# Soft baits the good and the bad



## Jim (Dec 13, 2007)

My favorite go to bait is a stick bait. I have no preferance, I will use them all. I mostly Texas Rig them, but on occasion I will wacky rig them with an O-ring (especially if Im using Senkos). My favorite colors are Xmas tree (senko 222) and Tiki Stick in the same color. I have also had a ton of luck with the Tiki Sweet potato Pie, and all knock off sticks in black and a red shad variant. Any hue of Watermelon also works good in my area.

For creatures I like using the Lunker City Ozmo, but will be trying "The Thing" from Sterling come next year. My focus next year will be flipping and pitching creatures and beavers into the thick stuff until I learn it and gain confidence in it. And skipping jigs and beaver types into the deep stuff.


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## jkbirocz (Dec 13, 2007)

Since there are so many better baits by custom makers, I will just talk about the big bait companies that are sold most places. 

For stickbaits I think it is hard to be an original yamamoto senko, any size, 2" to 7". I generally just texas rig them weightless with a gamakatsu ewg hook. For colors, my favorite is black, green pumpkin black flake, pearl and green laminate, and junebug. I also use the shad colored baits a lot. I am also a big fan of wave worm Tiki sticks. For the price they are excellent, and have a very wide selection of colors. 

For tubes, I like original gitzit tubes, and anything else I can find. I really only used tubes on smallies, so my sizes may be different. I like between 3" and 4" tubes either rigged with a tube jighead or texas rigged with a small bullet weight. Colors will range from white to black. Stick with dark browns and greens and you will catch fish. I generally use white tube if smallies are chasing bait balls around. I will take a small dipsey sinker and put it inside the tube. Then I take a owner mosquito hook and nose hook the tube, putting the hook through the swivel on the sinker. This works great as a soft jerkbait and has a very enticing action. 

For Creatures I go for Reaction innovations sweet beavers and berkley beasts. I also like yamamoto fat baby craws, but they are more of a craw. My favorite color for the beasts are called breen. The green pumpkin works great also. I generally rig these baits on a buckeye spot remover jighead. This rig has taken tons of smallies this year, and my first lake smallie at that. I also texas rig them weightless, they fall super slow this way and LM just can't deal with it, so they eat them. I am mainly talking about the beast bait, it is definately my favorite. 

I don't really use swimbaits, but I will add a lizard and frog section because I use a lot of them. My favorite lizard is a zoom lizard. They are cheap and have a ton of colors. I also like the Yum Zellamander. That thing is very bulky. I mainly texas rig them weightless with a big ewg hook. My favorite color of lizard is black. The Zellamander produced a lot of fish in the pumpkin and red flake. 

As for soft plastic frogs, my favorite is the sizmic toad. They are the best value, and have the best design imo. My favorite color is pearl belly watermelon top. I texas rig them weightless with a 4/0 to 7/0 ewg superline hook, depending which size frog I'm using.


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## Captain Ahab (Dec 13, 2007)

Nice Jake - now I know all your secrets :wink: 

Jake is the king of the sizmic toad - he showed me how to use them and is a master at buzzing them around the thick, thick weeds.

He is also the orignal at catching a big channel cat on a Senko - black of course.


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## BassAddict (Dec 13, 2007)

Fishin NJ said:


> Well I know this is a big area to cover so Lets brake it down to three areas:
> 
> Stick Baits
> 
> ...



What about worms in general? why arent they on the list?


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## SMDave (Dec 13, 2007)

