Back to: Wishin Lures HomePageCan it be true, a straight-shaft bucktail that is actually weedless? The answer is, that more than 95% of the time when the Wisher Weedless Bucktail is brought through even the heaviest weed beds, yes! How is that possible you ask? The answer starts to develop nearly 50 years ago, when Charlie Hanson started fishing his favorite, weedy, lily rimmed northwestern Wisconsin lake and developed a bucktail that he could fish "where no man dared to go," the thick weeds and lily pads where the muskies were often found to be feeding. His pat answer to inquiring anglers that watched as he cast back into these types of areas and asked how he was able to get his lure through them was: "I don't have any hooks." Over the years Charlie made just enough for himself and a few close friends, and occasionally a few for sale locally. In the early 1990's, the owners of Wishin Lures (formerly WhiteWater Lures) struck a deal with Charlie to mass produce his weedless bucktail for sale to the general musky populace. After a couple of years of experimentation to get the weighting just right for mass production process, the world's first truly weedless straight-shaft bucktail was ready for the market. To say it has been a success would be an understatement. The reports and photographs the company has received of the successful use of their weedless bucktail from anglers all over the muskie range speaks for themselves.
Why you might ask, is this bucktail so weedless? The secret to its success is a single, forged, keel-weighted hook (although two or more bucktails can be run in tandem for added casting weight and larger size look). Due to the position of the keel weight, the hook rides through the water in an upright-tilted back position. This accomplishes two things. By riding upright and tilted back the hook-point is shielded by the weight and the shank of the hook. This serves to push the weeds out of the way of the point when the lure is pulled through the weeds. When the lure is brought over and through lily pads (don't worry if the blade stops spinning momentarily as it rides "over" the pads - it will start spinning again the moment it returns to the water) the single hook makes it much more difficult for the lure to catch up on the pads. Do "single hooks" make it more difficult to hook a muskie when they hit? I'll answer that with an emphatic NO! The most successful lure in Muskie's, Inc. history for the capture of muskies more than 50 inches are the straight-shaft Eagle Tail Bucktails. They have only single hooks! They just aren't weedless like the Wisher Weedless Bucktail is.
In severely difficult situations, such as eel grass and the small "dollar lily pads", which have a tendency to wrap up on the blade and stop it from spinning, rendering its attraction useless, a simple addition of a piece of rubber worm (the larger the diameter the better) about an inch long placed on the wire shaft "ahead of the clevis holding the blade" will deflect the majority of this type of nuisance and allow the blade to keep spinning except in the most "impossible" situations.
Do muskies inhabit the "shallow
slop?" You bet! Most muskie anglers just don't (or can't) fish
there. Is any lure, including a spinner bait or Johnson Silver minnow,
weedless 100% of the time? Absolutely not, but I think you will be
amazed at where you can cast the Wisher Weedless Bucktail, and the surprises
you will get from previously un-fishable areas will thrill you! Good
hunting.......
Back to: Wishin Lures HomePage