How To Texas Rig A Senko
Texas Rigged Senko
Don't allow the Senko worm's simple appearance mislead you. After several years of steady tournament utilise, this plastic worm has become the hottest item in bass fishing. The Senko and its twin, the YUM Dinger, both offering a truly natural performance combined with terrific versatility.
Lure maker Gary Yamamoto designed the Senko to fall horizontally, in a long, squiggly abdomen flop, which is more natural than the nose-downward attitude virtually soft-plastic baits assume. Many lure companies take introduced Senko spin-offs ranging from 3 to 7 inches, but the five-inch models score best, for reasons known only to the bass. Depending upon where and how you fish, try these four different approaches to rigging the Senko–the main thing is to make the about of the worm's liveliness.
Rigging a Weightless Senko
The almost archetype way to fish a Senko, the ane you'll meet most people throwing on your local lake, is weightless. Still, there are a few different ways to rig your Senko to maximize the subtle action without whatever weight, from wacky, to Texas style.
Wacky-Style
Wacky Rigged Senko
Texas bass pro Alton Jones often fishes a v-inch YUM Dinger wacky-mode by fixing a 3/0 Owner Mosquito alive-bait hook at the worm's midsection. This allows both ends of the bait to trip the light fantastic toe and flutter freely. Yous don't need any weight for this, but you can add together a very small split shot to the line about 12 inches above the hook to go the worm downwards. Merely make certain you're twitching information technology above the depth at which the bass are holding.
"I fish the wacky rig around riprap and boat docks," Jones says, "dropping information technology slowly and letting it quiver on the bottom. Then I repeatedly pull the bait ahead and let information technology fall." Should bass ignore this, he hot-cranks the worm several feet and kills it, triggering reflex strikes.
This way is splendid around almost any cover, such as grass or rocky banks, performing all-time in shallow, generally clear h2o.
O-Ring Wacky Worm
One bass is nigh all yous get with the standard wacky worm because the claw rips through the bait and ruins information technology. Alton Jones has caught equally many as thirty bass on one five-inch YUM Dinger past placing a 1/iv-inch (inside diameter) O-band around the worm'south midsection like a belt.
Apply needle-olfactory organ pliers to spread the O-ring, then sideslip a iii/0 Possessor Musquito live-bait hook underneath so that it'south belted to the worm just at the heart. When a bass strikes, information technology will bite the hook directly and non tear into the worm too much, and you tin can reuse the lure. –Grand.H.
O Ring Wacky Rigging
Weightless Texas Rig
Yamamoto himself rigs a 5-inch Senko Texas-way with a 3/0 Gamakatsu EWG offset worm hook. "Weightless is the virtually effective manner," he says.
Afterwards casting the bait to a probable bass lair, let it sink freely on controlled slack line (a tight line will pull the allurement ahead unnaturally). When you see the line leap or move, answer with a hard hookset (it helps to have a half-dozen-to 6 one/two-foot medium-activity graphite rod and 12-to 15-pound-test line). If no strike occurs on the initial driblet, glide the Senko ahead by raising the rod tip. And then lower the tip to permit the bait perform a short swan dive–and don't be surprised past a cruel striking after that little up-down movement.
The weightless Texas rig is an all-24-hour interval tactic that works best in clear to somewhat stained water. It's not every bit effective in muddy water.
Work a Weighted Senko
Weighted Senko Rig
While working a Senko rigged weightless is nearly an instinct for most bass fisherman, fifty-fifty Yamamoto himself liked to add weight to his presentation. Yamamoto matches a Texas-rigged Senko with a 1/iv-to 5/viii-ounce bullet sinker when he flips and pitches the bait into dumbo grass, flooded bushes, and other imposing cover. Though the heavier weights eliminate horizontal sink, they become the worm to bass that would never see it otherwise.
"Bass in deep cover are riled past the Senko's thick trunk," Yamamoto says. "When it hits the bottom, I milkshake it and they catch on."
Pair the right depth with your Senko presentation to fool Jump bass into hit and start out-line-fishing the other anglers on the water.
Drop-Shot
A 3-or 4-inch Senko-mode allurement on a drop-shot rig works wonders, especially when you lot fish information technology vertically. It'due south a great bet for articulate h2o twenty or more feet deep.
Drib Shot Senko Rig
With a Palomar knot, spike a pocket-sized drop-shot claw about 3 feet above an egg sinker and run the claw through the nose of the worm. Drop the rig straight downwardly. With the weight resting on the bottom, hold 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 fall and flutter.
The experts arrived at these 4 methods through a good deal of experimentation, and so there'southward no reason non to endeavor other techniques with your Senko and YUM Dinger worms. As long as you tin can mostly preserve their horizontal swim and body pulse, be as daring equally you like.
The Split up Shot Wacky Rig
Angling in current? So this rig is for you. Leeches and hellgrammites undulate as they swim, which is why the Wacky Rig works then well in moving water. By adding a calorie-free split shot about 12 inches up the line from the allurement, information technology helps the Senkostay barely ticking just over the bottom, and also keeps information technology in the zone longer in pockets and eddies.
Gary Yamamoto's Famous Senko Worms
I adopt a 4-inch Slim Senko for this method. This thinner model just has more "finesse appeal," if you will. The technique kills it wade-able smallmouth rivers, but it's also crawly for largemouth in the creeks and tributaries of tidal rivers. Sometimes I'll even paint my split shots so they match the bottom as naturally as possible.
