How To Fish A Senko For Bass
Texas Rigged Senko
Don't allow the Senko worm'south elementary appearance mislead you. After several years of steady tournament use, this plastic worm has become the hottest item in bass fishing. The Senko and its twin, the YUM Dinger, both offer a truly natural performance combined with terrific versatility.
Lure maker Gary Yamamoto designed the Senko to fall horizontally, in a long, squiggly belly flop, which is more than natural than the nose-down attitude about soft-plastic baits presume. Many lure companies have introduced Senko spin-offs ranging from 3 to 7 inches, but the v-inch models score all-time, for reasons known simply to the bass. Depending upon where and how you fish, try these four different approaches to rigging the Senko–the master matter is to make the most of the worm'south liveliness.
Rigging a Weightless Senko
The most classic way to fish a Senko, the one you lot'll encounter most people throwing on your local lake, is weightless. Still, there are a few different ways to rig your Senko to maximize the subtle activeness without whatsoever weight, from wacky, to Texas style.
Wacky-Manner
Wacky Rigged Senko
Texas bass pro Alton Jones often fishes a five-inch YUM Dinger wacky-style by fixing a three/0 Owner Mosquito live-bait hook at the worm'south midsection. This allows both ends of the bait to trip the light fantastic toe and flutter freely. You don't need any weight for this, but you can add a very small divide shot to the line most 12 inches above the hook to get the worm down. Only make sure you're twitching it above the depth at which the bass are holding.
"I fish the wacky rig around riprap and gunkhole docks," Jones says, "dropping it slowly and letting it quiver on the bottom. Then I repeatedly pull the allurement alee and let it fall." Should bass ignore this, he hot-cranks the worm several anxiety and kills it, triggering reflex strikes.
This fashion is first-class around almost any cover, such as grass or rocky banks, performing best in shallow, by and large clear water.
O-Ring Wacky Worm
One bass is about all you lot get with the standard wacky worm because the hook rips through the allurement and ruins information technology. Alton Jones has defenseless as many equally 30 bass on one 5-inch YUM Dinger past placing a one/4-inch (inside diameter) O-ring around the worm'south midsection similar a belt.
Use needle-nose pliers to spread the O-ring, then sideslip a 3/0 Owner Musquito live-allurement hook underneath and then that it's belted to the worm merely at the eye. When a bass strikes, information technology will bite the claw straight and non tear into the worm too much, and you tin can reuse the lure. –K.H.
O Ring Wacky Rigging
Weightless Texas Rig
Yamamoto himself rigs a 5-inch Senko Texas-mode with a 3/0 Gamakatsu EWG offset worm claw. "Weightless is the most effective way," he says.
After casting the bait to a likely bass lair, allow information technology sink freely on controlled slack line (a tight line will pull the bait alee unnaturally). When you meet the line jump or motility, respond with a difficult hookset (it helps to have a vi-to half dozen ane/2-foot medium-action graphite rod and 12-to xv-pound-test line). If no strike occurs on the initial drop, glide the Senko alee by raising the rod tip. So lower the tip to let the bait perform a short swan swoop–and don't exist surprised by a savage striking after that little upward-down movement.
The weightless Texas rig is an all-day tactic that works all-time in clear to somewhat stained water. It's not equally effective in muddy water.
Piece of work a Weighted Senko
Weighted Senko Rig
While working a Senko rigged weightless is almost an instinct for well-nigh bass fisherman, even Yamamoto himself liked to add weight to his presentation. Yamamoto matches a Texas-rigged Senko with a ane/4-to 5/8-ounce bullet sinker when he flips and pitches the allurement into dense grass, flooded bushes, and other imposing comprehend. Though the heavier weights eliminate horizontal sink, they get the worm to bass that would never see information technology otherwise.
"Bass in deep comprehend are riled past the Senko'due south thick torso," Yamamoto says. "When information technology hits the bottom, I shake it and they grab on."
Pair the right depth with your Senko presentation to fool Spring bass into striking and outset out-angling the other anglers on the h2o.
Drop-Shot
A 3-or 4-inch Senko-style bait on a drop-shot rig works wonders, specially when you lot fish it vertically. It's a great bet for clear water xx or more feet deep.
Drop Shot Senko Rig
With a Palomar knot, fasten a pocket-sized drib-shot hook about 3 feet higher up an egg sinker and run the hook through the olfactory organ of the worm. Drop the rig directly downwardly. With the weight resting on the bottom, agree the rod parallel to the water and reel until the line grows taut. Then drop and elevator the rod tip without pulling the weight off the bottom. Each drop of the rod puts slack in the line, which lets the Senko seduce bass with a horizontal autumn and flutter.
The experts arrived at these four methods through a proficient bargain of experimentation, so in that location's no reason not to try other techniques with your Senko and YUM Dinger worms. As long as you can mostly preserve their horizontal swim and body pulse, be as daring as y'all like.
The Split Shot Wacky Rig
Fishing in current? Then this rig is for y'all. Leeches and hellgrammites undulate as they swim, which is why the Wacky Rig works so well in moving water. Past adding a calorie-free split shot near 12 inches up the line from the bait, it helps the Senkostay barely ticking just over the bottom, and also keeps it in the zone longer in pockets and eddies.
Gary Yamamoto'southward Famous Senko Worms
I adopt a four-inch Slim Senko for this method. This thinner model merely has more "finesse entreatment," if yous will. The technique kills it wade-able smallmouth rivers, but it'south also awesome for largemouth in the creeks and tributaries of tidal rivers. Sometimes I'll even paint my split shots and then they friction match the bottom equally naturally every bit possible.