Senkos- These are great baits, real versatile, and can represent a whole variety of different prey, from baitfish to worms, to leeches, etc. There are several ways to rig the senko, the most popular being a weightless texas rig. It is pretty much self explanitory, it is a texas rig - without the weight! The hook is the sole weight that drags the bait down nice and slow with that seductive wiggle, and darting retrieve that made the soft plastic stickbait so popular! It flat out attracts fish! Other popular rigging techniques are the wacky rig, which is taking an EWG hook or regular octopus hook and sticking it through the middle of the bait. This rig is very inticing to bass because as you jerk your rod or lift the tip up, the two ends of the senko, unsupported by a hook, stay down while only the middle moves up. Hard to explain, but it very well simulates a dying baitfish. Another rig is a texas rig with the weight. The bait will get to the bottom quicker, and stay near the bottom easier. This makes it ideal for deeper water. The action is still darty, but is somewhat different in the way it sinks and such. My personal favorite, being a current fisherman, is carolina-rigging. The carolina rig is so versatile. The egg sinker weighs the bait down, and keeps it near the bottom near those fish. If you don't retrieve in the current, the bait will be carried downstream by current. When retrieved, the bait still keeps near the ground, and swims nicely too. But I must admit, I can really make a senko look like a shad with a weightless t-rig. But the carolina rigged senko will always be my confidence bait. For hook size, 3/0 is a general all-around perfect size with a nice sink rate, but ideally: 4" - 2/0. 5"-3/0 or 4/0. 6" and above - 4/0 or above (5/0 is real popular with me too). The hook size will dictate the ROF (rate of fall) of the senko. Alternatively, if you just want to affect the ROF but not the hook size (for balance reasons, or for heavy cover reasons), just do what I do - insert a regular nail into the nose of the bait right above the hook. No need to buy special "bait weights" from BPS.

Gary Yamamoto was the original designer of the cigar-shaped soft plastic stick baits, basing his design off of the Lunker City Fin-S Fish (similar to the Zoom Fluke family). As you can imagine, you can do similar things with the senko, PLUS more! Try wacky rigging a Fin-S Fish! 

Popular colors include pumpkin, green pumpkin, watermelon (or watermelon/red), junebug, black, and pearl (or something similar, white, blue pearl hologram, etc). The more natural colors like green pumpkin and watermelon excel in clearer water, while junebug, black, and other darker colors excel in muddier water. But that's not to say junebug and black can't outfish a green pumpkin senko in clear water :wink: . Let the fish tell you what they want. I also like "Sweet Potatoe Pie," a Tiki Stick color. I have also found watermelon/pearl laminate is a GREAT imitator for baby bass. Some things to know: Gary Yamamoto are the most expensive stickbaits you can get, but they are super salted, super fragile, but this being said, they undoubtedly have the best action/fall rate out of all commercial senko manufacturors. Yum and Tiki Sticks are also great "knock-offs."

Now onto tubes/creature baits. I caught my first smallmouth on a black tube (esquired's tube to be more exact). This was in a river with current, with a jighead inside the body. Now if you choose to do this presentation, make sure you put the jighead in first, then tie the eye with the line. So put in the jighead into the body cavity, push it all the way in (or until the hook has enough exposed room), then push the eye up, and tie to your line. The jighead in the tube is my favorite presentation for fishing tubes. While the texas rig enables changing sizes/colors easier (because you don't have to untie, then re-tie), this is sometimes what I use when I get lazy. But I have much more confidence in a jighead. Some people carolina rig them, but ehh... Hopping and gliding with a jighead is a much better way to draw a strike. My favorite color is black, many people use black/blue, green pumpkin, watermelon, etc. Natural colors, but I do use chartreuse tubes for crappie/trout/creek chubs/other small fish, but I do have some for bass that I sometimes use. Size ranges from 3" to 5", I like mine in esquired's size (whatever that is, I forgot, I think it is 3.5"?) I like 3/16 oz. jigheads with 3/0 hooks.

