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In 1972, outdoor writer and avid fisherman, Dr. Bill
Miller, wrote an article about a curved spoon, rigged with a straight tail worm, that he called a Wobbleworm. Over the years,
he has written several articles about his experiences using the Wobblehead. His article for Bassmasters magazine was so popular
that it was later included in Bassmasters "Best Of Lures" collection. This is his most recent article on the Wobblehead, written
exclusively for use in this website.
The Wobblehead - Bass Catcher - By Bill Miller
Most lures attract
the attention of the angler, but its action is what attracts the attention of largemouth, black bass and other species of
fish. The lure of which I am speaking is the Wobblehead. It's true, she's not much to look at, but this lure is desgined to
catch fish, not fisherman.
You say you've never heard of it? Well, it was never popular except around the Monroe,
Louisiana area because the tournament anglers there are not prone to talk about their secret weapon.
Two Baton Rouge
anglers, Hurley Campbell and Hunter Barrileaux, invented it and called it an El Tango. Cotton Cordell made a similar mold
and named it a curved spoon. In the summer of "71" Steve Joiner and I were fishing Lafourche Lake (pronounced LaFoosh) in
Caldwell Parish. He maneuvered the boat into a weed choked passageway that led to an opening locally called Clark's Coop.
He made six casts and just as quickly put six bass in the boat before my worm touched bottom. I may be slow at times, but
Mother didn't raise a fool. I grabbed his rod and demanded to know what kind of magic he was using.
Steve replied,
"This lure is Cotton Cordell's Curved Spoon." "Do you want one?" he asked, which was a very stupid question. He told me how
to use it and I proceeded to fall in love with the lure. Later, I wrote an article for Bassmaster Magazine (May/June 1972
issue) and called it the Wobbleworm, because to my eye, it made the worm wobble. When Cotton Cordell sold out to Pradco, they
did not purchase the mold and Cotton sold it to a local Monroe dealer, Jim Sanner, thus insuring the local supply. It was
sold as the Wobbleworm until 1989 when a Monroe entrepreneaur, Mike Savage, bought the mold with the idea to market it nationwide.
He set out to improve the lure with a new mold, coating the spoon with a powder coating that electronically insures the durability
of the color, and added a high quality hook, held on the spoon by a stainless steel grommet.
"The Wobblehead is especially
effective during the warm summer months. The hotter the weather, the better it is." Savage explained. Actually, the lure is
effective anytime the water temperature exceeds 50 degrees.
If you cast the Wobblehead around grassbeds, trees and
stumps, try to land the lure softly and start a slow, steady retrieve. A slow retrieve produces a wobble that drives bass
crazy. The lure, on retrieve, should look like a small snake swimming, and the enticing wiggle causes the lure to stay in
a bass' strike zone for a longer period of time.
The lure is primarily used in shallow water, from the surface to
about 3 feet deep. Some have reported good catches from deeper water. One angler in Maryland used it in a 16 foot channel,
where weeds were growing about a foot off the bottom. Using the countdown method, retrieving the Wobblehead over the grass,
he quickly boated a limit of bass averaging over 5 pounds. An angler in Canada reported a 6 1/2 pound largemouth. Texas, California,
Minnesota, Utah, Virginia and practically every other state have reported catches. Even though Alaska has no bass, an angler
there has used the Wobblehead to catch a near record Grayling. Also, there have been many reports of redfish and speckled
trout catches.
Remember, the lure does have an exposed hook. If you hit a limb or other cover, stop your retrieve
and slowly crawl the lure over the obstacle. If used in heavy cover, a ponytail rubber band (about the size of a quarter)
can be looped through the eye and back to the hook barb.
Shallow lakes provide the three most productive places to use
the Wobblehead. First, anywhere there is a break in the weedbed, a blowdown or a stump, is a good spot, but it
really
shines in 1-4 feet of water over grass. This pattern will hold all day, regardless of weather
conditions.
The second
pattern to look for is a spot where there is a slight to moderate drop-off, from 2 feet to a drop of 4-6 feet. Any sloping
bank is good, but there should be a difference in the height of the "moss".
A third pattern is a hump or high spot
next to trees where the grass has grown up to the surface and the rest of the bed is in 2-6 feet of water. Where some use
a trick worm or floating worm, the Wobbler will out fish them 3 to 1.
The only difficult part is the different strikes
you get, depending upon the species and moods of the fish. An aggressive fish will strike the Wobblehead with a vicious attack
similar to a spinner bait strike. Less aggressive fish may simply swim up behind and bump the lure, apparently trying to stun
it before engulfing it. This situation feels like the "tap tap" you feel on a Texas rigged worm. If this happens, drop the
rod tip, which gives the fish time to inhale the lure and then set the hook.
No lure will catch every strike and there
are times when the fish seem to play or nibble at the worm. Wobbleheads do have an attachable trailer hook, that when installed
will catch over 50 % of short strikes.
Water clarity and weather conditions always play a big part in the selection
of lure color. The favorite of local anglers, in stained water, is a red Wobblehead with a natural colored worm or a chartreuse
Wobblehead with a catalpa (black and green yellow) worm. In clear water a brass Wobblehead and a chameleon worm (brown purple)
can be a deadly combination. In gin clear water, a chrome Wobblehead with a salt-pepper or white worm is a great cure for
schooling bass that won't take other lures. On days when nothing seems to be biting, a Wobblehead will put fish in the live
well. It's effective when all other lures fail and seems to be one of those "big bass" baits.
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