Wiggle Wart Depth

[SDoolittle]

How deep does a Storm Wiggle Wart run? I was looking at them at Cabelas today, and the box says they run 7'-18'. That seems like a pretty big range.

[Scott F]

The range a bait will run depends on the diameter of the line being used and how much line you have out. According to Steve McClelland's book "A Guide to Casting & Trolling Depths of 200 Popular Lures", a 3/8 oz Wiggle Wart will run 19' tolling 120' back on 8lb mono and will run 14' deep on 17lb mono. When cast using 12lb line, it runs 12 feet deep. It will lose about 1 foot of depth for every increase in line size. Using braid, the lure will run deeper, but when McClelland published his findings, braided lines were not available.

[Goose52]

I use the Wart often as a primary mid-depth crank - I get a practical depth of 10-12 feet on 10lb YZ line and a moderate range cast.  If I know I want to run much over 10 feet, I'll take off the Wart and go to another crank like a Deep Little N to get to 12-14 feet.

[SDoolittle]

Thanks, guys. Scott, I never thought about trolling. I was thinking about fishing it the way Goose52 described. That does explain the wide range of depths.

[merc1997]

a standard wiggle wart on 8 to 10 lb. test line will run 6 to 7 feet deep when casting. i do not know about trolling depth. given the very wide wobble of the wiggle wart, i would doubt that it goes a whole lot deeper trolling.

bo

[Bluebasser86]

On a long cast with 10lb test they seem to get about 8-10 feet but not much deeper. 

[Scott F]

On a long cast with 10lb test they seem to get about 8-10 feet but not much deeper. 

 

No one is really sure about how deep most baits really run. That is why Mike McClelland, way back in 1989 put out the book "A Guide to Casting & Trolling Depths of 200 Popular Lures".  

He spent a lot of time casting baits past a marked pole and noting how deep they ran. The length of the cast had a lot to do with how deep the lure would run. A lure eats up about 25 to 35% of each cast to reach it's maximum depth. Adding 10 feet to the cast let the lure run about 10% deeper. Conversely, a cast 10 feet shorter let the lure run 10% shallower. Retrieving the lure faster actually made the lure run shallower. Another interesting fact is that aside from when there is not enough line out, the position of the rod had absolutely no effect on how deep the lure ran. He found that while trolling, you could raise the rod over your head as high as you could or put the rod in the water up to the reel and the depth the lure ran did not change by an inch.

Mike McClelland was a walleye fisherman and the book was geared a lot to guys who troll for walleyes. Many of the 200 lures he tested are no longer being made. It would be nice if he or someone else did an updated version of the book that included testing with newer lines like braid and fluorocarbon and newer lures. Many people believe that the sinking or floating lines have an effect on the depth a lure will run. I'd like to see some controlled tests run to determine what really happens.

[Goose52]

On a long cast with 10lb test they seem to get about 8-10 feet but not much deeper. 

 

I think this is about right. I initially said 10-12 feet...but thinking back, when I was bringing back grass on the diving bill of the crank at 12 foot depths...I probably had two feet of grass on the bottom.

[SDoolittle]

Another interesting fact is that aside from when there is not enough line out, the position of the rod had absolutely no effect on how deep the lure ran. He found that while trolling, you could raise the rod over your head as high as you could or put the rod in the water up to the reel and the depth the lure ran did not change by an inch.

I know nothing about trolling because I've never done it, but when casting a crankbait, rod position definately plays a role in how deep a lure runs.

[Scott F]

I know nothing about trolling because I've never done it, but when casting a crankbait, rod position definately plays a role in how deep a lure runs.

 

It all depends on how much line you have out. If a lure runs 6 feet deep and you have 50 feet of line out, McClelland's testing showed no difference. Once the lure gets closer, and you don't have much line in the water, or you never let the lure get as deep by holding the line above the water, yes, you can affect the depth by the rod positioning. The point is that the lure will always run where it wants to as long as there is enough line out.