troutgnat

Alright dts and Trophy I know you guys paint some awesome baits. I would love to see more of your work. Let's entertain this thread with some painted original warts. I'm a newbie, I would love to see some real talent. Would you mind sharing some of your pride and joy?

Something like this? LOL

Don't you love it. I love your idea on the wart article. That will really stir up some interest.

TrophyfishR, you said phantom green craw......makes me grin......I plan on painting a few of those myself. My last phantom greens I tweaked out with a little blue. On this next run I'm doing a phantom green with purple accents.

I've seen that triangle cut-out myself......it was before my era. I'm thinking it was back in the 80's. My history of the wart doesn't go back that far, sorry. But I will say "Way to make another steal". Some of us are really getting the deals. I'm loving this thread! Were really seeing some history now. I love the looks of those pee and wee warts. Anybody a huge fan of the flat warts as well?

I know. The gal didn't know what she had, she just knew she wanted to get rid of it. That wasn't the half of it but that was led to the drinking:).........I have a lifetime supply of chompers twin tails in all the good colors. Her husband had bought them in bulk. I got a 400ct bag of watermelon candy 4"chompers for .50 and that was just one of the bags. I weighed my chompers on the fish scale and I've got 20lbs of just chompers and it didn't cost me over $5........I could tell you more .......but I'm feeling really guilty.

Speaking of warts. Gentlemen, I had to go home and drink a few beers after this find as of just a couple hrs ago. Hit a yard sale coming home and for $30 got the set below. 7 original warts and all with the clear phantom bodies. All but one in darn near mint condition. The fish gods blessed me today. Now excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor, I'm still in awe.

You are correct Sir! I should have mentioned that. Trout/Steelhead sales were a large contributing factor as well. Clearly that whole northern great lakes area dominated the sales market they were looking for.......not us Midwest bass guys......darn the bad luck.

Both, but mostly cuts in the main shoreline. They really clung to those cedar limbs under the water. You'd go by a cedar and see that old familiar nose sticking out from underneath it. Flooded buck brush on the mainlake points was another good spot. We never shot a grass carp, they were all the good ole' commons. We had a lot of them in the 15-22lb range.

We shot the hell of em' back in the high water of 011' all around the Combs Ferry area.

Yes Trophyfshr. Those were the days, sad, but I remember them well. I sure miss the fishing industry. I spent about 13 yrs between retail and my sales rep days. Now I'm just a retail manager who's a fish'n bum on his days off.

Somebody said peanut butter wiggle wart........I'm sure I'm not the only one but here is my version I came up with some time ago. Sorry for the road rash but yes it's been used quite successfully

Someone mentioned about the getting the paint off of those clear warts. A scotch brite pad or steel wool will be your best bet.....Don't do the sandpaper thing. Acetone does the job quick but you must be careful to much of it and you will weaken the plastic too much. Do not dip into acetone but put acetone on a rag and be prepared for the elbow grease. A lot of these baits did have the white bodies. You won't find the clear underneath those! The dead give away to those that have the clear bodies is the lip. If you have one with the clear lip, well then the body is also. I've repainted quite a few of these as well. Be easy on the layers of paint. I top coat mine with the Devcon 2-ton epoxy(2 part/30 min cure. Do not use the 5 minute version you are asking for a world of hurt. I use one coat only and immediately put it on a turner and then very carefully apply a little heat from a hair dryer or heat gun to allow the epoxy to "level" on the bait if you will. It will also help rid of any possible air bubbles. Leave it on your turner overnight. I'm no expert but this is what I do and it works though I'm sure others have great methods too. And as someone said before "It's an original wart, they won't all come out perfect". Your altering what once was, the key is test one ahead of time and get one that runs good before the re-paint it will better your odds.

