What rod for wacky rigged senkos

[Marc Tyler]

What rod action power and length do you guys use for wacky rigged senkos. I was thinking a 6 foot 6 or 7 foot medium fast action 

[cookieman]

I got a7 foot doybins med heavy this summer that worked great. I fish lakes with alot of lily pads  and grass though. A medium would work for you i would think if you dont fish heavy cover. i use 10 lb braid

[NorthernBasser]

If fishing in clear, open water, hard to beat a 6'8"-7' med/fast (or extra fast) spinning.

 

If I'm fishing near cover/weeds, I throw it on 7' mh/fast casting gear. 

[Hammer 4]

In open water, I use a 7 m spinning rig with 5 to 8 lb line. If there is any light to med cover, I use a 6'9" mh baitcasteing rig, with 10 lb mono, and mainly throw 6  and 7" senco's on that.

[Hook2Jaw]

I use a 7'1" Medium Fast spinning rod for all my 4-5" stick worm work.  Around cover I use 12# fluoro on the end of 12# braid and in open water I like 8-10# fluoro, depending on clarity. 

[MN Fisher]

Open water or light weeds - 6'6" M/F spinning rig with 10# YZH

Medium to heavy weeds - 7' MH/F baitcaster with 20# Power Pro

[WRB]

Wacky rigged = exposed hook so you don't need heavy tackle or line. Lure weight taken into consideration 5" to 6" Senkos can be easily cast with baitcasting or spinning so it comes down to line size and type.

Tom

[Marc Tyler]

1 minute ago, WRB said:

Wacky rigged = exposed hook so you don't need heavy tackle or line. Lure weight taken into consideration 5" to 6" Senkos can be easily cast with baitcasting or spinning so it comes down to line size and type.

Tom

5 inch senkos mainly. 12 pound fluro probably open hook. Thrown around clump of trees in water. Around, not in 

[WRB]

With 12 lb FC you need a baitcasting reel in lieu of spinning IMO. It gets down to your casting ability with 3/16 oz weightless Senko's, 12 lb FC it's not an easy task.

I would suggest using 8 lb FC maybe 10 lb if you are uncomfortable with lighter line.

A Mediun power bait casting rod like Dobyns FR703 works OK. 

Tom

[NorcalBassin]

I prefer spinning gear with 6-7# FC for wacky rigged senkos since BC reels do not respond well to spontaneously lost baits in mid-air (I fish mine until they pretty much break in half). I use an 852 Loomis (7'1" medium) but any of St Croix's lineup in the 6'8" MXF model are excellent wacky rods. 

[Sam]

6'6" or 7' medium heavy for wacky Senkos.

[Westcoast]

I just purchased an mhx medium 6’ blank to build into a spinning rod to skip small senkos way back under. Or o use a 803s nrx it the cover is fairly thick and I also like to use my nrx 853c too. 

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

No one would suggest it but my favorite senko rod is a St Croix Avid 8' ML/Mod spinning. Line 8 pound nanofil or nanobraid distance is great and the no stretch sets the hook better at distance. 

Ill reluctantly go up in power to a St Croix Legend Elite 7'6" M/F if needed. 

[WRB]

It's a inbetween type of lure presentation, lots of combos will work sort of.

When I am fishing Senkos wacky rigged for more then a few cast my set up is MJ NAS-WJ701MH with Stractic spinning reel and 7 lb Sniper with Owner 5172 hook. Where I fish this is sparse cover and the bass are usually 8' to 15' deep around rocks, not docks. 

Senko's not my go to lure, prefer using a nail weight worm wacky rigged and use the same outfit.

Tom

 

[Dens228]

I use an BassX M/Moderate with a Lew's Tournament MB.  I rig it with 20 lb Suffix 832.  

[new2BC4bass]

10 hours ago, WRB said:

It's a inbetween type of lure presentation, lots of combos will work sort of.

When I am fishing Senkos wacky rigged for more then a few cast my set up is MJ NAS-WJ701MH with Stractic spinning reel and 7 lb Sniper with Owner 5172 hook. Where I fish this is sparse cover and the bass are usually 8' to 15' deep around rocks, not docks. 

Senko's not my go to lure, prefer using a nail weight worm wacky rigged and use the same outfit.

Tom

 

With or without the weed guard?

