Ironically fishing Horker’s soft worms for steelhead is still a relatively new thing. Soft worms have been a southern bass anglers go to for generations, yet here is the Pacific Northwest it really didn’t catch on until the 1990’s. Today thousands of steelhead have fell to the enticing allure of the infamous Pink Worm and it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon.
The beauty of the pink worm is how aggressively steelhead tend to strike it. Steelhead are known for their finicky biting style, a nibble here and a nibble there. The endless bite and spit. Similar to spinners, steelhead really give it a whammy when a 4″ – 6″ rubber worm comes drifting bye. Also soft worms tend to be more safe for catch and release fishing because the setup naturally sets the hook right at the corner of the mouth of the fish.
Over the years we’ve come to love fishing soft worms and have dedicated a whole product line for catching steelhead. We at Horker Soft Baits bring the best of the best to the steelhead worm game with our Inhaler series OLY Steelhead Worms. These soft worms were specifically designed to target the monster steelhead here in our own back yard on the Olympic Peninsula. Drift off the bottom or bobber dog under a float our Horker INHALER soft worms live up to their name, they get inhaled.
OLY steelhead worms have put fish on the bank over and over again. Once you fish them you won’t regret it. A few years back we only offered our soft baits to fishing guides. Today however, we’re offering them to everyone right here in our online store. In the Pacific Northwest our Inhaler soft worms have become a main stay for top anglers looking to have an edge against the competition. Our Oregon and Washington brothers are killing it with our worms and we’re getting more and more anglers from California and even out East catching fish on their waters as well. The rest is history.
Horker steelhead worms are among the most effective soft baits in the region and are excellent for catching the various runs of summer and winter Pacific Northwest Steelhead as well as salmon, walleye and bass. It doesn’t stop there, our friends out east are catching with our Inhaler worms as well, not to mention our fans up North in Alaska that are nailing the monster rainbows with our soft baits. End story, Horker Inhaler steelhead worms are kick ass! Don’t believe us? How about this, you fish our baits and if you’re not satisfied, send back any unused baits within 30 days and we’ll gladly refund your money. We’re so confident in our product that we have no problem offering a money back guarantee.
Horker soft baits are made of the highest quality plastics in the industry. We offer several extremely effective UV colors with fish attracting glitter and a variety of scents like anise, garlic, earthworm, and shrimp all of which salmon, trout, and steelhead love.
Best ways to fish Inhaler Soft Worms for Steelhead
There are several effective methods for fishing soft worms for steelhead. Drift fishing being among the most popular. The setups below are among our favorite and have proven effective for decades. All are excellent setups for catching steelhead.
Corkie and Bead Worm setup
Probably the most basic rig is the corkie and bead worm combination. The corkie increases boyancy allowing the set up to float above the weight when drifting off the bottom. Placing a bead above the hook where it excites the worm helps to help prevent tearing of the worm and increase the life of the lure.
Soft Worm Jig
The Soft Worm jig fished under a float has probably taken more steelhead than almost any other lure in the soft bait game. They are super easy to set up and work great. However mending the line and watching the bobber require focus and dedications. In addition this type of fishing can result in several lost hook sets, timing is everything let the you’ll need to make sure it’s a solid bobber down otherwise you’ll end up yanking the setup out of the a steelheads mouth rather than setting the hook.
Upside Down Worm Rig
This setup is fairly popular as well. By rigging the worm upside down you significantly extend the life of the worm. The reason being is the it doesn’t allow the eye of the hook to hammer on the fragile skin of the worm. Also the bead and corkie add an extra layer of protection. As you can see from the image above we’ve also added another simple modification with some heat shrink tape to further increasing the life of the bait by preventing the line itself to tear the worm.
Selecting Colors
Steelhead love the pink worm, and is by far the most popular color ever used to catch steelhead. We recommend you have a few pre-tied and ready to fish before you hit the water. Our pink steelhead worm with pearl tail is the color to start with in clear water but don’t overlook variations including ones with a pink body with chartreuse tail with has proven very effective as well as our cooked lobster colored soft worms.
The orange or chartreuse nightmare or bloody nightmare are all goods choice for clear for slightly colored water after a recent rain. Our Blue Thunder or Rocket worms are killer effective for these water conditions as well.
In high water or muddy conditions with low visibility our Back in Black worms with the black body and red tail work well or our blood craw or chocolate nightmare worms all work great as well.
It’s always good to have a few variations including some with our shrimp, garlic or anise scent. When fishing soft worms that are infused with scent we’ve found that strick rates significantly increase. If your soft bait gets dried out a bit it’s a good idea to apply additions scented oils to your worms, this helps to improve the not only the look, feel, and smell of the bait but the life of it as well.
If you’d like to try our Horker Inhaler steelhead worms, place an order today and find out why our customers will never go back to the big box stores. Horker, Killer Soft baits for serious steelhead anglers.