Bass eating plastic worms question

I was just watching some youtube videos of underwater spawning bass bed fishing and on one of the videos the angler loses 3 worms before actually catching the bass. With all the anglers that fish and the uncountable number of baits we use my question is this. Does it adversely affect the bass from eating alot of artificial baits? Do they digest them? Does it constipate them? Do they need Pepto?

The constipate and Pepto remark was just a joke but was seriously curious about the rest.

Yes, it seems to me like there is an incredible number of fish that eat plastics as I have caught many with their guts having some in. I have also caught fish with hooks inside of them
While I do think it is a painful experience for the fish, they can actually recover well most of the time and actually digest the hook and/or plastic.

I don't know but my guess would be that any kind of lure eaten wouldn't be good for the fish.

Wouldn't surprise me a bit if "constipation" was a real problem - constipation being stomach/intestinal blockage. If a soft bait could be made that is digestable I doubt it would last long enough in water to make it useful (would be like the totally useless jello worms I tried making myself 40 years ago).

Seen a lot of magazine ads and a couple TV commercials lately urging proper disposal of used plastics. Put in regular trash or give to someplace that will recycle/remold them. And if nothing else it's still a good thing to do, same as how & where you dispose of your water bottles, walmart bags, & starbucks latte cups - there's already way too much trash left behind by the pigs we have to share our lakes, rivers and woods with.

Very true

I've seen bass with big heads and skinny bodies, and been told that they were probably plugged up with plastic worms. I've seen old plastics deteriorate in the water, and seems to me that stomach juices would eventually break them down. It would be good to develop a more bio degradable plastic.

I think I saw it on Fox Sports Outdoors with Barry Stokes not long ago. A fellow caught a bass that was deformed and when they opened him up he was plugged up with plastics. The person said that bass cannot digest plastics and was asking anglers not to discard your old ones over the side of the boat.

They will generally regurgitate them. I caught a bedfish a few years ago on a Rattlesnake. The fish took three from me before I caught it. It looked fat as could be. In my livewell at weigh in there were three Rattlesnakes in my livewell.

I'd guess that some of the biodegradable baits like Gulp and Big Bite Bio baits might pass through faster.

iv caught many bass with a rubber worm hanging out there butt.color bleached out but not digested.

I had a "first" for me. I was fishing Wheeler Branch, a bass hit my worm, I reeled him in and I saw my hook first, and I was taking it out and saw a worm sort of deep in his mouth. It wasn't mine, so I unhooked him from my line, then reached in and was able to dislodge the other worm, a bit of line and a 2/0 or 3/0 hook. The fish, by the way, acted completely normal, fought well, and otherwise looked healthy. The worm was one of those ringed segmented bodies and it did look rather broken down.

This was one of those occasions where a fish "got lucky" he was caught.

Brad

I have caught quite a few bass with intact worms hanging out of their rear. Here's one with a senko type bait stuck in its throat which was not mine. I pulled out the worm and the fish went about his day.

I usually just remove the old baits when I fillet them.