Wacky Worm History. 2025

bigtimfish reply :

Does anyone know the origins of where wacky worm fishing got started?We know where Tx rig and Carolina rig got started. DUH!!! I was told something but i dont know how true it is. I was told it was started on Toledo Bend. now dont quote me on this, its just what i was told.Can anyone give me some info on the truth?

Catt reply :

The Wacky Rig was invented by a local guide on Toledo Bend whose clients could not feel the bite when using a Texas Rig.

The Carolina Rig was not invented in Carolina just made famous for bass fishing their.

bigtimfish reply :

Well i feel stupid about the carolina rig thing then. but was told correct on the wacky worm thing. thank you catt

Uncle Leo reply :

I read in a magazine, I beleive it was In-Fisherman that this technique evolved by a northern fisherman who visited Texas. Can not remember what lake, maybe Toledo Bend. Well this guy stopped in a local bait shop and asked the owner what catches fish as he had limited bass fishing experience. The owner gave him a pack of plastic worms and hooks. The guy did not ask how to fish them so he rigged them wacky style. Of course he caught fish and went back to the bait shop to thank the owner. They talked and it was discovered how he rigged them and word got out from there. I have no knowledge of how true this is but it was an interesting story.

RoLo reply :

Wacky Rig

The first plastic worms made by Nick Creme were made of such tough plastic that we all referred to them as "rubber worms".

Shortly after their introduction (1949), some anglers in New Jersey would rig those nasty worms by hooking them through the midriff,

leaving both ends to dangle free. For many years this was known as the Jersey Rig, and still is in certain circles.

Then about 25 years later the Jersey Rig gained national prominence, but would go down in history as the Wacky Rig.

Roger

bigtimfish reply :

OK thats 3 different answers. Now, which one is the truth????? :-?

RoLo reply :

Quote
We know where Tx rig and Carolina rig got started. DUH!!!

Carolina Rig

The so-called Carolina-rig is a remote-sinker rig used by saltwater anglers since the early 1900s.

Exactly where the term Carolina appeared on the scene escapes me. However in 1973, Bill Dance placed second in a tournament on Clarks Hill Reservoir. It was published by the chronicles that Bill was using a Carolina rig, something few anglers ever heard of before that event.

Texas Rig

The Texas rig also had its roots in Nick Crème's rubber worm, who melted the plastic on his kitchen stove in Tyler, Texas.

I'm sure that Texas is the rightful origin of this rig, but something puzzles me to this day.

I was living in New Jersey when we were first exposed to this rigging, and it was widely known then as the Self-Weedless rig.

The self-weedless moniker lasted about a year or two then gave way to the name Texas rig.

By any name, the T-rig is here to stay.

Roger

bassin is addicting reply :

a comical story.... to me anyways.. 8-)

took my son fishin' for the first time 3 years ago... we had went to Dick's to get some tackle. he picked out Yamamoto pumpkin/blk/grn flake senkos cause they looked "cool"

i let him rig his own set up and didn't pay attention to what he was doin'. about his 3rd cast he hooked a 3lb bass!! i helped him land it and get it off the hook. we released it, (he wasn't thrilled about that.)ha! then i watched him rehook the senko. he put the hook right through the middle. i laughed and said "what are you doin?' he said that was how he did it before. i laughed and said i'll try it too. we caught over 15 bass that day. and then i hear all about the wacky rig craze. not to mention the Yamamoto senko i had never heard of!!

all from an 8yr old

i still smile when i think of that...

RoLo reply :

Quote
OK thats 3 different answers. Now, which one is the truth????? :-?

I don't believe it's a question of veracity, but a question of chronological order

It reminds me of the advent of "Bunker Dunking" along the Jersey coast.

This method wreaked such havoc on Striped Bass that a moratorium was imposed.

Fortunately, I got into Bunker Dunking during its infancy, but already there were

no less than a dozen captains, guides and Giglio hotshots who swore that "HE"

was the inventor of "Bunker Dunking".

Darn, if I had just gotten there a week sooner, I could've added my name to the list > :

Roger

bilgerat reply :

Quote
I read in a magazine, I beleive it was In-Fisherman that this technique evolved by a northern fisherman who visited Texas. Can not remember what lake, maybe Toledo Bend. Well this guy stopped in a local bait shop and asked the owner what catches fish as he had limited bass fishing experience. The owner gave him a pack of plastic worms and hooks. The guy did not ask how to fish them so he rigged them wacky style. Of course he caught fish and went back to the bait shop to thank the owner. They talked and it was discovered how he rigged them and word got out from there. I have no knowledge of how true this is but it was an interesting story.

This is the story I have heard. They called it the "Tourist Rig" as I recollect.

BARON49_Northern NY reply :

Quote

Wacky Rig

The first plastic worms made by Nick Creme were made of such tough plastic that we all referred to them as "rubber worms".

Shortly after their introduction (1949), some anglers in New Jersey would rig those nasty worms by hooking them through the midriff,

leaving both ends to dangle free. For many years this was known as the Jersey Rig, and still is in certain circles.

Then about 25 years later the Jersey Rig gained national prominence, but would go down in history as the Wacky Rig.

Roger

This is the correct version. I remember buying creme worms and running a sprout hook thru the egg sag back in the early 70's. Read about this rig in one of the Hunting and Fishing magazines back then as the hot new way to catch bass.

