Question regarding the old wiggle warts..

[DitchPanda]

 So I've never thrown a wiggle wart but I have always heard how the old ones outperform the new ones because they had a slight mold defect that gave the bait a better hunting action. There must be some truth to this because the old ones go for crazy money on ebay.

 So my question is this: if storm lures is now Rapala..a company known for making great baits...why haven't they reverse engineered the old baits and redesigned the lure molds to give the new ones that it factor? Surely with the skill level of the designers/engineers/ technology this could be done.

[scaleface]

Beats me . I have a few old ones but  not in the sought after colors . They still catch fish . 

[PotatoLake]

23 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Beats me . I have a few old ones but  not in the sought after colors . They still catch fish . 

They are for sure legendary baits here in Missouri waters. Especially down in the Ozarks region.

 

I have two theories on why you don’t see a exact replicant. 1. They’ve tried and thrown resources at it and failed. 2. From a pure bottom line perspective, they have done cost analysis and determined it’s not worth the effort.

 

it’s funny, Randy Blaukat posted this today and he posed the same question about why they can’t replicate the mold.

[Jig Man]

Corporate America is a mystery.  There was a great double bladed buzz bait that got sucked up in a Rapala buyout.  It is now as extinct as a dinosaur.

[king fisher]

     It is a mystery, even other species of fish loved the old ones.  In the 1980's back trolling Mag. Wiggle Warts became extremely popular on Alaska rivers for King Salmon.  Before that Northwest companies like Luhr Jensen had plugs that were popular, but once the Mag Wart craze kicked in  you never saw any other plug used.  I'm not sure how the craze started, but I'm sure some bass fisherman brought some Mag Warts and gave them to a guide, and he couldn't keep it a secret.  The first year I used them, they out fished other plugs, and bait 10 to one on the river I was guiding.  That winter I bought dozens of every color made.  The next king season I found out that the ones with a clear lip didn't work at all, but all the other colors worked great.  A friend noticed the ones with a clear lip had a slightly different rattle to them.  I assume that the plastic must have been different on those colors.  Hours of comparing colors, and models, with trolling four rods 16 hours a day made it possible to do as scientific of an experiment as is possible with fishing lures.

          When Rapala bought out Storm and changed the molds, it became impossible to find the old ones.  The new ones did not work.  A few years later a company called Brads put out a Wart knock off that looked exactly like the old ones.  Rumor was they had bought the molds from Storm.  They were an improvement but nothing like the old Warts.  I can't understand what difference it would make.  When back trolling for Salmon you are simply backing a plug down through a whole, invading the salmons space, trying to get a reaction strike.  The Salmon isn't even able to feed.  Their stomach is closed off making it impossible to for them to eat.  You would think almost any plug would work, but the old Warts were special and since salmon can't talk, the mystery will never be solved.

    I wasn't surprised to find out bass fisherman had experienced the same thing.  I see Storm is making the old Wiggle Warts again, but from what my friends in AK tell me, they look the same but don't catch the same.  Same goes for lake trout and char.  They love the old Warts, and hate the new. 

      For bass I fish the Rock Crawler almost every time I go fishing, but will throw on an old Wart from time to time.  I still have some old Mag Warts in popular Salmon colors, I might give them a try for Mexico bass sometime.  Any one use the Mag. size for bass?     

      

[WRB]

Major Craft Don Iovino Zoner Hunter has the same action as the original Wiggle Wart. Don spent a lot of time getting this lures hunting action to replicate the Warts.

Tom

[Munkin]

I had 45 of the old warts and couldn't catch a d**n thing on them. Switch to a Bandit or Rebel Deep Wee R and started catching them. Sold most of them off for crazy money but kept a few just in case.

 

Allen

[gim]

1 hour ago, Jig Man said:

Corporate America is a mystery.  There was a great double bladed buzz bait that got sucked up in a Rapala buyout.  It is now as extinct as a dinosaur.

The storm subwart was an awesome little lure too that was discontinued after Rapala bought them. Same with the original T1 titanium terminator spinnerbaits. Once Rapala took them over, that was the end of it.

 

The 2 inch subwart go for 40 bucks on eBay sometimes.  Original retail price was $4.99.

 

I still have a few subwarts and terminator spinnerbaits left in the arsenal.

[rangerjockey]

One of the reasons they won't be duplicated because the plastic that was used in the pre Rapala warts had a cancer causing ingredient that can no longer be used.

They also used lead for the rattles instead of the steel that's used now. The combination of that plastic and that lead rattles is unique. The lead rattles would eventually stick together and the only way to get them unstuck was to slap the bait on a hard surface and hope you don't crack it.

  Even if someone could duplicate the action they will never get one to the sound the same.

 The only bait that's close in my mind is the RK Crawler. It's a bigger and deeper bait than the wart but when they get a little further off the bank it's the way to go rather than going to 6 or 8lb. line like we did in the day to get the wart deeper.