Carl Svebek
Working Wacky Worms

Photo: FLW Outdoors Wacky rigging is a finesse tactic, but Svebek says you can still cover a lot of water with it if you use it his way.

For reference, the typical wacky-worm rig is just a worm of your choice hooked straight through near the middle, and generally fished weightless with an open hook. It would fit in the finesse technique category, but can be worked aggressively too.

Here are some tips from one of the masters of the technique.

Why It Works

Svebek thinks a wacky-rigged worm is the best of both worlds - it's got a bold, tantalizing action, but it's also subtle enough to throw at pressured fish.

"That makes it appealing to the fish when they're up shallow," he said. "I'm usually throwing to fish that are cruising and not holding on structure. I think when it hits the water it draws their attention, especially in clear-water lakes. You'll see them come from 10 feet away on a place like Beaver Lake.

"It's a bait that you typically work slow, but I do cover a lot of water with it," he added. "I make a long cast, let it settle, twitch once or twice, and then reel in and throw out again. I don't work it all the way back to the boat. You can, like a Texas-rig, but I usually don't. I think 80 percent of the bites will be on the first fall.

"I typically fish it weightless in water less than 5-feet deep in the springtime. Long casts are important in that shallow water, so I use an Abu Garcia Revo Premier reel. It also has the 7:1 gear ratio so I can wind in for another cast really fast."

How far apart does he space his casts? "You know, that's a good question. I'm not really sure. I'm usually moving with the trolling motor, just throwing as I go. If I see something like grass or a stump, I'll target that. But otherwise, I guess maybe 25 to 30 feet between casts."

Best Time to Fish It

Clearly the wacky-rig will put numbers of fish in the boat. He caught around 20 fish per day in practice and during the tournament at Toho. But while most anglers consider it a small-fish technique – and Svebek concedes that it often is – there are times when the big ones eat it too.

"I feel confident I can catch them year round on it, but to be competitive it's best in the early spring," he said. "There's a small window where you can catch quality fish on it. That's the pre- and post-spawn when a lot of fish are up shallow, and bigger fish are shallow in greater numbers. That's my theory on it anyway.

"I was working long alleyways at Toho," he noted. "They were kind of like boat lanes between the Kissimmee grass and gator grass, like places where boats had been moving through. I don't really know why they were so bare.

"I threw along the edges and caught fish on both sides. The better fish seemed to be near the gator grass. The channels weren't very wide - maybe 20 or 30 feet."

Sometimes in clear water he might decide to fish deeper than he normally does, and the weightless wacky-rig would take too long to get to the bottom. "If I fish deeper water I'll either use a weighted hook or push a nail into the worm," he said. "Sometimes on clear lakes they'll spawn in deeper water and I might fish as deep as 12 to 15 feet, like I did at Lake Martin in Alabama down by the dam one time."

Photo: Abu Garcia Svebek favors the Abu Garcia Revo Premier reel for its ability to throw light baits long distances.

The Gambler Sweebo Worm, which Svebek designed, is his trademark lure for wacky-worming. "It comes in one size, about 7 inches long, and it has a big egg sack in it that I put the hook through," he said. "I got tired of throwing worms off my hook."

He uses a Gamakatsu round-bend, straight-shank hook without a wire weedguard and fishes the worm weightless on 10- to 15-pound (depending on cover and depth) Berkley Big Game green monofilament line. "I just keep it simple," he said. "I started out with that and I'm used to it, and the mono floats so it helps create a slow fall."

He likes a 6 1/2-foot rod with some tip to it for getting as much distance as possible out of the light rig.

Notable

> His favorite color worm is green-pumpkin candy, except in Florida. "Everybody knows junebug is the best color in Florida," he said. "I have no idea why, but it works."

> He noted that: "The percentages are better with an exposed hook. I don't lose as many fish as I think I would with, say, a Texas-rig where the hook point is buried in the plastic. I seldom use a weedless hook, except sometimes around holes in lily pads. With it being weightless it just kind of settles on top of the grass and I don't snag up much."