The Worm
The heart of a wacky rig is a straight-tail worm or Senkostyle stick bait. Whichever worm is used, it must be very soft and very salty. Those two ingredients give the rig its irresistible quiver on the sink. The 6 1 / 2-inch Zoom Trick Worm and the 5-inch Yamamoto Senko are the two most popular soft plastics for wacky rigging, but plenty of other alternatives exist, such as the Strike King Ocho or Strike King Bull Worm, which Meyer likes for Neko rigging in deep water.
David Dudley has spent hours experimenting with many different brands and models of plastic worms in an effort to find the one that“ starts kicking first.” Though he won’ t reveal which one he uses, he did share information regarding what anglers should look for when performing tests.
“ Some plastics start quivering sooner than others,” he says.“ Some start kicking as soon as they start sinking. Others have to sink 6 or 8 inches before they start kicking. I went through several kinds to find the ones that start kicking as soon as they hit the water.”
Rods and Lines
A wacky rig skips easily, which makes it a great tool for fishing under docks, overhanging limbs and bushes. Skipcasting and the ensuing free-falling presentation are made easier by using spinning tackle.
“ Just leave the bail open to let it free-fall,” says Tour pro John Cox.“ That’ s where the money is in a wacky rig – that quivering free-fall.”
Most pros prefer a medium-action rod in the 7-foot range, though longer rods get the call when fishing weighted rigs in deep water.
The most common line choice is 10- to 15-pound-test braid main line tied to an 8- to 10-pound-test fluorocarbon leader. At times, Meyer and fellow pro Matt Arey prefer to use straight fluorocarbon in the 8- to 10-pound-test range to avoid the inherent floating resistance of braid and allow the rig a more natural fall.
O-Ring Opinions
The downside of wacky rigging is that the soft, salty plastic needed to produce the magic shimmy tears very easily.
One remedy is to slide an O-ring onto the worm and slip the hook under the O-ring parallel to the worm’ s body. The ring acts as a durable hook holder that absorbs most of the casting and slinging abuse.
“ An O-ring saves you a ton of plastic because you’ re not casting them off all the time,” Arey explains.“ Plus, it’ s pretty aggravating to skip your rig to the perfect spot, only to have the worm tear off as it hits the strike zone. It’ s a lost opportunity.”
Dudley, who says he’ s had a similar problem, still refuses to use an O-ring as a solution.
“ I like my hook to go through the middle of the worm at a 90-degree angle,” he says.“ I think it gives it the best action and the best hook-up ratio. But that’ s just me.”
Meyer opts not to use the O-ring when he’ s fishing a pure weightless wacky rig, but will use one when fishing with a nailweighted rig out deeper.
“ Once you start putting a nail in a soft plastic and really slinging it hard to cast for distance out in open water, it will tear easily, so an O-ring at that point helps a bunch,” he says.
O-ring
WORMS
Zoom Trick Worm
5-inch Yamamoto Senko
5-inch Strike King Ocho
8-inch Strike King Bull Worm
Strike Detecting and Hooksets
If you’ re new to the wacky-rigging game and not sure of the best way to detect strikes and set the hook with this setup, the pros’ best advice is to become a line watcher.
“ Sometimes you will see the‘ tick’ in your line when you get a bite,” Darrel Robertson advises.“ Other times the line will just stop sinking and start moving out toward the boat. At that point just pull into the fish and reel. There is no need for a big line-cracking hookset. It’ s an exposed hook, and just pulling into them is all it takes.”
MAY-JUNE 2018 I FLWFISHING. COM
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