The Heavy Jighead Bomb:
Senkos are prized for their slow falling action, just that doesn't mean they don't work falling fast or thumping the bottom. Grab a 5/eight or ¾ oz mushroom jighead (rigged with an exposed hook), and thread on a standard five-inch Senko. The rig casts a mile and sinks similar a stone. In Northern clear-water lakes with expansive flats, this is a neat method for targeting smallies, because the rig casts a mile, letting you hit light and night spots on the bottom from a distance. I've also used information technology on points and humps over deep h2o for large spotted bass in the South.
This is really the same idea as bombing a big, heavy tube, but in my opinion, the Senko is more than streamlined with the weighted caput being external (vs internal in a tube), therefore, it sinks more than precisely and stands up on the bottom differently, both of which tin make it more effective in certain situations. And when the smallies are really biting, yous can use upwardly all those not-then-good Senko colors you've acquired over the years, considering the fish only react and consume it on the fall.
Make Your Wacky-Style Senko Presentation Bomb-Proof
Zip-Necktie Wacky Worm Rigging
If you like the o-ring wacky worm presentation mentioned to a higher place, but still find that bass are ripping information technology apart too chop-chop on the strike, then it might be fourth dimension to upgrade. You tin substitute that plastic o-ring for a zip tie, making your Senko rigging practically flop-proof. A plastic zip tie is also substantially easier to apply around the bait.
Use Colored Zip Ties to Rig a Senko Wacky-Style
Only tighten the zip tie around the worm and hook, then trim. Zip-ties are available in a rainbow of colors. I happened to have a surplus of pink ones, so that's what I've been using. I can't say that color hurts or helps. Seems to work, anyhow.
The whole object, of course, is to keep the hook from tearing up the bait when a fish bites. Not only would yous have to so alter baits more than often, but torn Senkos tend to come loose in the h2o. In that example, they're an environmental hazard–sometimes ingested by fish that and then can't assimilate them.
The hook in the photo, past the mode, is a Gamakatsu Finesse Weedless model, that comes with a built-in weedguard that really works. I take never found a better claw for wacky-rigging.
Wacky Worm Tricks for Huge Leap Largemouth Bass
Now that yous know how to rig this favorite soft plastic, how do you work it into your twenty-four hours, and where do y'all throw it? Spring bass angling tin can exist exciting with just almost whatever lure, simply according to veteran Texas basspro Jay Yelas, you can get the all-time thrills when yous necktie on a weightless worm.
"It'south a fun bait to fish, because unlike with a crankbait or a Carolina-rigged cadger, yous tin actually come across the fish swim up and eat information technology," Yelas says. "Everyone can fish it, fifty-fifty a rank beginner, and it'll grab bass in water temperatures ranging from lx to 75 degrees."
Yelas fishes his weightless worms on a six 1/2-pes medium-activeness spinning outfit with 10-pound-examination fluorocarbon line. The combination is perfect for skipping the bait under overhanging embrace. He typically opts for a 6- to 8-inch straight-tail worm, which he says exhibits more erratic movements than a ribbon-tail when twitched.
What Color Senko Should I Use?
"Colour is a huge part of the equation," Yelas says. "I ordinarily use hot colors, like bubblegum, traffic-sign yellowish, and white–all of which can provoke awesome reaction strikes. But when bass are especially wary, I'll switch to natural colors, like watermelon and pumpkin. If yous see a bass arroyo your worm, so turn away, the colour is too bright."
Most of the time, Yelas rigs his weightless worms Texas-style. You lot can also claw them through the nose or sideways through the egg sac and so that the caput and tail dangle freely (the latter is known equally wacky-style). By varying the claw size, you tin can make the worm sink faster or slower to match the mood and depth of the fish.
Where Do I Cast a Senko to Catch Bound Bass?
No matter how y'all rig them, these worms are deadly effectually shallow shoreline cover, such equally stumps, laydown copse, and patchy grass. Cast right to the comprehend, non by it. Casts aimed direct at your target are ofttimes rewarded with an immediate strike. If they aren't, permit the worm sink until it'south well-nigh out of sight, then gently twitch your rod tip to make the worm shoot sideways. "Don't overfish information technology," Yelas cautions. "If you don't get a rising out of a bass afterward a couple of twitches, reel the worm back in apace and endeavor another piece of comprehend."
Often, casting to tight spots in the cover requires a skipping presentation, which Yelas has perfected. (He defenseless 12 bass to my one on a recent outing when I was using a conventional over-hand delivery.)
"Information technology's just similar skipping a stone across a creek," he says. "You apply a sidearm cast, and you lot desire the worm to smack the water in front of you with plenty forcefulness that it skitters beyond the surface. This keeps it depression so it'll scoot nether over-hanging tree branches and flooded bushes. Skip it fashion back in there, where you'd never accomplish with an overhand cast–that'due south where the big boys alive."
How Do I Continue My Worm from Fouling?
Line twist tin can be a major problem when line-fishing weightless worms. Yelas minimizes this past filling his reel only two-thirds full, which keeps the fluorocarbon line from popping off the spool in coils. "You lot besides have to rig the worm perfectly straight; otherwise it'll coil completely over when you lot twitch information technology–a major crusade of line twist."
Yelas points out one more than of import detail: "Worms often develop a problematic bend in the package. To remove it, accept several worms out in the morning and lay them directly on your boat's deck–the sun will rut them up enough to get the kinks out. Then you'll be ready to catch fish."
Source: https://www.fieldandstream.com/catch-huge-spring-bass-wacky-style-weighted-senko-tactics/
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