A lot of good points thus far. Someone mentioned the pre-Rapala days and hit the money on the head. I mentioned this some time ago on this forum under a wart thread.......Here's the deal: I was a rep for Rapala/Storm at the very time of the turnover and witnessed this first hand. Understand this....The Rapala guys(staff and company) are from Minnesota. They are walleye guys NOT bass guys, at least at that time anyway. We all know the unique action of those warts from that era and unfortunately so did they. At the time they were all about new production and "consistency". The wart was discontinued and re-manufactured if you will to cater more to the walleye guys who wanted a better bait which tracked true for better trolling. That had a lot to do with it. And they wanted better walleye paint schemes. It wasn't actually said but they wanted more sales and felt that there were more top end sales and bigger clients with the Northern walleye market. I was at the Rapala meeting at their headquarters and saw this "New" wart demo'd in a swimming pool and all I heard was the word "tracks true" and how it was "sonic welded" to be absolutely waterproof. How it now had a separate "molded" lip that was precisely inserted into the bait to assure that it was centered to track true. If you recall on the original warts they actually came in two pieces and were glued right down the middle thus sometimes not being exactly centered leading to their sometimes unique action. And of course I heard the word walleye plenty. Anyway, enough with the hype but there's some history for you witnessed first hand. I tried to tell them more than once about our market here but in the grand scheme of things the accounts in my tri-state territory were just pennies on the dollar to them. If anyone recalls a distributor U.S. Plastics out of Eldon, MO and a gentlemen by the name of Lou.....I wish I remembered Lou's last name but it slips me. Lou sold more warts in this part of the country than probably anyone combined. He knew the wart well and the value of it. Let me tell you I lost a dung load of sales after the conversion and funny thing is.............I had virtually every one of my accounts screaming for these warts, I mean screaming for them. And I was able to get them very few orders. I kept getting told they were sold out. Can anyone guess where they went so fast????? You all remember those $1.99 wart bins at the Springfield Bass Pro Classic?.............Yep Bass Pro got virtually all of the old warts. They hoarded them all for the big man. The only good thing I got out of the whole deal was a sample account that afforded me a whole 370box full of original warts. Oh, and sorry their not for sale.

Howe, I've caught a lot of crappie on the lower end of Little Niangua toward the mainlake. You will do fine. Like I mentioned before I haven't further up than Jackson hollow but from their out there are crappie. And, even better just outside the arm on the mainlake there are several good areas.

fishingwrench, you mention green mill to prairie hollow for crappie. I know there's good crappie fishing in this arm of the lake though I've mainly fished the lower arm towards the mainlake. I don't think I've ever been further upstream than probably about mile marker 40+(Jackson Hollow) area. Would you recommend camping at Green Mile Campground? Their website looks pleasing. It's as far back in their as you can get. I'm planning on vacation about April 11-19 give or take a couple days.

Gentlemen, I haven't found much success searching the net so hoping to get some advice from the forum here. I'm no stranger to fishing crappie on LOZ. I make several trips each year in spring and fall. Once again I am planning a spring trip in early April. I'm really in the mood to do some tent camping. I would like to concentrate on the Niangua Arm and more specifically the Little Niangua for crappie this spring. I've stayed twice at Bull Run Bluff campground. Once with the old(original) owners and had a pleasurable experience. I stayed their again back in; I believe it was 09-010' after the new owners took over and was not very impressed. I've heard some not so nice things about how it's been run lately. If anyone can change my opinion as of lately please let me hear your input. Otherwise, can anyone recommend some other campgrounds in the area? I prefer to have the following: -tent camping with electricity(must charge boat) -Boat dock and boat slip even better -somewhere close to mainlake(I found some campgrounds all the way back in the Little Niangua/ 7+ mi to mainlake by boat.....not ideal)......Speaking of Little Niangua Campground and Green Mill Campground. -allows pets(my dogs my boat buddy) -and amenities of course(could use a daily shower) Thanks for any insight!

One and only Brookie of the day. On a dry fly in Febuary......Ahhhhhh.

I had a pair a number of years now. They worked good but they were defective. I sent them back twice and they never fixed them correctly nor would they replace them. I will say this......Their customer service sucks! I was very disappointed and I have never gone back. I gave them the opportunity to fix the problem they chose not to take care of the customer. Since then I went to Maui Jim and I have never turned back. Their customer service is great and their product is of superior grade.

Very nice read Phil! I take several trips to LOZ in the spring and fall for crappie.

Hughes is a great guy! I talked to him on the phone some time ago when I decided to take up airbrushing my own crankbaits and he gave me a lot of great pointers. For a guy doing this for a living I was more than impressed of his willingness to share his trait. I don't think I will ever compare to him but when I read of others paying $9+ for a wiggle wart on e-bay and another $15-$20(average) and shipping costs for a repaint I just grin .......................not for sale. Thumbs up for Hughes. Thumbs up for TrophyFishR...........I would of helped you out if they hadn't already been painted. They look great. Who did those by the way? You got any old original beat up ones? I'm more interested if their the old clear bodies.

Hughes is a great guy! I talked to him on the phone some time ago when I decided to take up airbrushing my own crankbaits and he gave me a lot of great pointers. For a guy doing this for a living I was more than impressed of his willingness to share his trait. I don't think I will ever compare to him but when I read of others paying $9+ for a wiggle wart on e-bay and another $15-$20(average) and shipping costs for a repaint I just grin .......................not for sale. Thumbs up for Hughes. Thumbs up for TrophyFishR...........I would of helped you out if they hadn't already been painted. They look great. Who did those by the way? You got any old original beat up ones? I'm more interested if their the old clear bodies.

Ham let's get together on this. pm me.

Thanks again Phil!!!

Nice fish Basser!