Old Wiggle Warts

[mark poulson]

What made the original Wiggle Wart so special?

[stretcher66]

this might help answer your question Mark.   http://www.wired2fish.com/storm-wiggle-wart-review/

[Musky Glenn]

They really do catch the fish. If you want to see some silly prices, check out ebay for what their first cousin, the flat wart is going for. Musky Glenn

[mark poulson]

Stretcher,

Thanks for the link.  That pretty much sums up what I should be shooting for in terms of action.

 

Glenn,

I hear they are worth their weight in....fish.  Hahaha

That brown craw paint scheme looks like the hot setup.  Out here in SoCal, in lakes with northern largies, the red craw is a great spring pattern, especially in off colored water.

 

I have a few of both the larger and the smaller.  A couple of my smaller ones suspend.  The Mag Warts have a really loud rattle, but the smaller ones are silent.

I was checking out their bills, and they are dished both ways, like Rapalas.  I make my bills out of Lexan, so I will be heating and bending them.

I'm making a couple of the Mags out of PVC, and was wondering if there was a "secret ingredient" I should include.

Any help is appreciated.

Edited April 7, 2014 by mark poulson

[stretcher66]

 checking out their bills, and they are dished both ways, like Rapalas

 

maybe because Rapala bought them out.   

[mark poulson]

 checking out their bills, and they are dished both ways, like Rapalas

 

maybe because Rapala bought them out. 

 

I was thinking that those bills helped them to "hunt".

[stretcher66]

i remember buying them at thrifty drugs when i was a kid up in northern calif.  always worked great

[Darkman]

thanks for posting this, I have been wondering the same thing for a while, going to have to look these babies up

[ArdentAngler]

There is an article that gets to the core of the answer, sent this to the "wizard" Dieter a while back. When I find it I will post it. Basically the Old Warts were made inconsistently, using whatever materials were cheap at the time; hooks, lead, wire etc., etc. They also state that the lures benefited mainly because of the lead rattle, which sounded like a crayfish scurrying out of its hole. So the main reason was a loose tolerance in manufacturing causing the lures to be inconsistent, in a good way. Like the old Bagleys they had an erratic action and no two were alike. Another rumor was that the mold itself was a bit off.

There are many speculations on why these were so special, seems inconsistency keeps popping up. I do not own one so I cannot speculate, although if I did chances are I would have cracked open to reveal its secrets.

I believe the article was on basseast.com titled wiggle warts old vs new.

Edited April 8, 2014 by ArdentAngler

[woodieb8]

we ran warts on our charterboat on l.erie. the old w.warts were made of harder plastic. with the rattles they sent noise better then re-cycled plastic companies use t-day.. they caught tonnage of walleyes.

[mark poulson]

So the rattle is important, if I'm reading this right.

I'll have to think on that a while.  I usually use sst BB's for rattles, but I may have to try a big split shot instead.

[Hughesy]

Mark,

If you have some that don't rattle, you can usually smack them pretty hard on a table and break the rattles loose. They did not make a silent model. The lead use in the old ones sometimes gets corroded but will usually break loose. The suspending models have one lead ball floating around the body cavity.

 

[mark poulson]

Mark,

If you have some that don't rattle, you can usually smack them pretty hard on a table and break the rattles loose. They did not make a silent model. The lead use in the old ones sometimes gets corroded but will usually break loose. The suspending models have one lead ball floating around the body cavity.

 

Thanks.  

I never noticed if they had rattles when I first fished them.  I was more interested in the suspending feature.

They have sat long enough for the lead to get stuck, for sure.

I'll try that today.

[RayburnGuy]

Good point Hughesy. That's something that had slipped my mind about manufactured cranks. I know for a while there Norman had a problem with the rattles sticking. After getting a couple that I couldn't get the rattle to free up by whacking them on a hard surface I always shook the bait while still in the tackle shop to see if they rattled before buying them.

 

Ben

[benton B]

Good luck trying to mimic the action of the WART.   I've tried for several yrs off and on, nothing has come close.