Creature baits are not supposed to really look like anything natural. Or else they would be considered crawfish baits. Sometimes the bass will take something that looks new and different over a usual prey item, i.e. shad or crawfish. Whatever looks alive, high in protein, and can fit in there mouths, bass will be more than willing to try it. For instance, bass that live in crawfish-less enviroments will take crawfish for that exact same reason I just stated, they look alive, high in protein, and can fit in there mouths! Creature baits usually have ribbon appendages to add to the appeal, and create more movement/vibration (water displacement), thus making it seem alive. Because of the number of appendages, these make creature baits very customizable. You can remove appendages, dye them with Spike-It, etc. Refer back to my "Bait Mods" thread in the bait&tackle section, should be 2 or 3 pages back, for ideas. Beaver baits have tails like - well beavers (although that's not why they were named beaver baits). These (usually) 3 appendages create mass water displacement, and look like claws of some sort. I sometimes tear apart the side appendages in half so there are 5 appendages. Bass love creature baits! Popular rigging techniques are texas rigging and carolina rigging. I find both to be effective, depending on the situation. Close contact fishing and fishing in cover will demand a texas rig, while ground fishing, and more of a "searching technique" will demand a carolina rig. But once again, let the fish tell you what works. I like green pumpkin colors, watermelons, and junebugs - all proven colors. Favorite models include the Zoom Baby Brush Hog and formerly Joe's Jig Trailers, now Bassnacks.com, Beavits, although he no longer makes them. But I hear the Reaction Innovations are great baits, and they ARE, undoubtedly, the most popular beaver bait. 

Ahhh... I'm tired of typing, I will write more later on finnesse worms (4-6" straight-tailed worms). But the main secret of fishing soft plastics, is, get the fundamentals of rigging down first, which isn't hard, and experiment with retrieve styles and colors yourself to find what best suits the bass that live in your lakes like! 

By the way, I only use Gamakatsu hooks (I like Owner's too, but the cutting points will damage soft plastics much easier). I will see how the HookerZ perform in '08!

Happy fishin'!


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## little anth (Dec 13, 2007)

senkos senkos senkos. you can fish them many ways and will almost always catch fish.anywhere. i like the pumpkin black and green flake. work everywhere and in all water qualities. i also like jerkbaits like the fluke in shad colors like albino and perl and also white ice. 
i also like creature baits when the bites slow i love to use em.all kinds the berkley beast , sweet beavers,roboworm pitchin craw and sour puss,and brush hogs. i love em all. i like watermelon colors and browns reds ect. also watermelon red flake is one of the best colors on most baits. 
i also like all of the berkley dropshot worms/shakey head worms my fav dropshot worm is roboworm sculptin in aarons magic and alot of the other roboworm products there so soft and i love em. hope this helps if you need more just ask i dont feel like wrighting more right now. :roll:


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## Waterwings (Dec 13, 2007)

My go-to plastic is the Wave Worm Tiki Sticks. The colors that work well around here are the Smoke Shad and the Red Shad. I t-rig all of my plastics, varying from weightless or using an 1/8oz or 3/16oz bullet weight. Normally they'll be t-rigged on a 3/0 or 4/0 Gammy ewg hook. The Spots love the Red Shad color early in the Spring! 

I tried Mann's Horny Toad this past summer in some lily pads, but no bites at all. Looking forward to trying the Buzz Frogs I rece'd today  .

One other plastic that does well in early Spring around here is the Zoom Super Fluke (Baby Bass or Glimmer Blue colors). My wife uses them more than I do, and she'll t-rig them weightless on a 3/0 or 4/0 Gammy ewg hook.. The Spots love 'em!


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## jkbirocz (Dec 13, 2007)

Well since standard plastic worms have been added...my favorite plastic worm is a culrpit worm. In sizes from 6" to 10". My favorite colors of these worms are red shad, black shad, and motoroil shad. Plum with pearl tail is another favorite color of mine. Texas rigged with or without weight, these are great worms. I also like an assorted zoom products for plastic worms. Zoom dead ringers in junebug have produced fish for me.


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## BassAddict (Dec 14, 2007)

Too many choices come popping into my head as i write this, its hard to pick a soft plastic that I like to fish over others. Right now im hooked on stick baits which are pretty much "do nothing worms." When I first started fishing these, I think I over fished em cause I couldnt believe they would work, but some how they do and usually score me decent fish every now and then!!!

My goto worm before that was a ribbon tailed culprit red shad worm, The tail on these guys gives off a lot of vibration and I was always coffident that the bass would take notice of this and come to investigate these scored me a few dinks as usual!!

Still before that even I used a lot of your plain ole 6" cheap-o renegade green pumpkin c-tailed worms. My attraction to these was i liked that tail floating around saying come an get me. A tequlia sunrise renegade worm got me my biggest bass to date 2.5 lbs WooooooHooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


ahhhhhhh so many baits i want to fish, so little time...................


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## Waterwings (Dec 14, 2007)

Geez, I forgot to add a couple of worms that I also use. One being the Joe's Shakit worm (Black w/Blue Flake), and the Culprit 10" ribbon-tailed Red Shad. These I t-rig with a 1/8oz bullet weight and work the weeds.

(fightin' a heck of a head cold here, and I'm under the influence of meds, so my memory is a little wacko)


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## Popeye (Dec 14, 2007)

Not sure how you bass guys classify these, but this is the only plastic thing I've used in like 20 years. Years ago I used to throw a Mr. Twister.







These are deadly on Crappie and Gills. I plan on using them this spring when I go out on Lake Michigan looking for perches too.


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## SMDave (Dec 14, 2007)

Fishin NJ said:


> WOW guys great responses, keep em coming and SMDAVE i must say you are the most well spoken person i've met on a board. You have a ton of knowledge and skills, you are going places that is for sure. Who knows one day we may be watching you on a dvd. I look forward to part 2 of you reply.
> 
> Thanks to all


Hehe thanks!

Ok so for worms. There are all different types of worms, ribbon tails, finnesse (straight tailed, usually between 4-6"), etc. I am not really big on ribbon tail worms, but I can imagine they would be great (I have used them with success), but don't use them too often to know much about them. But I love straight tailed worms. Salted ones like the Zoom Trick Worm will sink unweighted, so these are not ideal for shaky head rigs. Floating worms (unsalted finnesse worms usually) and lightly salted/only head salted worms work great. My favorite shaky head bait is Joe's (basssnacks.com) Finnesse-it, a 4" straight tailed worm. Straight tailed worms are very versatile, they are basically thin senkos, with tapered bodies or larger ends. But yet, they are completely different and can be fished in whole different ways. Some popular techniques are shaky heads, dropshots, wacky, texas rigs, and carolina rigs (there are tons more out there). Depending on the weight of the bait (dictated by salt content), finnesse worms are awesome for wacky rigging, as the rounder ends of the head wiggle more, and the thin body allows for more bending which in turn equals: greater action. Here's a cool rig I saw once in bassmaster and have tried out. Take a jighead with a light wire hook, and grab wire cutters, and cut off the hook at the very start of the shank where it meets the jighead. Insert the jighead's collar into the bait (like you would a regular jighead, without the hook though), and wacky rig it. This makes a unique action, like a shaky head combined with a wacky rig. It looks promising, but I don't use it too much. Another great technique and popular technique is texas rigging. I texas rig my Zoom Trick Worms, which are too heavy for shaky head rigs, and that technique is one of my go-to's. Fish it slowly, but not too slowly, but not to fast, at a moderate pace, hopping it and jerking it off the floor and letting it sit. Twitches and pauses are great ways to fish them too. Weightless texas rigging (like a senko) is often overlooked for finnesse worms, but this action is unreal. Especially with the Zoom Trick Worm, because of its longer body and thinner profile. Imagine a water snake, and if fished correctly, you can make it wiggle just like one or a baitfish. I have nearly mastered this techniqued, and is deadly, the Zoom Trick Worm has a slow sink rate, so try this rig near submerged brush, weedbeds, weed edges, and other shallow structure. This technique is also THE BEST for followups on a buzzbite strike (well, maybe the senko is the best, but the straight tailed worm comes close). Carolina-rigging is also popular, but I reserve this technique mostly for senkos. But I have had carolina-rigging success with Zoom Trick Worms. They are great for ground-relating bass, and if you choose a floating worm or a worm with light salt and a bouyant (floaty) body, they will hover off the bottom, and is great for ground-relating fish or even suspended bass. Carolina rigging straight tailed worms is great for finnesse fishing too, believe it or not. Drag it slowly across the bottom during those dog days of summer too. The advantage of a carolina rig over a texas rig is you get it to the bottom faster, keep it in contact with the bottom longer, and covers more water quicker (as opposed to the texas rig, where you more or less hop, the carolina rig you drag across the bottom). Carolina rigs and texas rigs both have their place, similarly to the senko. I don't fish with floating worms much, so I can't speak much about them. Dropshotting, you want to use small worms (4"). My absolute favorite is the Berkley Handpoured Finnesse Worm in size 4", color Red Crawler. When weightless t-rigging, keep in mind how heavy the worm is, longer lures will usually sink faster, but sometimes not. Use your hook size more or less to guess the ROF. In worms, you generally want the same size hook, if anything, larger than the hook used for senkos of the same size. For jigheads (using the shaky head), I like 1/4-3/8 oz. jigheads with a 3/0 or 4/0 hook. Keep in mind, jigheads are not restricted to tail-floating shaky head worms, but they also work great for sinking worms such as the Zoom Trick Worm. Fish a jigheaded worm anyway you want, but for smaller, shaky head worms (usually 4-5", always with a floaty tail), I fish in colder conditions or finnesse presentations. When finnesse fishing with a shaky head, keep the jighead in contact with the bottom 90% of the time, just shaking your rod tip to make the tail of the bait quiver enticingly underwater (hence the name, shaky head). But you can jig it, hopping it, or glide it occasionally. Shaking the worm on the ground is how you should mainly fish the shaky head, but once again experiment. I love straight-tailed worms so much because they are so versatile, have many rigging options, and can be used in the summers of Florida to the winters of New Jersey!

