Let’s Look Back – Part 12

Ever heard of an Al Foss Shimmy Wiggler?  It had to be one on the very first bass lures that could be handled like a buzz bait once you had the smarts to use it in that fashion.  I want to share a few of my experiences with this old gal that did so much to set the stage for what was to follow.

It wouldn’t be wise to get too snuggly with ‘em, I suppose, but whenever I handle a couple of these beat up old baits I keep in a special tackle box, I guess it’s not hard to see how I feel.

My wife brought that up once when she walked into my tackle work room one evening without my noticing she was there.  I was looking at a favorite Shimmy Wiggler and just turning its worn blade and stroking its battered bucktail skirt as a swarm of memories came buzzing back at me as thick as a swarm of mosquitoes.

“I swear,” she exclaimed. “You handle that thing like it’s made out of priceless diamonds.  I wish you’d pay the same kind of attention to my kitchen knives.  Maybe then they’d be sharp enough to cut with.”

I’ve not seen these lures on the tackle shelves now for years.  As far as I’m able to determine they were the first of the vast array of buzzer-type baits now available.

Al Foss and his lures first came on the American bass fishing scene away back in 1916.  He may have been around even before that, but I’ve seen reports that indicate this was when his Shimmy Wigglers were made available for the first time.

Now let’s fast forward to the mid-1940s.  I’m finally back from serving with an infantry rifle company in the South Pacific for almost two years in World War II.  They brought me home from Manila on a hospital plane.  Once they got my gut working properly again and my damaged back healed up enough so I could get around fairly well, they sent me home on an extended convalescent leave prior to my discharge.

The docs had advised me to take it easy during the months of convalescence, but they hadn’t told me I couldn’t fish.  I had just started getting in a few serious licks at the largemouth in our part of Southwest Washington before World War II got started.  I made up for some of the time I’d lost in a hurry.

The first bass plugs I’d actually owned when I went off to war were a rainbow colored Heddon Basser and a Shannon Twin Spinner with a yellow skirt.  It wasn’t long after I got home that my first Shimmy Wiggler was added to my limited lure assortment.

It didn’t take long to realize that this lure made with a head that had a brass or nickel finish and with a single spinner up front and a single hook dressed with a bucktail skirt positioned on its body was something special.  For one thing, its hook rode in an upright position and it could be used with or without weed guards.

It also revealed another truth where largemouth bass are concerned – how those wonderful fish can and often do react to a lure they’ve never seen before.  They will, that is, once you’ve determined how that lure has to be handled to get the results you’re after.