Wacky rigged 4" YUM Dinger (with o-ring) retrieve rate?

[bitsandbass]

How quickly do you guys reel these in?  Ultra slow?  How often do you twitch the rod?  I looked at one in the water and it just appears to be a piece of straight soft plastic to me.  When jigged it looks good, but then just goes back to its original position and looks fake.  Do I constantly need to twitch the rod to get action?  Thanks. 

[J Francho]

No retrieve, it's a do nothing bait.  I let it drop wait several seconds, lift, reel in a bit to get back off the bottom, and then let sink.  Most bites come on the fall.

[bitsandbass]

11 minutes ago, J Francho said:

No retrieve, it's a do nothing bait.  I let it drop wait several seconds, lift, reel in a bit to get back off the bottom, and then let sink.  Most bites come on the fall.

 

Interesting, ok thanks.  What about if its under a bobber dangling mid water?

[J Francho]

Never fished it that way.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

35 minutes ago, bitsandbass said:

 

Interesting, ok thanks.  What about if its under a bobber dangling mid water?

Same thing. That's a take away from the float and fly rig. Best in cold water for inactive suspended fish. 

[bigturtle]

Burn it back

[CTBassin860]

I just do a couple quick yanks to get it off the bottom and let it fall.

[Crestliner2008]

6 hours ago, bitsandbass said:

 

Interesting, ok thanks.  What about if its under a bobber dangling mid water?

 

There is an article here at the top that has instructions on suspending Senkos under a slip bobber. I authored a detailed procedure for this technique in that article. It is an extremely effective presentation for smallmouth bass suspended over deep water structures. If you can't find the article, let me know & I'll give you the link. Lots of great information on this site!

[Dtrombly]

Reel up slack pop it up let it fall, repeat back to the boat. 

[jr231]

It's no secret the dingers are a little stiffer than the original senko. That being said I do just fine with them ... I started using stickbaits wacky... But now rig them 50/50 between wacky and weightless Texas. Most of my big senko fish have been caught while rigged Texas style. 

 

Lift and drop or sometimes ripping it off the bottom for the TX rig. And same for the wacky except jig it up instead of just a lift. 

 

 

I like the zinkerz for the nail weight or "neko" rig. They stand straight up while at rest. 

[bitsandbass]

4 hours ago, Dtrombly said:

Reel up slack pop it up let it fall, repeat back to the boat. 

 

I'm  casting from the shore so the angles are quite different. 

[eyedabassman]

You can't fish it wrong! But let the fish tell you how they want it not how you want to fish it!  I have caught fish on Senko's so many ways!

[Rudy523]

I use them on a shakey head a lot and they work great

[BassThumb]

I occasionally do it the way Francho described, but more and more, I'm seeing that 95% of the bites come on the initial fall. I think the explanation for this is when you lift-drop it all the way back to the boat, you don't have really have the benefit of the splash when it enters the water, which seems to attract fish. 

 

So to answer the question, the best way to fish it would be to cast it out, let it fall, reel it in, and repeat.  

[NYWayfarer]

50 minutes ago, BassThumb said:

I occasionally do it the way Francho described, but more and more, I'm seeing that 95% of the bites come on the initial fall. I think the explanation for this is when you lift-drop it all the way back to the boat, you don't have really have the benefit of the splash when it enters the water, which seems to attract fish. 

 

So to answer the question, the best way to fish it would be to cast it out, let it fall, reel it in, and repeat.  

 

I have to agree. While sight fishing pond bass I have noticed the fish are attracted to the initial splash of entry. They will often turn and dive down to strike at the sinking Dinger.

 

If you can see the fish cast slightly past them as to not spook them. 

 

[moguy1973]

I guess i've never dead sticked a wacky rigged senko before like everyone is saying here.  I've always caught them by casting them out, waiting a second to get a little depth and then start barely shaking the tip of the rod to make the worm wiggle while I slowly reel it back in.  I do this with a #1 or 1/0 weightless mosquito or drop shot hook.

[beardown34]

On 6/7/2017 at 3:33 PM, bigturtle said:

Burn it back

Lol

[snake95]

@bitsandbass 

 

I get where you are coming from.  I only started with soft plastics a couple of years ago, and I still remember clearly thinking "HOW... is this limp piece of plastic that doesn't look like anything natural going to catch anything?"  

 

I'm at all not going to discount the advice you've gotten about fishing a stick bait under a bobber (I've also never done that and don't know much about it), but I'd like to strongly suggest that you also consider trying out just hooking it and casting at targets.  Honestly, it's easy stuff.

 

*** not only is it easy - but using this method you will learn so much about where bass are located and how to provoke strikes***

 

If you want your kids to do it, no problem.  Here's the sequence, it's this simple:

 

Rig it

Identify a target, or failing that, just take a wild shot in the dark and pick a spot 

Chuck it out

Splashdown

Wiggles on way down "on the fall "

Slammed! (or maybe nothing, in which case you can do a 'lift and fall/shimmy down" all the way back, or just reel it back)

 

You will get strikes this way based on the "wiggle of the worm" as it falls - probably also the interest generated by the splashdown, maybe the movement and wiggle if you shake or lift it, maybe the color, the shape, maybe the scent/taste (possibly).  

 

But basically, it's all about the plastic moving as it falls.

 

I agree that at first stickbaits don't seem to have much action, but that subtle wiggle and shimmy as they fall is clearly a huge strike generator.  If there is a bass within a reasonable radius, they will see/feel the splashdown, and swim over and likely hit your bait.

 

As a relative newcomer to bass fishing with soft plastics, I can't "X2" enough the comments by seasoned guys that they get so many hits "on the fall."

 

In fact, just this morning I got a decent bass by following up a strike on a walking bait by lobbing a weightless, texas-rigged Yum Dinger into the area of the missed strike, letting it splash down and just wobble its way slowly toward the bottom.  Long before could settle on the bottom, I felt the familiar "thump thump" and set the hook.  I didn't reel at any speed, I didn't impart any motion.  I just let it fall.

 

I later got some hits during the retrieve phase with a lift/drop/fall-shimmy approach, but out of 4 hits, 3 were on the initial fall.

 

Pick a rigging method; wacky or tex-posed weightless, and start casting.  For me, 98% of the time my bait is tex-posed, not wacky.  There are reasons to pick one or the other, but without getting into all that, texposed works for me and my snaggy conditions, and honestly I have more strikes. 

 

I typed up more of my notes on my thoughts after a year of successful plastics fishing in the thread below.

 

Good luck with the bobber - but try casting a T-rigged (or wacky) stickworm too. 

 

 

 

 

[LxVE Bassin]

I do a twitch and retrieve cadence with my stickbaits probably 90% of the time and it works fine for me. But I adjust when I need to.