Fishing Tip — Wiggling for Panfish

No other fishing rig even comes close!

Want to catch more bream, trout, perch, and crappie? Any species that will eat a small red worm? Watch the Video.

NOW YOU SEE WHY IT WORKS SO WELL!

Last season we tested the Secret Weapon Wiggle Rig™ on panfish, and the results were even better than we expected. These were head-to-head tests, fishing right beside experienced fishermen using live baits or artificial lures fished with other rigs.

The patented Wiggle Rig™ is designed to hold your lure or bait in one spot, yet allow you to keep the bait moving in that spot. It works because of a specially designed, elastic cord that combines “Spectra” (which makes it very hard to break) with a natural rubber core, which permits use with a very small weight and still hold the rig in one spot. We call this material SpecTastic™, and is only manufactured for the Secret Weapon Wiggle Rig™. No other elastic material will work. Either it’s too weak, and breaks when you cast it or every time the weight gets snagged, or it is too strong, requiring a huge amount of weight to hold the rig in place. Although the Wiggle Rig™ Patent applies no matter what type of elastic cord is used, SpecTastic™ is by far the best material for actually fishing this technique.

These SpecTastic™ bungee cords are tough enough to be continuously fished for 4 to 8 hours.

The first field test was conducted in May at a popular, heavily fished bank-fishing spot. When I arrived there were nine anglers already there, fishing from the bank with minnows, red worms, night crawlers, and crickets. They had caught only two shellcrackers (a type of bream) between them. They told me the fish were just not there that day.

I rigged a tiny 1/8 inch dia. by 3 inch long plastic worm on the Wiggle Rig™, using an 18 inch leader, from the hook to the bungee. I was using four pound test line, and a long shank #8 cricket hook, with the plastic worm threaded on just one end of the worm. I also used “Mega Strike” fish attractant on the worm.

I made the first cast, throwing out as far as I could, planning on working the worm back to the bank until I found the fish, if there were any fish there. (I just figured that if bream were there, they would always hit a worm or cricket. Since no one else was catching anything, I didn’t think the fish were there.) I tightened up my line, and rapidly bounced my rod tip only one inch, while keeping the line taught. I did this for about a minute, then reeled in about 6 feet and did it again. On the third stop, and wiggle, BAM! I caught a nice 8-ounce bluegill. I had found at what depth the bream were hanging out, and over the next 10 minutes, on 11 casts I caught and released 11 more from that spot.

By this time everyone on the bank had come over and asked how I was catching them and if they could have or buy some of the rigs. It was hard for me to say no and explain how I needed to compare the Wiggle Rig™ against their fishing techniques in case maybe the fish were just turning on or moving in and would hit their offerings as well.

Over the next 3 hours, I caught 146 fish (26 spotted bass up to about 3 pounds, 2 striped bass hybrids, and 5 white bass with the rest bluegills and shellcrackers) fishing between all these other fishermen. To calm some of them, I started giving them fish to take home to eat, as all of these guys and girls were fishing to eat what they caught. The other nine fishermen did not catch a single fish during all that time while using their live baits. I had never in my life caught so many fish so fast nor had so much fun. Many of these fish were not eating size (one spotted bass was only 3 inches long), but over a hundred of them were keepers.

Before leaving, I supplied everyone there with packs of Wiggle Rigs™ and they all starting catching fish.. The lady in this photo had fished all day without catching a single fish. In only 20 minutes she filled her stringer using the Wiggle Rig™. If you look closely you can see the Wiggle Rig™ in the bottom left of the photo

No one was more surprised with the results of this test than I! This had to be a fluke, I thought... and it was, as I never caught that many fish in three hours again. But in every test since then, The Wiggle Rig™ has always out-performed live baits or other lures, never less than 2 to 1. On averages it out-performs other ways to fish 5 to 1.

I have never had any angler dissatisfied with the Wiggle Rig™. If they couldn’t catch fish, no one else was catching on anything else, either. Can you fish all day with it, and not catch a fish? You bet, it has happened twice to me. I just couldn’t find where the fish were, or fish it, where they were. And, of course, if the fish are not near the bottom (for example, when they are suspended in deep water) this rig is not going to be effective, because if the fish don’t see the wiggling worm, they're not going to bite it.

Why does this tiny plastic worm, out catch live worms, and crickets? For one thing, live bait gets tired very quick, and as it becomes less active its ability to draw fish with movement decreases. However, the natural wiggle you control with the Wiggle Rig™ signals that the prey is alive, and if the closest fish doesn’t eat it, another fish will. The wiggling movement triggers an attack response in a predator’s brain. We also found out you can impart this same wiggle to live crickets, minnows, and worms using the Wiggle Rig™ and the number of fish caught goes up even higher than using the plastic worm on the Wiggle Rig™. The only problem is you have to buy or catch the live bait, and re-bait after each fish.

Another bait that works extremely well on the Wiggle Rig™, is the Berkley Gulp worm, you get about a hundred of these tiny worms in a small jar from Wal-Mart, for around 4 dollars. The best thing is they never die, so you can use them on many trips, and on the Wiggle Rig™, they out perform live worms.

So far, tiny plastic worms have out-performed all other lures (on small bass and pan fish), but I have had very good results with the Panfish Assassin, too. It really nails the crappie and larger bream, as well as bass up to a couple of pounds. I have not tried it yet for trout.

Speaking of trout, so far in all test, nothing, and I mean nothing produces more trout than a tiny plastic worm on the Wiggle Rig™. I’ve seen many days when everyone else was skunked using fly rods with flies and trout baits on spinning gear, the Wiggle Rig™ caught trout on almost every cast.

Secret Weapon now offers a Panfish Wiggle Rig Master Pack with everything you need. It has 20 of the very same worms we used in these test in the kit, packaged in MegaStrike fish attractant. Once someone has spent a day using the Wiggle Rig™ for pan fish, (using it right, that is) they never want to fish without it.

For panfish, use light line (2- to 8-pound test) and small (#8 or #10) long-shank cricket hooks with tiny worms. I have caught many bass over 5 pounds on a #8 hook while using light line. You can’t horse them in anyway because of the light line, so the light wire hook does the job.

Keep your line taught against the weight (you have about eight inches of stretch in the bungee to work with) even on the down bounce of the rod tip. Don’t let your line go slack during the wiggling action. After you wiggle a few seconds, allowing some slack in the line and letting the worm drift to the bottom can draw a strike from real finicky fish.

Don’t bounce the rod tip over one inch. Any more than this and the lure moves too fast and too far for the fish to get it in their mouth. Keeping your weight in one spot, exerting just enough pull to keep it from sliding on the bottom, works best. A very slow slide and bounce will also produce fish, but usually not as many. If you feel a strike and try to set the hook but miss, don’t reel in; just keep bouncing the rod tip and often the fish will hit it again.

For the absolute best action, tie your hook on the line with a drop loop knot no more than 1/4 inch long. This loop allows the hook to freely pivot as the line moves back and forth.

Practice this technique where you can watch the lure so you will learn what speed to bounce the tip and how long a bounce you need. While you’re practicing, you will instantly see why this technique catches so many fish. And I think you will come to agree that nothing else can make a lure move like the Wiggle Rig™.

Product Catalog Spring 2010

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TackleTour:
"These lures are the first spinnerbait that I can honestly say I have gotten excited about testing. Not only do they offer a unique new tool to really "match the hatch," they also are engineered with many advantages. Superior action, increased displacement, better hookups, and extreme versatility are all functional advantages of the Secret Weapon Spinnerbaits. The overall implementation of this bait is exceptional. There are many products that are engineered well in theory, but not implemented well. SWL bucks that trend in a big way."[More]