Wacky Rig Fishing is EXPENSIVE

[gunsinger]

I got turned on to the wacky with a 5” Senko a couple months back. I’ve fished it with a single o-ring and a double o-ring but, these days, I predominantly just run the hook through the body of the Senko. And it catches a lot of fish; 8 in 2 hours last night and that is typical. So, what’s the problem?  
 

One worm, one fish. It’s not that they destroy the worm; it’s that, invariably, it gets flung off the line during the fight.  And it ALWAYS lands just outside of the boat....and promptly sinks.  I mentioned this to a fellow fisherman and his reply was, “That’s why I buy ‘em in bulk.”

 

Of course, they’re not too terribly expensive ($2.50 per 8 pack at SwellMart) but I can’t help but wonder, “Am I missing a technique to minimize worm loss?” 

[Catt]

I seldom if ever Wacky Rig a Senko, preferring Trick Worm type worms.

 

Bass Assassin's Tapout Worm is killer Wacky Rigged. Zoom's new Magnum Trick Worm & Magnum Finesse Worm are two more deadly Wacky Worms.

[MN Fisher]

BPS Stick-O and the few Cabelas Action Tails (Replaced by the Stick-Os when BPS bought Cabelas) I have left are my primary wacky worms. Zoom Trick worms are also used here and there.

[JustJames]

You can try shrink tube, hook through the side about 1/3 down Senko body. Move spot of the hook once Senko get thorn up. 
Another way is super glue the tube and Senko, then hook through the tube along side Senko body. 

[Jaderose]

You've touched upon one of the reasons I don't wacky rig.  Biggest reason is that, to me, it's boring.  Yeah it catches fish but it sucks to use!  I used shrink tubing when I did it and it made things better but did not improve the fun factor

[lynxcat]

53 minutes ago, gunsinger said:

I got turned on to the wacky with a 5” Senko a couple months back. I’ve fished it with a single o-ring and a double o-ring but, these days, I predominantly just run the hook through the body of the Senko. And it catches a lot of fish; 8 in 2 hours last night and that is typical. So, what’s the problem?  
 

One worm, one fish. It’s not that they destroy the worm; it’s that, invariably, it gets flung off the line during the fight.  And it ALWAYS lands just outside of the boat....and promptly sinks.  I mentioned this to a fellow fisherman and his reply was, “That’s why I buy ‘em in bulk.”

 

Of course, they’re not too terribly expensive ($2.50 per 8 pack at SwellMart) but I can’t help but wonder, “Am I missing a technique to minimize worm loss?” 

Going straight through the body is your problem. The hook rips your plastic and it’s going to come off almost every time. 
 

O-rings solve this issue completely. When you rig it, you need to get very little plastic with the hook. You are practically just getting the hook under the O-ring  between the plastic. On a bite, the hook doesn’t rip the plastic and the bait slides up the line using the OR. 
 

I catch numerous fish per plastic on wacky or Neko rig. 

[BrianMDTX]

I use a single o-ring. Many times the Senko will be 6” up the line but still held by the o-ring. 
 

Sometimes I lose one or two. They catch bass. I live with it lol! 

[Team9nine]

Live by the Senko - die by the Senko (or at least your wallet will). Haven’t bought or thrown a Senko in about 20 years. I’m with Catt and now go “jighead wacky” or “flick-shake” most of the time, and weightless trick worm (weedless) the rest. I use Zman Finesse worms that start out at half the price of Senkos, then average 25 bass per worm after that. Between the money I save going that route, along with switching my insurance to GEICO, I was able to retire early last year ? ?

[Catt]

For me it ain't so much about the cost but rather y'all are under utilizing the Senko.

 

Yes the Senko is extremely deadly Wacky Rigged but it also deadly Texas Rigged weightless or weighted & it's deadly Carolina Rigged.

 

And these other worms are just as deadly Wacky Rigged.

[E-rude dude]

+1 On BPS Stick o Worm

[WRB]

TBass can’t digest soft plastics. Nearly every Senko that gets back into the water without a hook is going to be eaten.

Use o-rings, tubing, harness or something reduce the bass shaking the soft plastic off the hook. 

Just try to keep soft plastic on the hook.

Tom

 

[A-Jay]

Admittedly I do not fish a Senko very much.

I do believe it to be an super effective bait, there's just not a ton of deals in my brown bass fishing where I'm throwing one.

However, on every trip we make south of the border, the 7 inch Senko is a major player;

as a jig trailer, and on a swinghead.

Big bass love them but they are so often a One Fish & Done bait.

And they fly right off the hook during the fight which is a PIA.