The Heavy Jighead Bomb:
Senkos are prized for their irksome falling action, only that doesn't mean they don't work falling fast or thumping the bottom. Take hold of a 5/eight or ¾ oz mushroom jighead (rigged with an exposed claw), and thread on a standard v-inch Senko. The rig casts a mile and sinks like 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 dark spots on the bottom from a distance. I've also used it on points and humps over deep water for large spotted bass in the South.
This is really the aforementioned thought as bombing a big, heavy tube, but in my opinion, the Senko is more streamlined with the weighted head being external (vs internal in a tube), therefore, it sinks more than precisely and stands upwards on the lesser differently, both of which tin can make it more than constructive in sure situations. And when the smallies are really biting, yous can utilise up all those not-so-good Senko colors y'all've caused over the years, because the fish just react and eat information technology on the fall.
Make Your Wacky-Fashion Senko Presentation Flop-Proof
Zip-Tie Wacky Worm Rigging
If yous similar the o-ring wacky worm presentation mentioned above, just still detect that bass are ripping it apart as well quickly on the strike, and then it might be time to upgrade. You can substitute that plastic o-ring for a zip tie, making your Senko rigging practically bomb-proof. A plastic zip tie is also substantially easier to apply around the allurement.
Employ Colored Nil Ties to Rig a Senko Wacky-Way
Simply tighten the zip tie around the worm and hook, and so trim. Zip-ties are bachelor in a rainbow of colors. I happened to have a surplus of pink ones, so that's what I've been using. I tin't say that color hurts or helps. Seems to work, anyhow.
The whole object, of form, is to keep the hook from tearing up the bait when a fish bites. Not merely would yous have to then change baits more than often, just torn Senkos tend to come loose in the h2o. In that instance, they're an environmental hazard–sometimes ingested past fish that then tin't assimilate them.
The hook in the photo, by the way, is a Gamakatsu Finesse Weedless model, that comes with a built-in weedguard that actually works. I have never constitute a better hook for wacky-rigging.
Wacky Worm Tricks for Huge Spring Largemouth Bass
Now that you know how to rig this favorite soft plastic, how practice you work it into your day, and where do you throw it? Leap bass fishing tin can be heady with just about any lure, but co-ordinate to veteran Texas basspro Jay Yelas, y'all can get the best thrills when you necktie on a weightless worm.
"It's a fun bait to fish, considering different with a crankbait or a Carolina-rigged lizard, you tin actually see the fish swim upward and swallow it," Yelas says. "Anybody tin fish information technology, fifty-fifty a rank beginner, and it'll catch bass in water temperatures ranging from lx to 75 degrees."
Yelas fishes his weightless worms on a 6 i/2-foot medium-activeness spinning outfit with ten-pound-exam fluorocarbon line. The combination is perfect for skipping the bait nether overhanging cover. 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 Colour Senko Should I Employ?
"Color is a huge part of the equation," Yelas says. "I ordinarily utilise hot colors, like bubblegum, traffic-sign yellow, and white–all of which can provoke awesome reaction strikes. But when bass are especially wary, I'll switch to natural colors, similar watermelon and pumpkin. If you see a bass approach your worm, then turn away, the color is besides vivid."
Nearly of the time, Yelas rigs his weightless worms Texas-style. You tin also hook them through the nose or sideways through the egg sac and then that the caput and tail dangle freely (the latter is known as wacky-style). By varying the claw size, you lot tin make the worm sink faster or slower to match the mood and depth of the fish.
Where Do I Cast a Senko to Catch Leap Bass?
No matter how y'all rig them, these worms are deadly around shallow shoreline cover, such every bit stumps, laydown trees, and patchy grass. Cast right to the comprehend, not past it. Casts aimed directly at your target are often rewarded with an immediate strike. If they aren't, allow the worm sink until it'southward about out of sight, then gently twitch your rod tip to make the worm shoot sideways. "Don't overfish it," Yelas cautions. "If you lot don't get a rise out of a bass after a couple of twitches, reel the worm back in quickly and endeavour some other piece of comprehend."
Frequently, casting to tight spots in the cover requires a skipping presentation, which Yelas has perfected. (He caught 12 bass to my one on a recent outing when I was using a conventional over-hand delivery.)
"It'southward just like skipping a stone across a creek," he says. "You use a sidearm bandage, and you want the worm to smack the water in front end of you lot with enough forcefulness that it skitters across the surface. This keeps it low so it'll scoot nether over-hanging tree branches and flooded bushes. Skip it way back in there, where you'd never reach with an overhand bandage–that'due south where the big boys live."
How Do I Keep My Worm from Fouling?
Line twist can be a major problem when line-fishing weightless worms. Yelas minimizes this by filling his reel but 2-thirds full, which keeps the fluorocarbon line from popping off the spool in coils. "You besides have to rig the worm perfectly straight; otherwise it'll roll completely over when you twitch it–a major crusade of line twist."
Yelas points out one more important item: "Worms frequently develop a problematic bend in the parcel. To remove it, take several worms out in the morning and lay them straight on your boat's deck–the sun will heat them up enough to get the kinks out. So you'll be ready to take hold of fish."
Source: https://www.fieldandstream.com/catch-huge-spring-bass-wacky-style-weighted-senko-tactics/
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