I am headed down to theCowlitz river and was wondering do I have to remove all my triple hooks on my wiggle warts and put single hooks on ??.

I don't believe so, but I would check your regs book just in case.

Chumbuster:

Many fishermen changed to swish hooks a long time ago. They do the job and are legal in all areas of the State.

see below.....don't look at the colors.....silvers hate these plugs...

That big "pink" one suck's I'd never cast it for ho's.Don't ever use the Dr.Death color for those ho's either.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

I'd switch over, as the siwash won't work against each other like the treble will @ times.

The method that D-WA shows is probably the most common. Once you get your plug tuned for that method, it will fish just fine, hookups should not be a problem. I don't have any plugs with trebles, except for Hot Shots. I have had a hard time getting them to fish right after conversion.

All of my hot pink old style mag warts are gone. I really miss them, frankly I haven't fished plugs much since I lost them all about 3 years ago.

When they started to become unavailable I had 13. Now zero. I'll never forget losing the last one. I was casting into some logs and accidentally raked it across the back of a 30# black chinook. I knew instantly I had something snagged, tried everything to get it free, I got the king to the surface once and could see my poor plug stuck right in front of the dorsal. I ran the boat in circles around it, pull up, down, over, slack line, point and pull, and nothing worked. Line broke on a log eventually.

What is the difference between the old style Warts and the new ones? I see the old versions on ebay with a hefty price tag. Were they magical?

Honestly, they look and fish identical in my opinion. I have both. The difference to me is that one says "wiggle wart" on the underside of the bill, whereas the new ones say "Storm". and some of the colors are not the same. But even different batches of "vintage" wiggle warts look different colors/ shades.

for casting, I agree that the single siwash is good. not only are you legal in all rivers (if you fish several different systems, with different rules in effect), but it lessens the chance of your hooks getting tangled in one another.

Besides Hot Shots (which I almost exclusively fish for steelhead... pulled, not casted), I also use trebles on Tadpolly's. Basically, my steelhead plugs get trebles, salmon plugs get single siwash. Your anti-snagging rule syncs up pretty much this way.

Confidence is a funny thing.

I still haven't found a plug that looks to me like the EXACT same color as the old style Wart. As far as the way they fish I feel like something is different, maybe it is in the eye of the beholder, but I don't like the new Storm versions. The closest, is the Fatfish IMO, which I also think is the best casting plug on the market right now.

Then again if I cast 1000 times in a salmon season, less than 100 of those will be with plugs. That is just how I have been fishing ever since the Warts went off the market.

Not to get too far off topic; what are you throwing now?

I use the same setup as D-WA above, and it works great. The 4 bead chain, and a size 1 or 1/0 Gami siwash works great, hooks up well, and holds the fish, I think better than a treble.

As far as the old Warts are concerned, I have a bag full (~75 or so) of the old Storm warts from about 15 years ago> I still use them, but would entertain offers. I find that the Brad's warts fish just as well, as far as I'm concerned.

I love the look of those plugs but don't they hang up on the bottom a lot with the long bead chain? I would think those things would get stuck on the bottom every other cast.

when the plug is really digging in and fishing properly, the hook should be trailing the lure. in other words, the bill will/ should be the deepest part of the lure and typically touches anything first (such as wood, debris, rocks, etc.). I have had some problems getting the magnum warts hung up in shallow rivers or a magnum bait diver because they dive so deep, but it is much easier to free a single siwash hook than a treble.

when back rowing plugs, they will typically work with the current and avoid snags... well, I would say 50% of the time if you get them in the meat of the hole and where there is actually water flow causing good action.

my theory regarding treble vs. siwash is that a treble is easier to hook a fish when it first strikes and easier to "stick", but you can get a better hold of a fish and better hookset with a single siwash. a treble can only go in so far. and forget about harmlessly releasing a fish that has been hooked with one of those owner ST-31 trebles (which I use for steelhead plugs). often you get a fish with lock-jaw... as a result of having 3 barbs locking it's mouth shut. for spinners, I prefer the weight and action when a single siwash is on. Even in hatchery fisheries where trebles are allowed I do not fish them- it feels weird to me (physically, not emotionally).

Spinners and jigs. Mostly Vibrax (okay all Vibrax).

Again, for my money, when you are fishing for flopping silvers, it is all about confidence in what you are using.

Take another really hard close look at the bottom "throats" of the old and new(er) warts. Stare at both head on.

There's a difference one can see.

Does that difference really make a difference, differently from the differentiated difference?

All I know is that the Old School warts were flat out fish producing machines.

I have a few left that I'll fish in the Lake. I cherish those Warts and only break them out when I really *have* to catch a fish or twelve. Ask Supcoop about original wiggle warts.

As for the siwash, do what Drifter did. Bead chain to a siwash.

The big advantages of the single siwash are when you hook the coho and it does the death roll. The fish can roll all it wants to and all it's going to do is spin the bead chain. Also, once you get the slimer in a net, it's pretty easy to take out a single siwash from a messed up pile of net and coho, rather than a pair or a single treble that magically embeds itself in 14 strands of your net as the fish rolls around on the floor of your boat and/or bank. By the time you've busted out the pliers, your treble is bent to hell and gone and you've just lost an hour of life trying to free up the fire engine red coho that you were gonna release anyways! Just saying.....

Parker, +1.

The plugs still float, even with the additional weight of the swivel. The siwash rides point up.

Here is another option for single hooks. Fine for fishing current breaks just out from, or below structure.

Old Storm plugs, just seems to fish better than the new "Brad's Style". Parker might be on the something....I've not really checked that part out.

Many of you know that Region 6 is where I spend 95% of my time fishing. In the "hay day" of pulling plugs in the Chehalis River, aound Montansano, 100's of people would come in from other areas to fish here. Because the Chehalis River it tidal influenced, in the area from the ocean to around Fuller bridge, many would not know where the snags were.

I spent lot's of time, about 1.5 hours before low water and some time after low water....going from snag to snag.....and I'd pull plugs off the snags. Some tides, I'd get only a few but many times I'd get 15+, most I remeber getting was 31 during 1 tide.

Well bottom line....at one time I had over 500 plugs of every size, color, brand you could think of. Sold all "hot shot", 30's, 35's and others sizes, sold all the tadpoly's(grrrrrrr here) but kept all the storm plugs.

But like Rocket Red, have gone to "other things" to catch fish.

So all my plugs "just sit in boxes"...holding down the shelves....

I thought this thread was about the Cow. Dark kings to be released.

Bill, Those same tactics still work in the South Sound. The net pen fish are just smaller.

Sounds like it's time for the "Online Garage Sale"...just a thought...

RognSue:

That's how I got rid of all the Hot Shots, Tadpolies, and many of the "wee warts" from Storm. I'll do a picture bit at some time in the future.......people will like what I've kept.

Ya they will !!!!!!