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I know this is mainly a matter of personal preference but I was just curious about which size and color senko is the most popular. My experience has been that the four inch catches more fish but the bigger ones are usually hooked on a five inch. The colors don't seem to matter much although I've never fished any of the really bright ones. Also have any of you tried using the o rings to avoid tearing while fishing it wacky, and if so how did that work?
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I've only used senkos once -- a couple weeks ago at Deer Creek. The ticket was smoke sparkle 4" senkos rigged wacky style. I caught several fish on each one before I lost one on a snag. I never did have a fish tear one off. What I did was check it after every couple casts. If it was beginning to tear a little, I would move the hook to a new spot slightly to one side of center. It still had the same action, and I never had a fish rip it off. Caught several small smallies and 2 nice 3 and 4 lb. largemouth bass. So I'm partial to white/smoke colors, and chartreuse. I prefer the 4" too. I don't mind catching some smaller ones to keep me busy until that big one hits. I think 4 " is big enough even for the hogs. It also maximizes the chance of a good hook set.
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[cool][blue][size 1]O-rings work fine, but are expensive compared to small rubber bands. Most office supply stores have small packages of little rubber bands. They can be doubled or tripled if they are too big and that adds strength to the connection too.[/size][/blue]
[#0000ff][size 1]I heard a suggestion the other day I have not had a chance to try...using twist ties from plastic bags that you would throw out otherwise. Again, a couple of wraps, a twist or two and clip off the ends.[/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]I have also used several wraps of mono. When cinched down and tied off it lasts as long as the worm. Small 4# is easy to work with and holds plenty well.[/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]The two types of forage you are imitating with Senkos are either minnows or mudbugs. Use the smoke sparkle or whites for the former...greens and browns for the latter. For a good small perch imitation, use a smoke sparkle with a line of green down the back and a three vertical bars of dark green...applied with a permanent marker. If you wanna go crazy you can add some yellow or orange highlights with other markers.[/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]4" is probably the best all around. But, sometimes you have to go small, when the fish are touchy. Other times, the big fish are feeding on larger perch or crawdads and you need the larger Senkos.[/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]I have always been sure to include "motor oil" and green with red flakes. Those colors light up underwater and draw some good hits.[/size][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][size 1]During cold or murky water conditions, the bright colors will attract some hits, as will black or black and chartreuse.[/size][/#0000ff]
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I been playing with the senko thing a whole lot latley.
Now, I like to give the cool kids a hard time about thier senkos, and wont admit openly to using them, but.......
Anyways, you want to know the best kept secret in the world of senkos?
Its custom senkos.
There is a guy here in utah named James Bradshaw. He owns maniac lures. One of his lures is a custom senko.
Whats so cool abouth them. First, you can have them made up in a variety of sizes, and the custom colors side of it is the hottest thing out there. Imagine having a killer color but its not available in a senko. Well, James can whip you some up. Then factor in the salt. Now for guys who want to fish places like mantua, and cant use the senkos, james is the answer. He can whip you up some custom senkos without any salt. Straight plastic. You still get the unique action and shape but they are legal. Or, say you want to stack the scent deck in your favor. he can LOAD them up with salt for you.
Utahs got a unique food base, and the custom stuff that maniac lures makes is made to match. Plus the dude is one heck of a bass fisherman.
Its worth it just to get some saltless senkos to fish on artificial only lakes like mantua since it gives you an advantage in lure selection.
Or if the fish are getting hammered by every color and size of senko like they are up at jordanelle, this guy can make up some stuff they have never seen before. Multi colors of flake, multi colors on the actual senko, and scent options to boot.
You can get a hold of him at 435-279-8058 or e-mail at [url "mailto:maniaclures@juno.com"]maniaclures@juno.com[/url] hes working on a website but i dont know that its up and running yet. Its [url "http://www.mainiaccustomlures.com"]www.mainiaccustomlures.com[/url]
Now, to get to the specifics of your questions. I definitley have some colors that I like personally. As far as the O rings go, they work, but if you get less salt in them you dont have nearly the problem. You can fish the saltless maniacs forever compared to a salted senkos.
Well, there it is. The secret is out. And there goes my advantage for next tuesdays bass tourney on jordanelle. Luckliy i have some custom colors made up special that just kill them up there.
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I've caught a couple LMB on a 4" green w/black flake at Utah Lake (Lindon BH). Haven't had a chance to explore other waters yet.
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Wow, Predator, that's a pretty cool piece of info to have. Thanks!
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I like using senkos. They have worked fairly well for me whenever I've used them. I rig them Texas style and weedless. Natural colors, those that TubeDude mentioned earlier, are what I've found to be the most successful. I tried using chartreuse at Pelican Bay the other day on Utah Lake and couldn't buy a strike.
I do have a question, though. What size of hook do most of you normally use with the 4" senkos? I generally use a #4 Gamagatsu for both the 4" and 5" senkos.
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I like 3/0 Gamys if it's Texas rigged, much smaller short shanks if it's wacky.
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Wow Predator and TubeDude. Thanks for sharing that info. We appreciate your knowledge, especially that you unselfishly share your secrets before a tournament.
Thanks again,
Senkonate
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Yes we appreciate it indeed, thanks
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How would these Senkos work at Bear Lake for the big ake trout? Cisco has always been the hot bait there but they're not always available. What color/size would work at B.L.?
Jim
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Predator I thought that was just our little secret? LOL But anyways I tell you what I went up to the nell last saturday and I brought James along the owner of Maniac lures. He tied on a couple of his lures and I just tried my regular stuff. Well after he nailed 6 fish in only 20 yards of bank and I only had one. I decided to put on the Maniac. I put one of his custom colors on and it was game on. We spanked on the smallies just about every place we fished. I was really impressed with his product, best thing that I found is you don't have to put a new one on for every fish, you can acutally catch several fish per worm. Like Predator said he can make just about any color you want and he can go with or without salt whatever. He can even put sent into the worm as well. We were using the ones without salt bcause they have a much slower fall rate than the ones with salt. I really think the slower fall rate and the color was the key factor in how well we did saturday.
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