The wacky worm has been around long enough for us to get used to this zany technique. I first encountered the wacky way to rig a worm at a tournament on Cayuga Lake, New York, in the late 1970s.

Yet today, many avid bass anglers still haven’t made wacky worming an integral part of their approach. Now’s the time to go beyond casual experiments, for wacky is its own genre, with as many subtleties and technical aspects as Carolina rigging or flipping.

Wacky Developments

The explosion of enthusiasm for Gary Yamamoto’s Senko and similar soft stickbaits has led to the recent boom in wacky-rigging. Anglers quickly found that hooking the cigar-shaped baits through the middle allowed both ends to wiggle as they dropped—deadly action, indeed.

When Berkley developed their Gulp! Sinking Minnow, astute bassers quickly realized that the tougher hide of the Sinking Minnow, compared to salted plastisol lures, made it ideal for wacky-rigging. Hooks hold firmly in the novel material, so many bass can be caught on a bait.

The Gulp! Wacky Crawler, a 5-inch finesse-style worm, has a natural consistency and powerful scent dispersion. Wacky worms often tear off the hook and are lost on the bottom. Gulp! baits are biodegradable, dissolving into natural substances within a year.

Andre Moore, of Arizona—head of Reaction Innovations lure company and also a bass pro—has long favored wacky-rigging for bass in western waters. He designed a lure with a round ball at each end, a 5.6-inch bait he calls the Ball Breaker. “The balls make the lure vibrate as you pull it,” Moore says. “It’s symmetrical so it won’t twist your line. The Ball Breaker contains a lot of salt so it sinks readily. As it falls, it shimmies back and forth.” The Ball Breaker is available in 11 colors.

At Bass Assassin, Robin Shiver, Jr., also has designed a bait for wacky-rigging, called the K.O. Assassin. Like the Ball Breaker, you can feel the weightless lure vibrate as you pull it through the water. There’s almost as much pulse as with a willowleaf spinnerbait. Like the Ball Breaker, it can be altered by removing one or two of its extremities, which resemble a rattlesnake’s rattles.

Japanese lure makers also have been producing new soft plastics well suited to wacky rigging, subtle baits that work well in clear conditions on pressured bass. Check out the Yammy from Jackall’s Lake Police line, a thin symmetrical worm that’s favored by wacky ace Kota Kiriyama.

Wacky Options: Tradition calls for long straight lures for wacky-rigging, but innovation need not stop there. While fishing for prespawn bass in Texas, Editor In Chief Doug Stange discovered the appeal of a wacky tube. After tearing up nearly all his Berkley Sparkle Power Tubes, he hooked one of the discards through the middle with a Falcon Bait Jerker Hook and started popping bass, to the surprise of his hosts.

Success of the wacky tube apparently is not an isolated event. Andre Moore rigs Reaction Innovations’ Boom Boom Tube with a W.W. Hook, impaling it so the fibers of the guard hold it perpendicular to the hook eye. He runs the hook from front to back on the tube instead of side to side. “That hook position makes it flare with each pull,” he says, “and the rig won’t twist your line when hooked like that.” Moore fishes the tube on a weightless hook, making long casts to schooling bass feeding on shad. For a nose-diving presentation, Moore glues a BB shot in the nose of the tube.

Moore also wacky-rigs minnow-style baits. “You can make a Fluke swim sideways,” he says, “by hooking it along the side, with the hook point entering the bait just below the center line on the side and exiting at the edge of the back. Cast it straight out from the bow of your boat, and it will plane off and run parallel to the boat.”

He scoots a wacky Fluke under willow trees and other overhanging cover, and also works it along the edge of windblown points and bluff banks. “Keep your rod tip high and twitch the bait. It swims along on its side, just like a wounded shad,” he notes.

Wacky Details

One attraction of wacky-rigging is simplicity. All you need is a hook and a worm—once through the middle, and you’re ready to fish. In a pinch, almost any hook will do, and almost any soft-plastic bait can be wacky-rigged. But like most presentations, artful combinations of hook, line, and lure generally outperform haphazard selections.

Line Selection: Many wacky-worm aficionados, particularly those who fish clear waters, have turned to the new breed of castable fluorocarbons. Andre Moore has gone 100 percent to fluoros. “It helps sink baits faster, offers an advantage of lower visibility, and also stretches less than mono. So, you feel soft bites and set the hook more easily.”

Recent developments in castable fluorocarbon line are great. Berkley’s Vanish Transition incorporates solarchromic molecules that turn the line bright gold when exposed to UV light, which greatly enhances line visibility.

Yo-Zuri’s new Hybrid Ultra-Soft line molecularly bonds nylon and fluorocarbon during the extrusion process, yielding a strong, dense, yet supple product. The Japanese company Kali has made available in the U.S. their line of fine fluorocarbons, in 2- to 12-pound test. For most of his drop-shot fishing, Kota Kiriyama favors 6-pound Kali.

Seaguar has added Carbon Pro, a 100 percent fluorocarbon line that’s designed for filling spools. This line is made of a softer resin than that used in leaders, so it’s easier to spool and cast. And Gamma Technologies just released Edge Fluorocarbon, formulated with a new molecular alteration to yield a combination of flexibility, low memory, strength, and shock resistance. Check it out. These lines join a great lineup of castable fluorocarbons, including P-Line, Maxima, Silver Thread Fluorocarbon, and Sugoi from Yamamoto.

In darker water or thick cover, try superbraid lines. Spool 50-pound Power Pro, TUF Line, or Spiderwire Stealth; tie straight to the hook and go fishing. Flipping a wacky rig is deadly in fallen trees, lily-pad fields, and under docks. Weedless hooks help avoid snags.

