To be fair, some of these old lures need a bit of work. Sometimes the hooks need sharpening, or complete replacements are necessary, thus the new Bleeding Bait Hooks are especially popular with some anglers. Some old baits need to be cleaned. Toothpaste and an old brush will do a fine job on that, and sometimes a little epoxy is required to keep the lip secure and in place.

If you fish plastics, you are no doubt impressed by all the new styles and designs that are available. Rigging choices are nearly as broad. It seems as if every day something new is introduced by someone, somewhere.

Still, the old Texas-rigged plastic 6-inch worm will catch its share of keeper bass. The origins of this bait are unclear, but the first commercially available plastic or "rubber" worm may have been produced by Nick Crème around 1949. It was simple enough -- a night-crawler-looking lure rigged with a harness and hooks. Most models were dressed with a small spinner at the front. All you needed to do to fish with this rig was cast it out and crank it back. I'm sure that some anglers -- those ahead of their time -- allowed it to drop from time to time and maybe floated it through the water column, but it's doubtful that anything resembling a Texas rig was ever used with it.

But that was before tournament fishing. After that, Tom Mann surfaced as one of the true innovators in the sport. He made his own lures, fished with them and caught tons of bass. Sometime during the early to mid 1960s, Mann developed the Jelly Worm. They were radical in their time. Made with soft plastic and in a wide variety of colors with scented oils to match -- blueberry, strawberry, blackberry and the like -- they soon became the "must-have" lures with bass anglers in the know.

Once these worms were rigged Texas style, it seemed as if no bass was safe. Everyone and anyone with a stiff rod, a heavy line and a pool of water nearby could catch a bass. The plastics revolution was on, and at full speed. To this date, it hasn't slowed down.

Fancy plastics soon replaced the simple worm. Every known creature has been duplicated. Many look as if they came from the age of dinosaurs. It's not an exaggeration to say that it would be impossible to list or catalogue them all. They're made in major manufacturing plants and basements all over the world.

Somewhere, somehow along the way, the basic 6-inch worm got lost. Sure, some anglers still fished their plastics with nose weights, but few were throwing anything as simple as a long, thin cylindrical piece of plastic. That was considered old-fashioned.

But fish still like them. Mann's Jelly Worms may be hard to find, but there are plenty of similar products on the market today. The 6-inch size is a fine compromise between big worms for really big fish and small, finesse worms for smaller fish.

While discussing this subject, Kevin Wirth expressed surprise that Texas-rigged worms aren't as popular with weekend anglers as they once were. At the same time, however, he pointed out that Texas-rigged plastics -- especially worms -- are very popular among professional tournament anglers. "There are times and places when nothing else is as effective, especially in warmwater conditions," Wirth said.