The Weightless Way

[Drawdown]

After catching one last night on a weightless baby brush hog (which I rigged up by accident—I’d always used a 1/8oz weight), I realized how much I love the retrieve. Alternating between letting it suspend/sink and twitching horizontally and back up from the bottom required a satisfying level of focus and patience. Felt like one of those Japanese YouTubers!

 

I’m thinking of buying some of those “duck call” baits (Yamanuki) to go along with throwing what I already have weightless (especially in the summer—trick worms, stick baits, etc).

 

Any other plastics you could recommend that lend themselves particularly well to weightless presentations, especially ones that involve working the bait in some way? I’m sure there’s got to be some creature baits that shine better than others without extra weight.

[geo g]

I often fish a weightless zoom fluke in thick cover in shallow water, and along drop-off edges.  I will let them sink and then jerk fast and let them sink again like a dying bait fish.  It is very successful for Largemouth, Peacocks, Oscars, Mayans, and Snakeheads.  Just let it sink slowly after a couple of quick jerks.  I do the same thing with zoom trick worms, Texas rigged, and wacky.

[Dye99]

Fluke and obviously senko for me!

 

[GRiver]

Frogs… BPS has one that sinks so slow, head first, little feet kick. I’ve had a ton of strikes on the pause a sink mode.

Senko style…. Little erratic jerks and pauses

 

[PaulVE64]

Pit boss and an adrenaline bug have effective movement, even weightless

[papajoe222]

Pick a soft plastic bait and mix up the sink rate. As you likely have found out, many bites will happen on the initial fall to whatever depth you're targeting or the bottom itself. ROF can be just as important to weightless plastics as it is to jig/trailer offerings.

I keep a variety of trick worms and stick worms that have different ROF's for just that reason, but find a profile the fish like on any given day first, then play around with ROF.

[Cbump]

Fluke and real senko rigged weedless (not wacky). 

[Bird]

Fluke and Senko are 2 common baits that I throw weightless.

Never thought of throwing a Brush hog weightless but do throw it on a 1/16 Shaky head.

[KP Duty]

I threw a weightless tube last year in a couple of the ponds/streams I fish.  I fished it like a slider...adding in some upward twitches to keep it around 2' deep.  It was effective.  

[fin]

I was throwing a Culprit Fat Max curly tail worm weightless yesterday because I didn't have any sinkers with me. I was in a creek with a slow current, and it looked great sinking.

 

I'm not a big fan of weightless. I think I don't have the patience for it, or maybe I don't like the lack of contact like you get with a tight line. I prefer using a tiny weight or a big hook, something to give it a little weight and more action while still maintaining a slow sink.

[Darth-Baiter]

Senko.  the hook is important to me.  I have been using a Owner Haymaker in 3/0 for a 5" worm.  the hook is heavier wired.  just this Saturday, I used this setup in clear clear water.  it would dive, slow..nose down about 45 deg.  the tail would wag seductively.  you know when you see a bait presentation and it looks good to your human eyes?  this is it.    the hefty hook drags it down slightly nose down and it looks SICK!  the hook point pokes out aggressively, so you have to watch it coming thru the soft plastic...but wow!!

 

I throw it on a Med-H rod with 14lb line, and it flings like it is heavy.  I would guess it is heavier than 3/8th.  

 

a 3.8" DEPS bull flat flies great, but I havent found a good way to work it so the bass are fooled.  

[Catt]

Double Z custom lures, they float

https://doublezlures.com/products

[webertime]

Ika

DoLive Stick (fat)

[Darth-Baiter]

1 minute ago, webertime said:

Ika

DoLive Stick (fat)

this^^ but it starts the discussion about the backglide!!  awesome baits.

[crypt]

any soft plastic works weightless.just gotta figure what works for you.

[WRB]

Yamamoto Sanshouo

Tom

[Bankbeater]

Fluke, Senko, and plastic worm.  Weightless is the only way to go in the vegetation.

[GetFishorDieTryin]

Zooms Mag finesse and trick worms.  

[Drawdown]

3 hours ago, WRB said:

Yamamoto Sanshouo

Tom

It appears this one may be discontinued; it’s out of stock everywhere, seemingly.

 

 

I will say, for whatever reason I lose contact with a YUM dinger pretty badly when I fish it weightless at any real distance, and can’t seem to get to a comfortable amount of slack like with a trick worm.

[Cbump]

3 hours ago, WRB said:

Yamamoto Sanshouo

Tom

I didn’t know about this bait but I might love It. 

5 minutes ago, Drawdown said:

YUM dinger

Too light for me

[ooga0341]

The big two of course, but I also like the Fat Ika (I like to rig it backwards) and Trick Worms too.

[TOXIC]

Just this weekend we fished the Rappahonock river which is now getting pretty thick with grass.  My normal weightless Senko presentation is to let it fall on a 4.0 EWG Gamakatsu hook and 6lb mono but we found that grassy creek mouths on outgoing tide with the same setup walked on top of the grass was getting slammed.  DShads did the same but the hookup ratio was better on the thinner Senko.