Hooks: There’s debate about the ideal hook for wacky-rigging. Some favor circle hooks, as the round shape holds worms neatly. Merely holding a rod steady as a bass moves off causes the hook to set in the corner of the mouth.

Other anglers favor large livebait hooks, like Eagle Claw’s L194 or Owner’s SSW, matching lure and hook size up to 6/0 or 7/0 for a 7-inch YUM Dinger or Senko.

Shiner or Kahle-style hooks also have adherents, as their bow shape holds a softbait just below the hook point, allowing a large gap for a good set. That shape also serves as a keel, helping to prevent spinning.

Weedless Hooks: Guards help when fishing thick grass, fallen trees, stumps, and boat docks. A light wire or mono guard prevents hang-ups but doesn’t deflect a fish’s jaws during the set. Wayne Falcon of Falcon Lures, a regular on Toledo Bend, devised the “K” Wacky line of hooks, built on Gamakatsu’s black nickel Shiner Hook. It’s available in plain and weighted models with 3/0 and 6/0 hooks. “I like the closed wireguard because it prevents line from catching around the guard and fouling the rig,” Falcon notes. Some Falcon models carry slender weights of 1/32-, 1/16-, and 3/32-ounce, with or without a wireguard for fishing deep or in windy conditions.

Gamakatsu has added a weedless version of its C-shape Finesse Wide Gap Hook, that has a mono guard. The Mosquito Hook from Nogales has a fine wire guard and a shape that’s a compromise between a shiner hook and a baitholder.

Reaction Innovations offers the W.W. Hook, a Kahle-style design with a pair of fibers to guard the hook, available from #6 to 3/0. Andre Moore suggests burying the fibers in the lure, to deflect snags and also to keep the lure straight. Crafty anglers can tie their own weedless hooks, using heavy mono or fluorocarbon wrapped behind the hook eye like a reversed snell.

Anglers have found that impaling a worm on a jighead wacky-style also works. Arkansas bass pro Mark Rose rigs Strike King’s 7-inch Finesse Worm on a ballhead jig. “This worm is made of 3X Cyberflexx material, which is real buoyant and very flexible,” Rose says. “The weight of a light jighead makes the plastic come to life as it falls. I fish it along bluffs for spotted bass, in current for smallmouths, and over flats in clear reservoirs for largemouths. The two ends of the worm keep the jighead upright, so you get an excellent hookset, too.”

O-Rings: Not an essential part of wacky-rigging, O-rings can, however, save you time, aggravation, and money when fishing soft stickbaits wacky-style. Anglers have used metal O-rings or split rings, sliding them onto the bait then placing the hook between the lure and the ring. I prefer rubber O-rings, which also are cheaper when bought in bulk (contact allorings.com). In a pinch, rubber bands help.

A wrap or two of electrical tape works nicely and offers color options. When fishing finesse worms wacky-style, cut sections from soda straws and slide them over the worm’s egg sac. Bring a few home from your favorite fast-food eateries, for a selection of diameters and colors.

Tackle: The right tackle for wacky wormin’ varies with density of cover, water clarity, and potential size of bass. A medium-heavy 61⁄2-foot spinning rod and 10-pound-test mono work for skipping small wacky worms under docks. At the other extreme, drifting a 7-inch YUM Dinger into a submerged stand of mesquite at Mexico’s Lake El Salto calls for 25-pound CXX-Xtra Strong P-Line, Berkley Big Game, or other tough-as-nails line, coupled with an extra-heavy-action 7-foot baitcaster.

An overlooked option that combines power and finesse is a 7-foot medium-action spinning rod and high-capacity reel spooled with braided line of 15- to 20-pound test. Finish the rig with 4 feet of fluorocarbon leader. Long casts are easy with this setup, and solid hooksets at 30 yards are possible. Braid floats, staying up and out of cover, while the fluoro leader helps parachute the lure into the target area.

Down and Wacky

Combine the subtle action of a wacky bait with the depth control and teasing motion of a drop-shot, and you have a formidable rig. Kota Kiriyama, a Japanese pro now living in Alabama, is regarded as one of the deans of drop-shot fishing. A finesse expert, Kiriyama always uses spinning tackle, usually with 6-pound-test Kali fluorocarbon line.

“I like to rig a 4- to 6-inch straight worm wacky-style. When you rig it wacky, it doesn’t twist the line, which is a big problem with baits rigged straight. I match a #2 Nogales Mosquito Hook with a thin 3- to 4-inch worm, a #1 with a 4- to 6-inch worm, and a 1/0 with a 6- to 8-inch worm. For sinkers, I like the tungsten X-Metal weights from Kanji International.

“Too many anglers consider the downshot only a vertical presentation,” Kiriyama adds. “I usually cast the rig, since you spook fish by holding over them, even in 12 to 15 feet of water. At Lake Seminole, bass were suspended in the branches of standing timber along creek channels. They were relating to schools of shad passing along the creek. If you positioned above the fish, you spooked the shad and the bass would move away, also. I had to cast the rig, positioning it between the channel edge and the treeline.”

Up and Wacky

One final trick is to float a wacky bait. Try fishing a YUM Dinger or Berkley Gulp! Crawler on a dropper below a topwater bait or a float.

Depending on depth, tie a 24- to 48-inch fluorocarbon leader to the rear hook of a popper with a wacky worm hanging below. Work the topwater slowly, so the soft plastic rises and falls in tempting fashion. Bass attracted to the commotion on top but reluctant to strike will engulf the drifting bait. Try a popping cork or rattling float for added attraction.

So, what realms remain for the redoubtable wacky rig? I foresee growth in new products and presentations. The scope of expansion is limited only by the imagination or skepticism of anglers. Like the swimming worm, the Carolina rig, and a few other of the deadliest things you can throw, some anglers still consider them too wacky to use. That’s their loss.