Yet Another Wart Thread..

[troutgnat]

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

[troutgnat]

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.

[Gavin]

Rename this thread wiggle wart grad school!

[motoman]

Great thread indeed Gavin!:-)........glad my info posted wasn't just Internet 'lore'.........very cool story RPS!:-)

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Love that peanut butter color too troutgnat..........and I'm with you too mixermark, I LOVE me some purple on my Warts too!(okay........that sounded gross:-P)

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And from the sounds of it; I wonder if the 'new' warts could be turned into 'old' warts with a bandsaw and a few odd sized/material pellets. Saw one right down the middle, add a few odd sized BB's/pellets, glue/epoxy it back together...........okay............this sounds weird too.........I need some sleep!(hahaha)

[dtrs5kprs]

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.

Yankees. 'Nuff said.

The warts were, and still are, huge in the steelhead / trout trolling market also. No doubt they had the same gripes as the walleye guys, but they paid for it when Rapala killed all their niche trolling colors.

Maybe we actually need to do a more complete wart article...variations, specs, colors, painting and rehab, standard and other uses, etc.

[troutgnat]

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.

[troutgnat]

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.

[Guest]

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.

Dang man,

you hit a home run with that yard sale!

[troutgnat]

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.

[Ham]

And the rich get richer