Muddy reply :

Sorry to disagree with you Catt, long before they were called wacky rigs, they were called Jersey Rigs, and fished that way in the 70's on Greenwood Lake NJ. That's the first I saw of them, unfortunately I didn't give it a second thought and did not try them back then.

Blue Streak reply :

I can remember fishing them that way back in the early 60's. We just called them "side hooked". We always fished that way because we thought that was the way you were supposed to do it. Caught a lot of bass out of the strip pits that way.

Bobby Uhrig reply :

Fact-The jersey rigg was started by a very good friend of mine named Jeff Cammerino. It originated while he was fishing a lake and couldnt buy a bite. He was under a tree and a Gypsy Moth catapiller fell into the water. As he was watching it while he was fishing a bass came up and swallowed the caterpillar. He grabbed a rubber worm cut the end off rigged it in the middle so it wiggled like the caterpillar started catching fish. Thus the "JERSEY RIGG was born. He developed a plastic worm with some cuts in it to bend with a twitching motion. He sold thousands of bags at shows and to local stores-They were only about 4 inches long-no salt and just had flake in them. He was marketing them and then the Senko came along and stole the spotlight.This was in the early 80's/ Jeff is now a Game Warden at Lake Wallenpaupack PA. He is an accomplished guitarist as well. I am also going to kick his @ss the next time I see him because he hasent seen me in over 10 years. That is the fact of the Jersey Rigg. There could have been an earlier wacky rigg than that because this was in the early 80's IM THROUGH

Muddy reply :

Hey Bobby, Do you know if your friend has Mauch Chunk now. Morano is suspended and if he has the Chunk, I will look him up. Usually they get both details.

cart7t reply :

I seem to recall a BassMaster article in the 80's concerning rigging floating worms with a regular sproat hook by running the worm along the hook shaft and wrapping part of the worm along the hook bend before allowing the hook to exit the worm. It put a crazy S bend in the worm and they called "that" wacky worming.

I called it massive line twist as that's what I'd get even with a swivel. :-?

Catt reply :

Proves my point that there are no new techniques just modifications to old ones

Muddy reply :

Quote
Proves my point that there are no new techniques just modifications to old ones

Your last name should be COCHRAN :-?

Catt reply :

Quote

Quote
Proves my point that there are no new techniques just modifications to old ones

Your last name should be COCHRAN :-?

Crème started in a basement in Akron Ohio and I'm sure someone in that area would give us another name for the jersey/wacky rig.

Muddy reply :

Wacky Rigging started in Tony Soprano's basement in New Jersey

OH OH Thats Getting Wacked....my mistake

George Welcome reply :

Let's see: I was wacky rigging live worms as a child. I would bet my great-grandfather did also.

Many methods used today are just spin-offs of what was done with live bait previously. Ever see a fluke or flounder rig? Remind you of anything?

Eddie Munster reply :

Quote
Sorry to disagree with you Catt, long before they were called wacky rigs, they were called Jersey Rigs, and fished that way in the 70's on Greenwood Lake NJ. That's the first I saw of them, unfortunately I didn't give it a second thought and did not try them back then.

Somehow this has to be the truth. Wacky and Jersey just seem to go together.

carrothead reply :

I don't know much about how the rig got started, but I do know what was one of the first or the first wacky worms for this purpose. The Riverside Slingshot.

HAMMER23 reply :

The wacky worm was originally conceived in NEW JERSEY, but I just wanted to shed a little light on the history of it's arrival in Texas. In 1978 a guide out of Fin and Feather marina on T-Bend by the name of Jimmy Callais took two fisherman from New York on a guided trip, both men were throwing a grape creme worm hooked in the mid section of the bait. At the time Jimmy was throwing a rattlle trap and a texas rigged worm with no success, about noon Jimmy ran out to Indian Mounds and decided to give it a go a try the so-called wacky worm. In an hour and a half they had over twenty five bass the first one over five pounds, Jimmy was hooked. Once he arrived at the marina he told another guide by the name of walt fields, who was famous for being drunk about as many days as he guided in a year whitch was about 300, and the rest is bass fishing history. So the history of the wacky was developed in the north and made famous in the south.

Bobby Uhrig reply :

Like i stated I dont think he (Jeff) was the inventor of the wacky rig but he was the inventor of the "Jersey Rigg" which was the name of his baits. Yes there was an article with him in it in a Bassmasters Article years ago. I'm still goin to kick his @ss

Muddy reply :

I hope to run into him. My earliest introduction to a Jelly Worm hooked through the egg sac, was around 1974, the fella who showed me it called it a Jersey Rig. I was fishing Greenwood Lake and the man was Mr.Brickner, from Brickner's landing.He taught me a thing or 2.

Uncle Leo reply :

After reading this yesterday and discovering that there were multiple views on the history I did an internet search. The best I was able to come up with is that this is considered lost history. Well maybe someone should have wrote it down. Quite disappointing I really did want to know the truth and had hoped that Tony Soprano had something to do with it.

bass wrangler569 reply :

So it seems like New Jersey has made at least one contribution to the world, other than being the inspiration behind air fresheners of course...

Catt reply :

HAMMER23 I heard it was a guide out of Fox's Lodge

Is ole Walt still around? Aint seen him this year at all

Muddy reply :

Hey Hammer 23: I see you are from OPRANGE TX, which is co incidence because Greenwood Lake is in ORANGE COUNTY NY and NJ

8579

Wacky Worm History. 2025

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