[WRB]

2 hours ago, new2BC4bass said:

With or without the weed guard?

Weedless

[OnthePotomac]

I just fish all plastics on a 7' MH fast tip BPS Carbonlite for the Potomac grass beds.

[moguy1973]

Y’all are overthinking things if you need a specific rod setup to throw a wacky-rigged stick worm. 

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

7 hours ago, moguy1973 said:

Y’all are overthinking things if you need a specific rod setup to throw a wacky-rigged stick worm. 

Well Im not going to use my ML/Mod Avid to throw a senko in lily pads but Ill toss senko in pads with my Fenwick World Class 7'6" MH/F.

So YES specific gear can be necessitated to match where you are fishing.

[moguy1973]

1 hour ago, QUAKEnSHAKE said:

Well Im not going to use my ML/Mod Avid to throw a senko in lily pads but Ill toss senko in pads with my Fenwick World Class 7'6" MH/F.

So YES specific gear can be necessitated to match where you are fishing.

My daughter has caught bass with a wacky senko on her Barbie pole. It’s a pretty forgiving fishing technique that doesn’t need specialized gear. 

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

21 minutes ago, moguy1973 said:

My daughter has caught bass with a wacky senko on her Barbie pole. It’s a pretty forgiving fishing technique that doesn’t need specialized gear. 

Specialized no but correct gear for the cover yes it does. 

[Fishes in trees]

Overthinking?  To get a specific rod & reel combo to fish a specific bait?  Who does that?  Seriously?  Just saying, if I had the room in my boat to have a specific rod & reel set up for each bait in my tackle bag, I'd do it.  If I could have 4 or 5 rigs for each bait, then I think I'd be better able to address the issue of what bait works best on what rig, and I'd do it.

So, the easy answer to this question is I do overthink the rig/bait issue, often, and here's my current thinking on how this applies to throwing wacky stick worms.

 

If I'm going to throw a wacky stick worm - it is going to be a senko.  I understand that there are other brands of stick baits and I throw many of them tx rigged, when the situation calls for that, but wacky rigged, I don't think that any other bait matched the flap of the senko on the drop.

I often throw the wacky senko on bait casting gear, but that isn't the question here.  My current fave for throwing the wacky senko is a 7'MH Fenwick spinning rod/extra fast tip, a 1000 size reel (generally a Pflueger President) and 20 lb braid.   I more often than not use a fluorocarbon leader and for this tactic I like the fluorocarbon leader material rather than just some fluorocarbon line.  15 lb seems to be abrasion resistant enough for me and is relatively easy to tie.  These past few years, I've been throwing the spinning rig more than the bait caster presentation because it is easier for me to skip the bait with a spinning rig.  I know it would skip kinda better with a more forgiving medium action rod, but when I skip the bait next to shore line bushes and into sunken thorn trees, and I get bit, the MH rig seems to give me a better chance of getting the fish out, so I've adapted to skipping with the MH rig when a Medium action is admittedly easier.

 

I generally use an o-ring on the bait, it doesn't seem to matter to me ( both strike wise and percentage of landed fish to fish that bit)  if I use one and the hook point and shank are in line with the bait or if I use 2 o-rings crossed over and hook underneath the x, placing the hook at a 90 degree angle to the bait.   I prefer the weedless wire spring hooks, specifically the Falcon K wacky weedless hook.  I throw the one with the 1/16 oz weight on the hook shaft, mostly because I think that a slightly faster drop helps more often than it hurts.

 

Hope this isn't overthought too much.   I have some time off coming up in a couple of days, I'm likely to spend some time in the fishing shed, overthinking stuff some more.  I hope I've overthought this particular issue enough, but, you never know and at the end of the day your fishing thoughts in the shed go where your IPA's lead you.   Time might tell.

 

 

[Hewhospeaksmuchbull]

I'm using a Tatula CT with a Berkley BCLR701M, reel is loaded with 50lbs Sufix Hi-vis yellow. This setup allows me to fish the far bank on canals that I fish. Skips effortlessly under cover.

 

With my heavy/fast, my cast distance was about 2/3 of what I'm getting now and accuracy suffered by comparison, In other words no where near the fish.

[JediAmoeba]

This all depends on the size of the Senko, does it not?  

 

Are we talking 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7" senkos?  ?