Wiggle Wart Crankbaits

[Ham]

The only crankbaits I ever hear about for Table Rock and Bull Shoals are Wiggle Warts. I had bought some Wiggle Warts years ago and got rid of them when they failed to produce for me on the rivers and lakes I fished back then.

I use Bandits 100/200 and Bomber 2A/6A mostly, but own a bunch of other crankbaits as well.

What is so special about the Wiggle Warts and are they really must haves of Ozark Hill Land lakes?

[Phil Lilley]

Not sure about TR but on BS they have always produced walleye. I've talked to several old timers that say that's all they use. I've done fair using them but I don't get down there much.

[Al Agnew]

Ham, I like Wiggle Warts because of the wide, slightly irregular wobble that is a little different from the Bandits. I've caught some big fish on them in Ozark streams. I've modified some that I use on the rivers, by grinding down the bill about 1/4. It makes the lure run about 5-6 feet deep at the deepest, instead of 7-8 feet, without changing the basic action much. They now make the Mid-Wart, which runs about 4 feet deep. I use unmodified ones in the lakes, on the rather rare occasion I fish the lakes.

[Tightline]

Ham, its kinda strange how good a lure the Wiggle Wart has been in this area for the last 20 years or more!A cousin of mine from Alabama visted about 10 years ago and we went Bass fishing at K-dock on a cold windy March day ,we lost tract after 40 but know we had 12 good keepers with a 7 lb thrown in.

He went to Bass pro and bought 50 dollars worth to take back to Alabama,He's never caught a fish on them down there.

Phils right about the walleye too,some of the older patterns they don't make any more were killer, especially in the fall for walleye.

TL

[Ham]

I had bought a good number of Wiggle Warts when a K Mart was going out of business. I was going to build confidence in them by using them when I had a good crankbait bite going on a local bayou.

I could pull up to the mouth of a slough draining into the bayou and expect a bite. I had already caught numerous fish on Bombers and Bandits. The WW did not get a bite. None. Switch back to Bomber fish. Back to WW -zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

This happened on about 6 areas and I never had the confidence to fish them again.

I'll buy a few after I move north and give them another try.

Al, I really don't like crankbait fishing for stream smallies. I've caught them on it, but it seems like a waste of a perfectly good topwater bite or tube bite or senko bite. Yeah, I catch the fish, but its dull compared to getting the thunk on a tube. I cranka few cranks, but it is a bait of near last resort.

[SKMO]

Wiggle warts are good in my opinion. I like them in crawdad colors and the phantom smoke and green. About only downside I have noticed is some are tricky to get to tune, and some of the others I will mention run a couple feet deeper if you are wanting to pound the mud.

I really also like Bill Norman N-series last couple years. Good hooks and good price and they seem to run well.

Bomber Fat Free Shad is pretty sweet. (Citrus Shad!) Can get these models in suspending as well.

Bomber Model A's have probably caught me as many as the rest combined, but thats all I used for a few years. My best day crankin on TR was throwing a Model A in Apple Red during rising muddy water.

Overall there are a lot of really good ones to choose from. Rules of thumb might be: natural dark & craw colors, slow, fat and wide wobble for muddy and colder water, vs. faster thin vibrators in baitfish hues in the warmer clear stuff. But like any rules of thumb the fish have not read them and often as not do not adhere to the rules.

Throw cranks that make you happy, i.e. ones you can throw well on your equipment, ones that you can afford to lose so you will cast them into rank cover, ones that imitate a crawdad or shad depending on the circumstances, throw them agressively bouncing them off rocks and hard cover and you'll get some attention from the fish, assuming the Crank Bait Stars are somewhere near alignment.

[Flysmallie]

The Wiggle Wart is the second greatest crankbait. The Flat Wart was the greatest crankbait I have ever fished. They were sometimes impossible to tune to make them run right and once you did the first fish you caught would knock it out of whack again. I guess that's why they quit making them. But I still buy everyone that I can find.

Flat Wart's have a real tight wiggle that drives fish mad. I used them so much for several years that I would throw them anywhere, including the middle of brushpiles or drag them through timber with all the confidence in the world that they would come through it. I still claim that I can tell when a fish is getting ready to inhale a Flat Wart (my dad thinks I'm an idiot for statements like this). But if you are in tune with one particular crankbait you will know it's every move and feel. And if you concentrate really hard you will notice that a crankbait's wiggle will change just as a bass tries to suck it in. I know you all think I'm an idiot too, but I know it really happens!

[Al Agnew]

Ham, I like using crankbaits in rivers because they are great baits for fishing fast the way I like to do. You gotta slow down too much to fish a tube all the time.

And...although this doesn't have anything to do with the Wiggle Wart...shallow running crankbaits will very quickly get you addicted to fishing cranks for smallmouths. If you're using one that only runs a foot or two deep in the relatively clear water of Ozark streams, you can see the fish hit it, and smallies attack crankbaits about as viciously as you'd ever want. The first time a 20 incher boils on one in the first couple of feet after you start the retrieve, you'll start loving fishing cranks. They aren't always the best choice, but when they are it's pretty intense.

[Ham]

I absolutely understand what you're saying. I am aware of your preference to fish fast and that makes a lot of sense. The stream smallies are often very aggressive and a high speed approach puts you in contact with more active fish.

Fishing a shallow crank in clear water might be a lot more like a buzzbait bite than I have considered before. I have fished the deep divers where the fish just loads up on the crankbait or shallow divers in high current areas where you don't see the bite.

Man I need a fishing trip.