Weedless Wacky Rig Hook Options for Stick Baits

[lknbassman]

Guys, I've been fishing Senkos, Yum Dingers, etc for some time with a lot of success in regard to number of bites but am losing more fish this way than ever and think it has to do with hook size on a 5" stick bait.

I'm using "O" rings on Senkos and Yum Dingers with a 2/0 Gammakatsu Wide Gap Finesse Hook that has a weedless wire guard on it and fishing them wacky style.  

The 2/0 gammy hook is the largest I've seen available with a wire guard and I'm fishing these baits in heavy laydowns and brush quite a lot so not going weedless means losing lots of baits and hooks.

My thinking is that a 2/0 with the "O" ring is so small that the hook doesn't penetrate due to the size of the bait as deeply as a larger hook would.  Wondering what you are using for this presentation when having to go weedless and avoid snags in heavy cover?  

If you have a 3/0 weedless wide gap hook that you like please mention it and provide a url if you know it so we can check it out.  Thanks!

[basser89]

When I'm fishing wacky rigged Kinamis and tiki sticks, I'm using a Gammy 1/0 EWG finesse hook w/o the weedguard. and haven't had a problem with hooking the bass (I'm not using an O ring though).

A question to you. Are you setting the hook like you would with a t-rigged worm? When I feel the bass, all I do is slowly lift the rod and start reeling. The hook does the rest of the work for me. When I first started using the EWG Finesse hooks, I was trying to set the hook instead of using the technique that I eventually went to. I was missing a lot of bass when I was setting the hook.

[lknbassman]

Update here:  yesterday I bought some Falcon Lures "K Wacky Hooks" and tried them today in a 3/0 weightless and weedless model on a 5" Yammasenko and on a 5" Yum Dinger.

Had plenty of bites, let the fish take it and run so my line was moving laterally and I lost every bite I had...

The wire guard is too heavy and the hook point never made contact with the fish or if it did it did not penetrate enough to hold them and allow for a single handle turn...

So it's back to the experiment of finding a wacky hook for a 5" stickbait, senko, yum dinger, etc that I can fish weedless with the "O" rings.

Any info you guys have would be much appreciated.  Thanks gents!

[Wayne P.]

LKN, I sent you a PM and want to add a change to your rigging. Get some 3/8" electrical shrink tubing and use that instead of the O rings. Stick the hook through the worm and tubing which will rotate your hook 90 degrees for better exposure like the Senko at the bottom of the picture.

[Just_Old_Fisherman]

I had tried the Gammakatsu Weedless Finesse hook, but the weedguard was too flimsy for the heavy cover I fish. It was always coming open and hanging up. Also wanted something larger than 2/0. Here is a Gammakasu Wide Gap Finesse that I started tieing my own weedguard on. I make the loop with cheap 50LB mono. Works much better and have no problem with hookups. Normally I use 3/0 and 4/0 hooks.

[Willzx225]

Just by looking at the picture posted above, I would think the way the worm is rigged on top would miss a lot of fish.  When you set the hook on that Senko it will force the fishes mouth open, but since the hook is inline with the plastic it will not allow it to grab as much meat as if it was turned on the 90deg angle like the bottom picture.  I have an extremely high hook up percentage with my wacky rigs and I rig my hook on the 90deg angle.  

I have not played around with the  O-ring deal much but would think that rigging it like the top picture would also cause it to fall at a wierd angle and not allow for the correct fall.  

[Just_Old_Fisherman]

I have had good luck with an o-ring and rigged similar to the top picture.   Had no problems with hookups

[weknowhowtolive]

when I fish senkos like that, I never let the fish run with the bait, I just wait till I feel them and snap it hard. I've had pretty good luck like that.

[.dsaavedra.]

do like wayne p. said and slip some shrink tube on there and then wacky rig it like you normally would, right thru the tube and worm.

or do like just old fisherman and tie yourself up some weedless hooks. i prefer wire for my weedguard instead of mono though.