We can only bring so many baits, so when that's the bite, 

our 'supply' can be gone 2 days into a 6 day trip.

Total bummer.

Enter the Z-Man Giant TRD.

Made of Z-Man’s 10x tough ElaZtech material, the Z-Man Giant TRD is extremely durable and buoyant.  These baits are 6 inches long which is an inch shorter than the Senko

but what it lacks in length it makes up for in girth; these are fat/stout baits. 

So while I can not say for sure if it's as good or better than the Original Senko - it still gets choke.

Best aspect of this is that 2 packs of baits lasts us the entire trip ! 

I have never used the 5 inch Zinkerz bait so I can not comment if this effectiveness translates to the smaller bait.

YMMV

A-Jay

 

 

[swhit140]

I just rig mine with 2 rubber rings in a x pattern and then put the hook in the body under the o-rings. It works really well for me and they hook up right in the top of the mouth. I will also add that you won't go through as many baits that way.

[WRB]

Everyone over looks the original stick worm the Lunker City  Sluggo. Salt water plastics that stays on the hook and comes in 3” to 12” sizes. Nail/Neko weight a Sluggo and hook it wacky but length in lieu of sideways.

Last trip I caught 9 bass on 1 Sluggo water melon red flake. I like the GYCB 301 and 330 colors that Sluggo doesn’t have, on good bite it doesn’t matter, tough bite it’s the unweighted Senko..

Tom

 

[Guitarfish]

WRB, now I'm curious what those colors are?

[OkobojiEagle]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Nearly every Senko that gets back into the water without a hook is going to be eaten.

 

Tom

 

Tom... you're painting with a very large brush.

 

I've been playing with a variation of the Neko rig referred to as the "little child rig".   Seems to have promise for my smallmouth fishing without some of the Neko & Wacky negatives.

 

oe

[WRB]

You are right a broad brush. 

90+% of all my wacky rigged soft plastic Senko, Sluggo, Nail/Neko worms get bit on the initial fall. When I hook a bass it’s very common to see another bass following the fight. When the soft plastic get tossed the chances of it hitting bottom without being eaten is very low.

It’s the nature of the beast to strike a wounded struggling prey.

Everyone talks about following up a moving lure with a soft stick bait. Try following up a stick bait with another stick bait after catch a bass and double your success.

Tom

PS, going to give Z-Man giant TRD a try, floats and tough soft plastic. California Craw  should work.

[MGF]

1 hour ago, OkobojiEagle said:

Tom... you're painting with a very large brush.

 

I've been playing with a variation of the Neko rig referred to as the "little child rig".   Seems to have promise for my smallmouth fishing without some of the Neko & Wacky negatives.

 

oe

I've fished the "tiny child" quite a bit with good results. Where I apply it is more or less an alternative to a ned rig...because it's more snag proof. To me a wacky worm is a completely different thing.

 

The one down side is that I can't get it to skip worth a darn. A weightless worm skips great...even better when wacky rigged. When using a screw in weight the weighted end of the tiny child just wants to dig straight into the water. I guess I haven't tried with a weight that I can completely bury in the plastic.

2 hours ago, WRB said:

Everyone over looks the original stick worm the Lunker City  Sluggo. Salt water plastics that stays on the hook and comes in 3” to 12” sizes. Nail/Neko weight a Sluggo and hook it wacky but length in lieu of sideways.

Last trip I caught 9 bass on 1 Sluggo water melon red flake. I like the GYCB 301 and 330 colors that Sluggo doesn’t have, on good bite it doesn’t matter, tough bite it’s the unweighted Senko..

Tom

 

Not everyone. I have a large bag of sluggos that live with the other standard plastics that are always in my boat but...at least the way I fish it, it's more of a jerk bait. I use it similarly to how I would a fluke. It just doesn't do the same dance on the sink as the sticks and worms that I would wacky rig...I guess that doesn't mean that the fish wouldn't like it. LOL

[GetFishorDieTryin]

6 hours ago, gunsinger said:

I got turned on to the wacky with a 5” Senko a couple months back. I’ve fished it with a single o-ring and a double o-ring but, these days, I predominantly just run the hook through the body of the Senko. And it catches a lot of fish; 8 in 2 hours last night and that is typical. So, what’s the problem?  
 

One worm, one fish. It’s not that they destroy the worm; it’s that, invariably, it gets flung off the line during the fight.  And it ALWAYS lands just outside of the boat....and promptly sinks.  I mentioned this to a fellow fisherman and his reply was, “That’s why I buy ‘em in bulk.”

 

Of course, they’re not too terribly expensive ($2.50 per 8 pack at SwellMart) but I can’t help but wonder, “Am I missing a technique to minimize worm loss?” 

