Weightless rig

Take the weight off entirely and a salted stick worm still casts, just not far. What you get in return is the slowest, most natural fall available, roughly horizontal rather than nose-down, and a bait that drifts rather than drops.

That fall is what bass in clear or heavily fished water respond to. It is the standard presentation in ponds, around docks and along shallow cover where the fish have seen every moving bait already.

The tradeoffs are wind and depth. A weightless bait casts poorly into any breeze and takes forever to reach anything below about eight feet, so it is a shallow-water technique.

Braid with a fluorocarbon leader helps considerably. Braid is thinner for its strength so it catches less wind, and it floats, which keeps the line off the bait and lets the fall stay horizontal.