Senko Smallmouth Bass

 

Senko Smallies

By Bruce Edward Litton

 

          Senko-style worms long ago eclipsed the popularity of traditional and twister-tail plastic worms for shallows and middle depths, especially when rigged Wacky, hook in the middle. Typically, the hook is attached by an O-ring, which prevents the worm from breaking free. A tool specifically designed for placing them on these worms is easily available. Most anglers intend Senko-style worms for largemouths, but in my own experience over the last decade, I’ve settled on catching most of my largemouths on traditional-style worms, while most of my smallmouths come on Senko-style worms. They sink faster, provoking the quicker responses of smallies. By comparison, largemouths are slow fish. An aggressive smallmouth will charge a worm plummeting towards bottom, which a largemouth might refuse.

          Lake, reservoir, pond, stream, river—during summer you may enjoy catching smallmouths from all five types of water. None excludes the Senko. While so much gets written about smallies 20 to 25 feet deep on lake drop-offs, plenty get caught in close to shore anywhere from three to 15 feet deep, so long as rocks provide habitat. Summer smallies ambush prey eagerly compared to largemouths. From comfortable lairs of concave formations, and from between and underneath rocks. They explode outward like artillery fire to snatch meals. Smallies can seem as active during summer as largemouths during fall, but much of the time—not always—I will let them pounce on a Senko, rather than provoke any to chase down a crankbait or whomp a spinnerbait. Bronzebacks strike a wide range of lures during summer doldrums, and I’m interested in increasing my knowledge of uses, but often I feel most comfortable with the simplest approach.

          There’s irony about that claim. Fishing a Senko, no weight added, just a size 2 plain shank hook under the O-ring, involves wider awareness than using other lures limited to various retrieve actions. I wouldn’t say turn-handle retrieves are mechanical, but they do narrow focus relative to the line reeled back to the spool. During patient intervals while letting a Senko sink, repeatedly pausing after you take up line by moving the rod—more so than turning the reel handle—the mind can open up to what might happen, and this added awareness can put you more in touch with the fishing to gain practical results.

          Even topwater plugs fished slowly might not have the subtle appeal of letting a Senko sink as deep as 15 feet or more among rocks. All the while you wonder if a bass will transmit a tick before that plastic reaches bottom. If nothing happens, you can visualize how much the Senko flutters when you barely twitch it. Maybe if you then give it a jerk to make the ends pull back quickly like spreading crayfish claws--that will do the trick. Or instead, by just lifting it off bottom, easily, this might seem as if forage is trying to sneak by. The possibilities are as open as the given situation and imagination allows, and imagination is more important for seeing what goes on under the surface than the visual feedback electronics provide. Looking at a screen is a lot easier than developing a habit of immediately visualizing how your worm might behave, relative to a bass’s possible inclination to take. Fooling around with a worm in plain view to observe how it reacts to your rod tip can help cement this ability to your neurons.  

          Just as varied a cadence can be created retrieving a Senko as working a topwater plug. A bass won’t crash in view, but it’s thrilling when you anticipate a take you can’t physically see. I don’t buy the new presumption that claims maybe, after millennia of human denial about the issue, fish do think, but I don’t underestimated their acute perceptual sensitivity, which determines what fish will do. Every individual bass is different. Radio telemetry studies prove this point, so the better you get at creating possibilities teasing hits, the more and bigger you catch.

          A five-inch Senko is heavy enough for some bait-casting outfits, but I’ve always preferred spinning. Reel position is easy on the wrist manipulating the rod, but a bait caster may find his outfit fitting to his own style. A five-and-a-half-foot rod allows better accuracy than longer, although longer rods cast farther. Shorter also means the wrist is closer to the tip, so you have better control while working the worm. It’s not sticks and brush fishing, or not for the most part, nor heavy weeds, so six-pound test monofilament suffices.

          Six-pound test works in a stream as it does in any of New Jersey’s reservoirs. The average stream bass is nine or 10 inches long, but they aggressively take fat five-inch Senkos. One of the advantages of fishing Senkos in streams is the long cast. Smallmouths often inhabit shallow stretches a couple of feet deep during summer afternoons, and if you get too close, they spook in that clear water. Catapult a Senko, and a bass may rush from five or more yards distant. Catching bass this way can seem too easy, but when it happens, enjoy the excitement, because New Jersey streams see a lot of pressure. Bass usually don’t react as eagerly to get on your hook as—once and awhile—they might. Any of our freestone streams offer opportunity, but especially to catch big smallmouths, you have to spend time and endeavor seriously.

          Reservoirs, on the other hand, offer tough summer smallmouth fishing, pressure intense, but I’ve heard stories of fast action on the Newark Watershed Reservoirs, which have boat restrictions and involve a yearly fee. Fred Matero and I have done fairly well at sunset on Round Valley Reservoir, but nearly all of the bass are stream-size. Fred’s done better on Merrill Creek Reservoir.

         Lake Hopatcong, however, shines in the memories of me and my son, where on a number of summer occasions we’ve caught and released multiple smallmouths of nearly three pounds and larger. Dow’s Boat Rentals offers anyone with a New Jersey Boating Safety Certificate the opportunity to get on the lake.

           I’ve caught smallmouths in 12-acre Saffin Pond, but the Delaware River always feels as if its resource is inexhaustible. That’s not true, but anyone with any imagination can feel the mystery of its expanse, acres upon acres of bass habitat expressed in myriad variations of the river’s course. Productive float tripping is a foregone conclusion, but wading works out if you read water closely and find spots that hold a few.

          Wherever you fish these worms, it’s the type that matters—the fat heavy-bodied worms you can rig Wacky. A number of brands exist, and I choose Strike King almost exclusively. I’ve tried scented Gulp! but haven’t noticed any increase in catches. Unless you meticulously organize equipment, you might repeatedly forget to place these worms back in the sealed packaging. They shrink. I’ve lost a couple of worm hooks, not to mention worms. It’s all but impossible to separate the hook, once that bait hardens.

          Summer is the stable season. The bite is steady and the days long. There’s lots of opportunity in New Jersey to get out and slow down at catching smallmouths.  

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