Most bass fishing worms look like… most bass fishing worms. We’ve been doing this “fishing with artificial baits” thing for a while now. I’ve never been involved in the lure-making process but I can only assume it’s pretty difficult to continue to reinvent the wheel year after year after year.
But I think NetBait did a really good job with their Flex Worm in regards to bringing something rather unique to the table. I’ve been testing it lately and have been really impressed by several of its different characteristics.
I’ll break down what, in my opinion, sets it apart from most other bass fishing worms on the market.
Two sizes fit all with lots of color choices
The Flex Worm comes in both 5- and 7-inch sizes. With these two sizes, you have all you need for nearly any finesse technique. The 5-inch version is great for anything from a Ned rig to a Carolina rig, with the 7-inch version working well on a Neko rig, drop shot and shaky head. Though really that’s just my personal preference based on their sizes and the two are actually interchangeable with all those techniques depending on how you like to fish them.
With 11 colors and a pretty wide variety within those 11, you have an offering for most any water color you’re fishing or forage you’re trying to match. The ribbing and varying spine thickness also create really cool variations in the color of the worms, making them look like some of the higher-end, two-toned, hand-poured worms.
Flex
The aptly named NetBait Flex Worm is one of the most flexible worms I’ve ever used. But what makes it more flexible than other worms? The intentionally different design is the answer. The Flex Worm has a spine that runs the length of it with what looks like dozens of little balls lining both edges. These little round outcroppings form ribs with spaces between them.
The lack of material in the gaps between the ribs allows the Flex Worm to double over until the ribs touch. Likewise on the opposite side of the worm, the ribs are able to spread farther apart and allow the bait to bend better since the worm isn’t one continuous, restrictive run of plastic like most other baits.
Spine design
The spine of the bait isn’t the same diameter throughout the length of the worm however. Throughout most of the bait, the spine is thin and offers just enough material to hold the ribs together, but makes sure the bait is fairly durable and you won’t lose a tail on every bite. But towards the business end of the bait where the hook goes, NetBait gives you a good bit more meat to work with.
So if you want to Texas rig this bait, fish it on a shaky head or just rig it weedless and weightless, you have enough plastic in the spine and body of the bait to hide your hook point. If this section of the bait were as thin as the rest of the spine, your hook would tear through it constantly causing you to hang the bait on cover and go through several more worms much quicker.
Clam shell packaging
Clam shell packaging is always something I mention in a review when a company goes the extra mile. I love how orderly this type of packaging keeps my baits and I really like knowing that my worm won’t have a big kink in it, especially for finesse baits like the Flex Worm where there’s a good chance the fish will have a chance to look at it for a few seconds before committing to it.
In conclusion
Again, the Flex Worm is a pretty uniquely designed worm, so kudos to NetBait on that. But sometimes baits are just different for different’s sake, and that doesn’t mean much. That’s definitely not the case with the Flex Worm, though. The design generates the desired outcome of a more flexible worm and their attention to detail in making sure there was enough plastic to hide the hook was a nice catch, ensuring that making the bait more flexible didn’t simultaneously make it less effective.
All in all, it’s a solid worm ready to be used for multiple techniques and stored in the meantime in clam shell packaging that ensures these worms will look just the way they did when you bought them. And at $4.29, that’s a whole lot for not much at all. It’s definitely worth giving them a shot in my book.
The NetBait Flex Worm is available at the following retailers:
