Heavier Senko Alternatives

It all started with the plastic worm and has now mutated into a huge array of specialized offerings. Whose is the best and which one is your favorite? Come share your thoughts and opinions here.
godshippy
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Re: Heavier Senko Alternatives

Post by godshippy » Tue Jun 14, 2022 9:19 am

Are you Texas rigging the Senko? or fishing it wacky?

If I rig a Senko wacky on a casting rod, then it catches more air and is harder to cast and does not cast nearly as far as when I'm Texas rigging it. Even with a stout rod a Texas rigged weightless Senko should get some good distance.

One of the beauties of a Senko is that you can literally let it just sit there on the floor for as long as you want and it'll get bit. When the fishing slows down because winter is coming, there have been many many times that I've pitched/casted out a Senko and let it sit on the bottom for 4-5 minutes as I warm up my hands and smoke a cigarette (or two) and I'll see my line swimming off and set into a fish.

How many times have you heard of the 6-8 year old kid with a spinning rod on the back of the boat cast out a Senko and not do anything to it or even put the rod down cause they're tired and an 8-10 pounder was at the end of the line?

You can run the bank and pitch/flip a Senko fast or make target casts and let the Senko fall down to the bottom and count to 30, then lift it back up and out over cover and let it fall again.

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jmb27
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Re: Heavier Senko Alternatives

Post by jmb27 » Tue Jun 14, 2022 10:05 am

godshippy wrote:
Tue Jun 14, 2022 9:19 am
Are you Texas rigging the Senko? or fishing it wacky?
Both. Hard to fish it wrong and I've even had fish strike it when reeling it in. Deadsticking it like you mentioned also works for me.

Based on the topic title, are you looking for a "heavier senko"?

The Keitech Salty Stick (I think that it has been discontinued ?) is similar to the senko and noticeably heavier. You can still find some here and there.

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LowRange
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Re: Heavier Senko Alternatives

Post by LowRange » Thu Jun 16, 2022 10:18 am

Firstoutfisher wrote:
Sun Jun 05, 2022 8:09 pm
In an attempt to become a better more well rounded angler I have recently decided to learn soft plastics inside and out. I also want to learn my equipment better so I decided to start going out on the yak with exactly 1 rod and reel. Right now that is my steez target sniper. I purchased this particular rod to be a dock jig skipping specialist but with my current reel trying to learn skipping from the yak has been frustrating to say the least. My secondary uses for this rod are soft plastics/texas rigs.

I have several bags of senkos in my tackle room with which I have never caught a bass. So I told myself I was going to take the target sniper and a couple bags of senkos out and not buy another soft plastic until I use the senkos up. I went over to bassresource and researched the method described in RoadWarrior's post "Guaranteed To Catch Bass". Watched a couple different videos on senko fishing and headed out to the water. In my last two outings I have yet to catch a bass still.

Now, maybe it is my technique but I can say one thing for sure. I have never had such a tough time with backlashes before in my life. So a huge portion of my time fishing the 5" senko was spent picking out backlashes and messing with my reel setup. After a frustrating night I decided to switch out to a 1/2oz bait and was able to shoot off cast after cast effortlessly with zero backlashes.

So long story short, it looks like the 5" senkos are going to be relegated to Wacky Rig spinning rod duty. Now I am searching for a plastic that uses the same techniques and has a similar action to the senko but weighs a little more and casts better on my target sniper. I know this goes against my original vow to not purchase anymore soft plastics until the senkos are uses up but oh well. :laugh1:

I know adding a weight to the 5" senko is an option but for now I would like to work on weightless soft plastics. Should I just go to a 6" senko? Or does anyone have any suggestions for alternatives? One I have been eying is the 6" OSP dolive stick but other than that I haven't seen anything that piques my interest.
Are you skipping with a Shimano or something? It should be easy with a senko.

Firstoutfisher
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Re: Heavier Senko Alternatives

Post by Firstoutfisher » Sat Jun 18, 2022 8:24 am

LowRange wrote:
Thu Jun 16, 2022 10:18 am
Firstoutfisher wrote:
Sun Jun 05, 2022 8:09 pm
In an attempt to become a better more well rounded angler I have recently decided to learn soft plastics inside and out. I also want to learn my equipment better so I decided to start going out on the yak with exactly 1 rod and reel. Right now that is my steez target sniper. I purchased this particular rod to be a dock jig skipping specialist but with my current reel trying to learn skipping from the yak has been frustrating to say the least. My secondary uses for this rod are soft plastics/texas rigs.

I have several bags of senkos in my tackle room with which I have never caught a bass. So I told myself I was going to take the target sniper and a couple bags of senkos out and not buy another soft plastic until I use the senkos up. I went over to bassresource and researched the method described in RoadWarrior's post "Guaranteed To Catch Bass". Watched a couple different videos on senko fishing and headed out to the water. In my last two outings I have yet to catch a bass still.

Now, maybe it is my technique but I can say one thing for sure. I have never had such a tough time with backlashes before in my life. So a huge portion of my time fishing the 5" senko was spent picking out backlashes and messing with my reel setup. After a frustrating night I decided to switch out to a 1/2oz bait and was able to shoot off cast after cast effortlessly with zero backlashes.

So long story short, it looks like the 5" senkos are going to be relegated to Wacky Rig spinning rod duty. Now I am searching for a plastic that uses the same techniques and has a similar action to the senko but weighs a little more and casts better on my target sniper. I know this goes against my original vow to not purchase anymore soft plastics until the senkos are uses up but oh well. :laugh1:

I know adding a weight to the 5" senko is an option but for now I would like to work on weightless soft plastics. Should I just go to a 6" senko? Or does anyone have any suggestions for alternatives? One I have been eying is the 6" OSP dolive stick but other than that I haven't seen anything that piques my interest.
Are you skipping with a Shimano or something? It should be easy with a senko.
Actually yes I have a metanium B on my target sniper. Want to replace it with a daiwa SV reel but haven't found the right one yet. Plus the 5" senko doesn't exactly load up the rod super well making casting more difficult.

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