I confirmed that a wacky rigged worm catches gills

Last winter I was fooling around with a mold that produces 2 3/4" sticks (Senko shaped). They were a bit thin so I dipped them in hot plastic to add a coat of plastic. In April, I wacky rigged the stick using a 1/32 oz jighead and watched the action on the fall in my pond. The tips quivered exactly like a wacky rigged Senko!

On 5/15 I fished the rig and sunfish, bass and a pickerel slammed the bait!

https://i.imgur.com/GUnA6v0.jpg

Rather than let it drop to the bottom with no action added, I rod twitched the lure as it dropped, not letting it touch bottom. Guess I'll be pouring more stick today seeing as how the rain will keep me off the water for the entire day.

Great idea!

Sent from my XT1585 using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Very interesting.

Here is my take why fish strike lures and specifically the the lure shown.

I thought about the generalization of cues and agree: unless a lure is packed with negatives, fish won't strike.
But recently I've been contemplating fish aggression as a function of time, irritability and object vulnerability. As we all can agree, the length of time in the strike zone - distance from a lure - is crucial and in most cases, the longer the better. What many may not agree to is that most fish are inactive when a lure begins its job of provoking fish to strike vs convincing it that it represents anything it normally eats.

In order to prompt a state of temporary aggression, a lure must include a combination of design factors fish are sensitive to: size, action, speed and visual aspects such as shape and color/ flash that in combination contrasts with the water or other backgrounds. All animals are super aware of moving objects via a super sensitive senses. My dogs go crazy when they spot a heron near my pond from 50 yds. away and through the back door glass no less. Owls spot mice in total darkness and are alerted instantly leading to an aggression that is unavoidable. Fish are no different.
We have the a tactile sensitivity to feel something that touches our skin. We immediately react to small stinging insects that tickle the skin before stinging and become more sensitive with each insect bite. Fish I believe fall into the same awareness category with an increase in sensitivity that irritates it into striking an object - not to eat it but to stop the irritation of its senses. Sometimes we get a second chance to increase that sensitivity with another cast; sometimes only one cast is possible and then a fish turns off, no longer interested though still aware.
Time-in-place (slow moving) and subtle lure action account for the increase in aggressiveness we strive for. A bull stuck with two banderillas must attack the man that put them between its shoulders and dies trying in order to stop further pain (inhumanely barbaric if you ask me). A fish ignores everything (even nearby live prey) - focusing all its attention on the object causing its discomfort and then attacks it - sometimes multiple times on the same retrieve.

Just another thought that make sense to me why fish are vulnerable to unnatural objects that may or may not move unnaturally. Again, we don't fool fish with our lures - we simply irritate fish into striking them and accept the fact that fish sense the real thing and man made objects equally. Fish feel the difference with it's senses and at times attacks the latter more so because its simple brain is wired to.


Raining all day and a good excuse to ramble.

Good read. Thanks for sharing