That cupped bill is the one thing I did not try to copy and imho is the key to that erratic action.   Have fun with the project

Mark

[fishon-son]

from what I understand the original series has never changed..its a myth...just different paint...coming right from a rapala salesman...they are a hot bait for bass,walleyes and salmon/trout..the only color they cant repaint are the Bengal tigers.that was in the sales agreement..also from the same sales guy a few years back that I talked to...that's the ones you see way over the top..but worth every dime to the collector...

[bass01]

The age old question I have gotten different answers from a lot of Wart followers but most say its the lead weight and the bill whether it be from miss alignment or the cup as stated above but it is a true cult following that no matter what it will never catch fish like the old ones Good Luck

[woodieb8]

I don't believe the myth theory. when storm was producing mag warts and hot n tots the plastics were harder ,plus as mentioned the rattle balls were better. we ran them 125ft on boards at 2.9ft to achieve 20ft of depth.in the day warts early morn then bomber 9-a series. they achieved 32ft. bomber rattle was a thud. wart rattles REALLYrattled.. on l.st clair we used the wee warts for walleyes,and the smallies inhaled them. remember tuity fruity guys.

[Hughesy]

The old warts were made of harder plastic and had lead rattles. The new ones have stainless steel weights and rattles. I think the new ones have the same shape and bill, or close enough not to change how they run. So I think its the difference in the weight between the old plastic and lead weights, and the new plastic and stainless steel weights that changed how they run.

[BobP]

I fish Warts of the several manufactured eras and know a couple of guys who are Original Wart Nuts.  I've tried to get them psychiatric help, but...  If you get a really good Original Wart, it's an erratic, hunting, fish-catching machine.  But it's equally possible that the Wart will have a non-hunting straight retrieve or be absolutely un-tunable and worthless.  Luck of the draw, caused by the iffy manufacturing precision on the originals.

[Musky Glenn]

How do you tell the old version from the new version. Can you tell by looking at it. Another good color was naturalized perch. Musky Glenn

[Musky Glenn]

Can you tell the difference between the old series and the new ones by looking at them? Another good color was the naturalized perch. Musky Glenn

[BobP]

No expert, but I'm pretty sure there are 3-4 different periods of Wart manufacture.  The most sought after are ones originally made by Storm from the first molds.  Factory molds eventually wore out and there will never be more actual "original warts".  There's big collector interest in these, particularly for baits that are still in the original packages.  With online research, you can narrow down which bait comes from which era of production.  It depends on the Wart's color scheme, how the bait is stamped with the Storm name, and the color of the package.  Various bait colors are worth more than others, etc.  Look on Ebay for prices - they can be eye-popping!

 

The collector market for original Warts is so high that it would be pretty dumb to buy one, rip off the packaging, and go fish it.  Personally, I see no value in a crankbait that isn't catching fish, so think of the whole thing is a humorous oddity.   

[RayburnGuy]

If I'm not mistaken the very first Warts had no markings at all. The next generation had "Storm" stamped, or embossed, close to the tail. After this the name started appearing on the lip. Not exactly sure what markings were on the lip, but some of these were still the pre-Rapala warts. After Rapala took over the marking was still stamped on the lip, but a different name was used.

 

There are several good explanations of the history of the Wart online. Just do a search for "old versus new Wiggle Warts".

 

Ben

[BobP]

Collector sites say that most of the original Wart production had "Wiggle Wart" stamped on the bottom center of the lip.  But the labeling varied over the years of original production and seemed to change several times.  Original Wart colors were designated in a Vxx series (xx is a 2 digit number).  The originals also used lead rattles while later models used steel.  BTW, there is also a company called Brad's that makes a Wart knockoff called Brad's Wiggler - http://www.gloutdoors.com/bradswiggler.aspx

 

There's a bunch of pretty esoteric stuff online concerning Warts.  Believe what you will, buy what you want, fish what you buy, and judge for yourself.

Edited April 9, 2014 by BobP