Storm Wiggle Warts

When Bassmaster Elite pro Brandon Palaniuk fishes the Classic at Grand Lake in Oklahoma this month he’ll have a box of Wiggle Warts with him.

New colors offer more options

The importance of realistic, crawfish patterns is well known to Bassmaster Elite pro, and Brandon Palaniuk proved it on his way to finishing second in the 2013 Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake in Oklahoma.

Palaniuk waited for the right moment to feed bass crawfish-patterned crankbaits during that event, having some Storm Wiggle Warts ready to go on the final and deciding day of Classic fishing.

And when the 28-year-old professional bass angler returns to the lake for the Classic in March, he’ll be armed with Wiggle Warts in four new crawfish colors.

“I’ll have a box of them,” Palaniuk said. “I’m excited to have four new craw colors in my arsenal.”

Those new colors — moss cack craw, creek craw, red craw and orange brown craw — were introduced over the summer of 2015, and they are sure to be game changers in the Opens and Elites in 2016.

Adding the new colors will benefit Palaniuk, a big believer in crawfish colors that “match the hatch” all over the country. He and other experienced bass anglers know crawfish colors vary widely by species, waterbody and region.

“I like to cycle through the colors to see which ones they eat a little better,” Palaniuk said. “Most of the time, I’m going to start with something with some green in it.”

At the 2013 Bassmasters Classic on Grand Lake, Palaniuk and the other qualifiers endured bitterly cold conditions the first few days. The weather warmed up the last few days and so did the water — hitting 42-43 degrees on the final day.

That’s when Palaniuk put down shaky heads and jerkbaits in favor of the original Storm Wiggle Wart.

“It played perfectly into my hands. I was able to adjust. I had them in the boat and hadn’t thrown them all week, and the conditions came together,” he said about choosing the line’s old green pattern that looked exactly like what the bass were eating. “When you can match or mimic the crawfish they’re eating when it’s cold and they’re hardly eating, the better off you are.”

Palaniuk said he caught five or six keeper bass on the crankbaits, with four of the fish joining his limit on the scales.

This month, he’ll have the four new colors to offer the fish when the Classic returns to Grand Lake.

“I think it’s a great deal because it (Wiggle Wart) has the classic shape and it’s already proven to be a fish catcher, and they expanded the color range so you have the ability to broaden and dial in,” he said.

Palaniuk is partial to green, which would be the boss back craw color that features an olive/green back, green/chartreuse sides and belly with a black craw-body pattern.

The new Creek Craw pattern features a brown-green back, a white belly and a black craw-body pattern.

Palaniuk said the green and brown crawfish patterns are best in clearer water. The red and orange patterns work more efficiently in dingier water, he said.

“That red shows out a little bit more, where the fish can track it a little better,” he said about the red craw cranks that features a red back, a red/orange fade on the sides and a black craw-body pattern.

The orange brown craw has a brown back, orange-brown belly and a black craw-body pattern.

Built from Storm’s original molds, both the Original Wiggle Wart (2 inches long and weighing 3/8-ounce) and Original Mag Wart (2 ¾ inches long and ¾-ounce) are armed with premium, super-sharp VMC Treble Hooks — No. 4s and No. 2s, respectively.

They both have the distinctively wide wobble and rattle of their predecessors.

For more information about the new colors in Storm Wiggle Warts call 612-375-8548 or to stormlures.com.

About Don Shoopman 137 Articles
Don Shoopman fishes for freshwater and saltwater species mostly in and around the Atchafalaya Basin and Vermilion Bay. He moved to Louisiana in 1976, and he and his wife June live in New Iberia. They have two grown sons.

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