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By Mike Whitten
South-Central Staff Writer

May 20, 2011

Just every so often, as the simple, straightforward joys of springtime fishing with its associated “seasons” of spawn and post spawn align themselves in my advancing life, I am reminded of an old “saw” that my Dad left with me: “Just do it the easy way!”  It was his down home version of the KISS rule: “Keep It Simple, Stupid.”  Nothing in fishing is more directly reflective of this bit of fatherly wisdom than a 5” or 6” Yamamoto Senko.

In my nearly five decades of chasing the genus Micropterus, I don’t believe that there is any lure that is more simplistically perfect and effective right out of the bag than a Senko.  All you need is an appropriately sized hook, some basic casting ability, and the patience to let it fall, and you get bass.  What else is there, really?

From its genesis in the depths of a ball point pen body, the floppy, double twitching, salt laden, easily destroyed straight piece of plastic has become one of the deadliest lures I’ve ever used on bass in less than 15 feet of water.  To quote a line from a Jimmy Buffett song —“It was so simple, it plumb evaded me”—and the Senko nearly did just that.  I was long into my fishing lifetime before I figured out the “Zen” of the Senko.  And the secret is this: you don’t need to weight it, you need to put a 4/0 hook in it and cast it out.  Period.  Done.  Let it fall on a slack line, and when it touches bottom, pick it up and let it fall again.  You can over work a Senko in a heartbeat.  It is one of those rare lures that creates its own action as it falls.  The “Zen” I discovered was in how it falls so naturally with only a hook and slack line—you don’t want to do anything to disturb that fall---leave that to the bass.

I find myself more and more these days substituting a texas rigged Senko for a traditional texas rigged plastic worm, creature bait, or lizard.  I will often pitch it in places where I would normally pitch a jig.  Most folks think that you need light spinning tackle to effectively fish Senkos.   Nothing is further from the truth.  I have found that I can accurately cast and pitch a T-rigged 5 or 6 inch Senko just as well as I can a 3/8 oz jig/craw combo, and easier than I can with a ¼ oz jig.

My Senko tackle consists of a Falcon Rods  5 action 6’10” Cara T-7 rod, matched with a Shimano Calais 100A reel, 15# Vicious Elite Fluorocarbon  line and a 4/0 Gamakatsu Skip Gap hook.(More on the hook in a minute.)  This is not your basic “wimp tackle” set up.  I’ve got some serious power in this rig, and can “bust a head” any time the bite happens, but I can still easily and accurately present a weightless Senko, with either a pitch or cast action, depending on what the target requires.

I mentioned the Skip Gap hook by Gamakatsu—No, they are NOT one of my sponsors (sure wish they were), but I went through a lot of hook experiments before I settled on this one.  This special hook was designed for “skipping” baits up under boat docks, which called for a hook with a special bend in the shank to keep the plastics in place.  This same bend does a marvelous job of holding the soft plastic of the Senko where it needs to be.  And, the business end of the hook has an incredible sharp point and a huge wide gap.  Rigged “Tex-Posed” style, I have found that my hookup ratio is almost 100%.  I keep pretty good notes and over the past three months I’ve had over 80 bites on Senkos, and I’ve missed exactly one fish, and I think that one was my fault for just not putting enough power in the stroke.  There are other hooks that will work, including simple round bend offset shank worm hooks, but no hook I’ve tried balances the lure, adds casting weight, and hooks fish better than the Skip Gap.  It is the only hook I use with Texas rigged Senkos; 4/0 in the 5”, and a 5/0 in the 6”.  Again—KISS Rule.

Some other thoughts on Senkos

I really believe that Fluorocarbon line is important to this technique.  Because the line sinks, it helps the bait sink just a tad faster, which works well for me.  Equally, if not more important is that a high quality fluorocarbon line will dramatically improve your sense of feel at the bait.  Because Senkos look so natural and are so full of salt, bass eat them, and will swallow them if you don’t set the hook quickly.  With fluorocarbon—and my choice is the new Vicious Elite Fluoro—you feel the strike more dramatically and can swing on the fish sooner.

Bites on a Senko almost ALWAYS occur on the fall, and often you will not feel a thing—your line just moves off, or things feel “weird”.  At best, you feel a single “TAP”, and then the line goes slack. Pay attention here, pilgrim, cause these are most often the bites you really want.  If you are feeling a lot of rapid taps, or multiple taps with some swimming, those are bluegill or small, non-keeper bass.  The ones you want eat it like a Valentine’s date on a piece of Godiva chocolate.  You can’t take it away from them!

And yes, there are tons of other ways to rig the Senko: wacky, nose weighted, drop shot, on a jig head, on a Carolina rig, behind a swim jig or a bladed jig—but remember, this is about the KISS system.

Rod, reel, hook. Insert hook in Senko, throw out, let fall catch bass —KISS. Just how we roll!