Senkos

[skeeter1804]

I have always fished senkos with a 5/0 hook and weightless but have seen people use weights on them. Wondering how you guys fish them? What size hook and weight or no weight. Thanks

[Tavery5]

I don't fish them near as much as I used to. When I do fish them it is usually in one of three ways. As mentioned above T-rig weightless, I also will wacky rig them with a finesse hook, and last but not least, I will T-rig them with a 3/16th oz bullet weight. They catch fish no matter how I rig them.

I read an article with Gary Yamamoto's suggestions for rigging with a small nose weight, don't get much better than from the horse's mouth.

[skeeter1804]

Thanks Tavery, I saw some video of Alton Jones fishing a Yum Dinger at the classic and he had a small weight on his. That is what got me thinking about a weight or not.

[gonefishin3]

I fish them every way possible and I fish every size :P people look at me weird when I throw a senko with a 1/4 oz weight but my casts are more presise I can make longer cast (especially if your fishing horizontal to the bank) if the fish are biteing the worms on the bottom it gets the bait in the strikezone faster. I've fished weightless they are wonderfull wacky on a dropshot and just wacky they work good!

[basstech]

I as well fish them weightless or T-rigged, texposed/skin-hooked both ways. Also have Carolina rigged with them. I started out weightless only the first year I used them, but won't do that in the wind, and when I weight them it's with the smallest weight I can and still have contact with the bait. I rarely use anything over 1/4 oz. but most of the time it's an 1/8th or 3/16th oz. weight. Typically I use 2/0 and 3/0 hook on 4", 3/0 and 4/0 on 5", 4/0 on 6" but hardly ever throw 6". I start with the larger hook but if I'm missing fish or they're not taking it aggressively I go down a size in hook. I still haven't ever whacky rigged with them, but I don't whacky rig with anything else.

[joedog]

My go to is weightless, T-rigged, wacky ect. Why, I just always felt the slow fall was a huge trigger. I lot depends on how deep your fishing. To let a weightless drop 10-15 feet can take some time. Are you talking stick baits or other worm styles like curly tail, cut tails ect.? The more action the tail end has the more comfortable I become with added weight. I rarly fiish with heavier than a 3/16 or 1/8 but sometimes will go with a 1/4 oz. nose weight. Hooks are usually 2/0 or 3/0 will go larger if needed. But 3/0 usually is big enough unless I'm getting alot of short strikes or spit outs. I also switch brands because of the weight difference, especially if fishing weightless. Different weights will fall differently and I've even at times added nail weights in tail as opposed to head weight. Under rare circumstances I'll even use a stick bait as a jig trailer with some surprising success. If I'm fishing 5 foot or less, I always go weightless.

[bassboogieman]

I fish them weightless with a 4/0 EWG hook. If I want a faster fall I either peg small bullet weight or use a splitshot, for a nose first fall, squeeze a splitshot on the hook for a more vertical fall, or put a nail weight in the tail. Wacky rig works best for me weightless.

[WatterBoy]

I fish wacky-rigged 5" and 7" senkos quite a bit and often throw them into pretty thick grass/weeds. I have found this hook from Northland tackle to be very effective for my needs and the weedguard is extremely durable and works well in my opinion. I use both the #1/0 and #3/0 sizes, depending on which size senko I am using.

There is also a weighted version of this hook. I have a few of them, but it is a very rare occasion when I use them. I seem to have much better luck with the weightless ones.

[islandbass]

I fish senkos free of extra weight most of the time. I think that reasons to add extra weight would be for what is already mentioned - increased casting distance and sink rate. The cool things about using senkos is that there is no real right or wrong way to fish them.

I don't use them as much anymore, because they're getting a bit too pricey for my blood and the selection in my local area is limited. Wish they could find a way to retain they're awesome action and increase durability of the plastic.

[screwballl]

I think a lot of it depends on the size of worm and how I am fishing it. Most of the time I use around a 5-6" worm with weightless 3/0 or 4/0 hook. Sometimes if I want to run the bottom then I will use the same size hook with with a weight at the nose. I have even had decent luck with a swimbait weighted hook to help keep the worm level during a lot of its retrieve instead of going nose down with every slack period.

[Fish30114]

I also use a weighted swimbait hook ocassionally and will peg a 1/4 oz. bullet weight sometimes--but my favorite is a Yamamoto senko weightless. I also vary the hook size depending on worm size, 2/0 on 4" 3/0 on 5" and so on. in the wind if i still want weightless I tend to throw the larger size worms for their added weight. I am shorebound and throw parallell to the shore most times and bump the bottom.

[Jrob78]

I don't fish Senkos as much as I used to but they are still a confidence bait for me. When I fish Senkos, I fish the 5" size, t-rigged and weightless about 98% of the time. I use a 4/0 or 5/0 EWG hook.

I have on occasion fished them with 1/8oz bullet weight, usually due to windy conditions, deeper water or trying to drop them into pockets in vegetation. I have caught fish on them that way but prefer weightless. I don't normally fished them wacky rigged, I know that is a very popular and effective way to fish them, I just don't think about it much.

When the head of a Senko gets torn up, I always flip it around and fish it from the tail end. One thing I like about doing that is it makes the bait fall away from you, toward a trailing fish. It also doubles the life of the bait.

[woody]

I get better results wacky rigging a 5" senko with a size 1 finesse hook, weightless in shallow water.

Gonna give the FLICK SHAKE a try this year in deeper water. 1/16 to 1/8 oz. 1/0 size.


-Mark

[Scott the fishman]

a lot of people i know use weighted senkos i am almost always weightless if not i will use a shaky head on them. I use ether 3/0 or 4/0 seems to give more action and i dont miss a lot of hook sets because of it.

[Backwater Charlie]

I use a drop-shot hook and rig them wacky with no added weight.