THE BASS COLLEGE

For  the better part of ten years now the Senko or some form of a soft stickworm has been a staple in my bass fishing repatoire.

It catches cold front bass, summer bass, staging & bedding bass and fall schooling bass.

You can throw it shallow or deep, flip it, deadstick it or twitch it.

I've caught fish with it drop-shotting, carolina rigging and texas rigging. Basically, if you put it on a hook and throw it in the water it'll catch bass.

However over the past 4 years I've been fishing it almost exclusively one particular way and that's the "WACKY-RIG" way.

For years I texas rigged my senko and caught tons of bass.

I knew of the wacky-rig but I was doing so well texas rigging it I didnt see the need to bother changing. Besides I didn't believe that hooking the bait through the middle could catch me anymore bass than my standard rig would. The whole idea I thought to wacky rigging was to get the worm to fall horizontally through the water instead of nose first like traditional texas rigged plastics.

Since soft plastic stickworms did that on a texas rig anyway I figured there wasn't a reason to do it. Maybe with a trick worm or a strait tail but with all the salt in my Senko it fell perfectly horizontal without the hook in the middle of the bait.

Boy was I WRONG!

I began to realize the value of the wacky when I fished a club tournament on a small pond in Delaware called Waggamons.

Myself and a few other boats had located a big school of bass out in the middle of the pond on some brush piles dropped on the old creek channel. This is a very small spot on a small pond so you were able to see every move they made down to the color of the fleck in their Senko. We all were throwing senkos up on a flat and working to and down the edge of the channel where there were 6 big brush piles in about 8 ft of water.

The Senko was the deal.That's what I caught them on in practice and every angler in the top 5 caught them on a Senko or Dinger.

The anglers I was competing against were locals and fished this and other small ponds like it in southern Delaware almost exclusively.

I caught 1 in the first 20 minutes on the spot and every other boat had a limit. I was working the bait in the same cadence, at the same speed, same angle and even the same color.

In fact we all were using light line on spinning reels as well. After an hour I had 3 bass and the other boats had been culling for a half hour. What was the difference..............You got it... wacky rigging!!!! 

I changed and immediately got bit and within an hour I had culled to a 13lb bag that got me 3rd place.

Since then I've done the same thing to other anglers. Sometimes competitors, other times to friends in the boat with me who refused to change their texas rig.

I'm telling you this technique works and it seems like the tougher the fishing gets the more it works. As far as tackle I like the weedless wacky rig hook that Gamakatsu makes but any small (2) hook works. I throw it on 8 lb flurocarbon on a 6 1/2 ft M action spinning rod( ST CROIX) with a quality spinning reel (Shimano Stradic).

Rigging it is simple, you just hook it in the middle of the bait. In one side and out the other. As far as fishing it throw it out and let it sink. The only real difference in working it from a texas rigged senko is instead of lifting up to move it , you give it little twitches to the side with your rod. That makes both ends of the tail quiver like crazy and they can't take it.

So give it a try and you will be pleasantly surprised at how many bass you'll catch. I PROMISE YOU THIS TECHNIQUE REALLY WORKS BETTER THAN THE TRADITIONAL WAYS!!!!!!!!!!!

                      Sinse I won some of Gary Yamamoto`s from Steve,I started using them ``wacky" and they work well.. Wacky is the only way I hook them up.Never really was a worm fisher til this year and they work great.I`ve got all type, Wave Worms,tailed have worked very well for me all year.
                      Thanks for the info. it`s always helpfull to read what other people are doing.

No problem and if you havent tryed the gamakatsu weedless wacky hook definitely check it out. It will help you get more casts out of each bait and you can throw it into even  the  nastiest cover.

Anybody had any luck with the swim senko?

The swim senko works ok but I like a zoom speed worm for the same technique

Wacky rigs are the way to go when the lakes first unfreeze

Yes, and don't forget to throw some abstract colors! It really works at times. Pink, Merthiolate, Orange, bright lime green, Yellow.

I like wacky and Texas rigging the 7 inch strikeking ocho.............. esoecially during the spawn

Its time to dust of the wacky rig and get out there catching some bass when you have one of these early spring cold fronts come through and shut the fish down

Im gonna try the wacky rig again this weekend. I tried it at the farm pond 2 weeks ago but they didnt want anything to do with it.

when they are aggresive they will ignore it for the reaction baits in early spring but when all of a sudden they stop hitting your moving baits like someone shut a light switch off. Thats when the wacky rigged senko shines

Man, There is a TON of info on this site. Love it! Thanks kurt

No problem bud thats what we are about here. If we dont know the answer we will tell ya so and we will find the guy that does

Does the hook size matter?   Will a big hook throw off the movement?   I use hook size #4 most time for my plastics.

the lake fork wacky hook

In order, what is your favorite 3 colors to fish and what brand, size of senko do you all prefer. Which one do fish 1st?  Thanks for all the info!

the wacky rig is the first finesse like technique i used to catch fish as a kid, its still my favorite way to rig a senko. The cool part is you can catch lunkers as well as numbers off this presentation, I love watermelon red, black and blue, and bream in either yum dingers or yama senkos, 5 in mostly but sometimes 6in, you usually get a bigger bite with em

There is only ONE SENKO. The rest are cheap knock offs in my opinion. GARY YAMAMOTO SENKO. Watermelon/Green is what takes most bass or any dark color in stained or muddy water. Thats all you need unless you fish Thousand Islands or somewhere like that.

Steve and Gary at the Classic 2005

I do think the original Senko does have the best action of them all

i really love the 4 in senko  for the smaller bass but it can still pick up the big ones ! has anyone tried wave worms?