THE BASS COLLEGE

Early in the spring, in the mid summer heat, into the cool fall breeze, and in the freezing air of early winter before the water is frozen. I like to use a bait by Gary Yamamoto called "The Fat Ika". Basically the fat ika is a solid tube jig with HEAVY salt inpregnation that has caught me more bass in my life then any other soft plastic on the market. What the fat ika does is replicate pretty much anything you want it to. Rig it weightless and jig it along the top of the water swimming it in and it will replicate a baitfish, throw on a jig head and it transforms into a crayfish. It is such a good bait that you can pretty much do anything you want with it and it is going to catch not only largemouth bass, but chunky smallmouth as well. This past summer my father and I went on a canoe trip on the wisconsin river on a church outing. The river is fast moving and hard to fish from a moving canoe. "You will never catch anything out of this canoe", my dad said to me. I tied on a 3/8 oz Bite-Me Shaky head jig and a Fat Ika in green pumpkin and began making casts towards the bank and jigging in the bait as far in as I could get it before the canoe passed the bait and we were "trolling". Within 5 minutes of doing this I hooked up with a smallmouth, nothing monster, but it was a fish. I had proven my dad wrong and ended up catching close to 30 smallmouth that weekend. The thing is, we have been going on this trip every summer for 7 years, we have thrown just about everything but the fat ika out of the boat and never had any luck. A few fish here and there on crawfish colored crankbaits, but never anything much. After discovering the fat ika our luck had changed. If you want to catch MONSTER bass, go out and pick yourself up a bag of Gary Yamamoto Fat Ikas, throw one on a 3/8 oz shaky head, fish it as you would a jig, and hold on!

Check me out at youtube.com/JakeStrangeFishing I use the Fat Ika in several of my videos.

Fat Ika is definitely a bait that I like. I like to texas rig weightless backwards, where I start the hook up by the tentacles and feed it through and down. Gives it a great action.

Thanks Jake. i have never thrown a fat ika, this is making me want to throw one

We threw them back in the late 90's and early 2000's on the upper bay and Potomac. You will hear Kurt talk about them in several of our old videos. They are great around the docks in the rivers at certain times.

Those little bass at Dardenelle like the IKA...

FAT IKA FREE BAITS FREE SHIPPING CLICK TO VIEW ALL THE COLORS

Never heard of it until just now. Looks cool. I will try them this spring! What colors do you like? 

I haven't tried them yet for bedding bass, but I plan to this year. It just seems like a winning lure honestly. 

Jordan Hanger at January 22, 2012 at 9:16 PM

Never heard of it until just now. Looks cool. I will try them this spring! What colors do you like? 

I really like the green pumpkin, black and blue works as well but not even close to as good as green pumpkin. Try rigging it backwards as well, everyone seems to like to fish em like that.

its a hot bait on the beds , i seen alot of guys bed fishing with them at candlewood lake in conn.

tom at January 23, 2012 at 6:34 AM

its a hot bait on the beds , i seen alot of guys bed fishing with them at candlewood lake in conn.

It's a hot bait pretty much everywhere! I had thrown it out and reeled in past the strike zone at one time, so I was burning it in to make another cast and a fish hit it! I have also thrown it in a river that runs through the middle of a small city called Naperville and caught urban smallmouth on it! I dont know what it is about the bait but bass CANNOT deny it.

its great for flipping, peg it with 3/16 tungsten or 3/8 tungsten, iv also caught fish punching it with an oz weight, using bobber stoppers and trokar flipping hooks,  they make a mini version that works better then the fat ika in 4 inch for smallies its really small and good on 1/8 oz jig head with floro in pressured areas, or skipping under docks

If I only could have one lure in the boat , it would be a Dirty Swim jig. There is just to many different ways to fish it.

Rick at January 23, 2012 at 2:34 PM

If I only could have one lure in the boat , it would be a Dirty Swim jig. There is just to many different ways to fish it.

agreed

Looks very much like what I am using. The Damiki Hydra.

it is a great bait...jake stole my thunder, I was working on a post about this bait. I like to rig it backwards on #4 fluoro with a #2 Drop Shot hook or Finesse Wide Gap hook. They sometimes will call it the palm tree rig, as it looks like a palm tree when you rig it this way. its a fish catcher for sure.

I heard Yamamoto isnt looking to make the bait anymore, so the color selection is very limited. Damiki makes a similar bait and of course the off shoot of Yamamoto baits, KInami Baits has a few colors as well.

Be careful of imitations as they just dont match up to the bait, the salt and the weight of the bait make all the difference.

But ya it's been around for a loooong time and I have thrown it for a loooong time.

Take care everyone..

Great bait for bed fishing. You don't even have to impart any movement. Bait just sits there and tentacles go crazy. Drives em nuts.

you can use any bait on bed fish, i wouldnt bother using a Fat Ika on one

I'll just keep my thoughts to myself from now on.

wasnt my intent, sorry if you took it wrong.