You have a few options other then standard o rings.  Wacky Saddle rings are an option, I really dont like the connected double rings because they look really bulky.  The single rings with the tiny ring on top for the hook seem like they would work, but I imagine that smaller rings isnt too hard to break.  The VMC crossover rings look like they may hold up better then the Wacky Saddles. 

Silicone and shrink tubing work well, but just like a standard o ring you have to rig the rig parallel with the worm which can hurt the hook up ratio.  It can be a pain to open them up and slide them on the worm without the right tool.  

A few years ago I started inserting screw locks into the middle of the worm and running the hook through the screw lock.  The worms dont fly off as easily fighting a fish, but it can the worm more susceptible to tearing at half.  Eagle claw makes a wacky harness that essentially a piece of wire sort of in the shape of a W with an eye atop the apex of the W that you run your hook through.  They seem to work so far but time will tell.

IMO the easiest and most effective method was posted on here a while back.  You use tiny rubber hair bands that you can get on Amazon for cheap.  You hang the band on the hook, thread the worm on and stretch the rubber band over the worm and point of the hook.  That secures the worm, without a bulky o ring or silicone tube.  GrandeBass' Rattlesnakes are my favorite bait to WR, but the deep ribs make it really hard thread O rings, or tubing on and the screw locks and harnesses cause the bait to tear after 1 or 2 fish. 

The other option you have is to start using Zmans stickbaits.  That elaztech is incredibly resistant to tearing, even if the bait is just skin hooked.  The more you use them the lighter they get as the salt content drops, which changes the fall rate, which can be good or bad depending on what you want to do.

[Deleted account]

11 hours ago, Jaderose said:

You've touched upon one of the reasons I don't wacky rig.  Biggest reason is that, to me, it's boring.  Yeah it catches fish but it sucks to use!  I used shrink tubing when I did it and it made things better but did not improve the fun factor

Same. I'd rather watch grass grow or paint dry than wacky rig, but when I do, I just use a slice of surgical tubing and fish 1 or 2 all day.

[Kenny Yi]

+2 on the BPS Stick-o

 

I would also add the SK Shim-e Stick.  The GYBC plastic has the perfect action for stickbaits, but sacrifices durability for it.  With the other two baits, I can get maybe 3-4 fish per bait

[BrianMDTX]

1 hour ago, BassWhole! said:

Same. I'd rather watch grass grow or paint dry than wacky rig,

I struggle to grasp why many say fishing a WR is boring. 90% of the time I cast, let it sink, if no strikes, reel it in and cast again. Which to me is not much different than casting other baits and reeling them in. 
 

I rarely work a Senko WR back. The vast majority of my strikes are on the initial fall. Casting, sink, reel back and cast again IMO is not that boring. Watching the slack line run is certainly not boring! 

[gunsinger]

50 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

I struggle to grasp why many say fishing a WR is boring. 90% of the time I cast, let it sink, if no strikes, reel it in and cast again. Which to me is not much different than casting other baits and reeling them in. 
 

I rarely work a Senko WR back. The vast majority of my strikes are on the initial fall. Casting, sink, reel back and cast again IMO is not that boring. Watching the slack line run is certainly not boring! 

I work it similarly. Cast it, let sink, twitch it.  I may hop and twitch it 2-3 times. Reel in and cast again.

[Eddie101]

Forget the O ring, and get the Wacky Saddle instead. I've caught over twenty bass, and the saddle/worm is still fully intact. Every now and then, I'd patch up the worm with Mend-it, but that's about it. A small price to pay AFAIC. 

 

https://frenzybaits.com/perfect-wacky-orings-wacky-saddles/

[Jaderose]

10 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

I struggle to grasp why many say fishing a WR is boring. 90% of the time I cast, let it sink, if no strikes, reel it in and cast again. Which to me is not much different than casting other baits and reeling them in. 
 

I rarely work a Senko WR back. The vast majority of my strikes are on the initial fall. Casting, sink, reel back and cast again IMO is not that boring. Watching the slack line run is certainly not boring! 

I get it and it most certainly does catch fish.  Maybe boring isn't the right thing to say.  For me, the WR is too easy and as the OP says, it's wasteful.  Yeah, I know you can use O-rings or shrink tubing or hair ties or other contraptions that make that better but (again) FOR ME, it's just not worth it. I try very hard to minimize the amount of plastic I leave in the lake.  I rarely lose a plastic bait and when I do, it irritates me.  As far as the technique itself, it's too close to hunting animals that are tied to a tree for me.  NOTHING that I just wrote is meant to discourage anyone from using any legal technique, including WR.  Just my own personal preference