms.
A couple good excerpts from the story on worm fishing follow.
- “Some will never learn,” declared Dave (Hawk).
- [Owens] Since much of their business is from repeaters, after a couple of trips they learn the art of worming pretty well, and it’s a good thing, because the plastic artificial is king on this lake.
- “The hardest thing a person must learn,” said Elaine, “is not to set the hook the instant the bass takes the worm. You usually have to wait until it takes the worm and hook. Then you try to tear its head off.
- “You’ve got a fraction of a second to set that hook at the proper time, to hold the rod at the proper angle and everything else,” she said. “I can’t just sit and talk in a nice, subdued tone when I want to give them some instruction.”
- [Owens] On one of my bass Elaine didn’t think I set the hook hard enough and screamed: “Hit it again!”