I use braided line with ALL soft plastic presentations, EXCEPT the dropshot, weightless texas rig, and the shaky head. For all three of these presentations, I use fluorocarbon. May I recommend Berkley Trilene (NOT vanish) Fluorocarbon? 6-8lb test is perfect for dropshots, 10lb. test for everything else is a good general strength, but it depends on the cover/etc. These are also the only presentations I use on a spinning reel, unless I am skipping (I always skip with my spinning reel, no matter what presentation I am fishing). But that is just personal preference. Skipping is a popular technique to get under docks, hanging brush/trees, etc. You want to cast the bait at a high velocity close to the water (try to keep the cast parallel) so that the bait will skip across the water, like skipping a stone. You want the same principles. I mainly skip with a shaky head, but texas rigging will worm too. Carolina rigging? Nah. Wacky rigging would be possible, but hard I imagine. I have never tried it. Also, do not start practicing skipping with a baitcaster, you will just get birdnests, get it down solid with a spinning reel first, then try it on a baitcaster. I still get backlashes on my baitcaster trying to skip, also I think skipping is much easier on a spinning reel. 

Popular colors are pumpkin, green pumpkin, watermelon, watermelon/red, junebug, ox blood (transparent) or red bug (solid), black, chartreuse, and bubblegum. Bubblegum is a good all around color, and I have used them with success for both muddy and clear water. The natural colors (pumpkin, green pumpkin, watermelon, watermelon/red, ox blood) you want to use more for clearer water, but I have used junebug a lot lately in all water conditions with success. Same with chartreuse. Once again, experiment, but generally, natural/transparent colors in clearer water, bolder or darker solid colors in dark water. Black is also a good general color for both water conditions. But my favorite for the Basssnacks ShakIt and FinessIt are green pumpkin (for both) and black/blue flake is killer (only for the ShakIt).

If I may suggest some worms, for shaky head: Joe's (basssnacks.com) FinessIt and ShakIt. For texas rigging and carolina rigging: Zoom Trick Worm, Zoom Finesse Worm (a shorter version of the Trick Worm), and the Kinami Cut Tail Worm. For wacky rigging, I like the Zoom Trick Worm, for weightless texas rigging, I like the Joe's (basssnacks.com) ShakIt, and the Zoom Trick Worm. 

If I was to only choose 2 worms to start out with, they would be the Basssnacks ShakIt and the Zoom Trick Worm.

Good luck hope this stuff helps.

UPDATE: Basssnacks.com now carries the BeavIt again!!! Yay!!!


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## Waterwings (Dec 14, 2007)

> UPDATE: Basssnacks.com now carries the BeavIt again!!! Yay!!!



I bought some of the Beavits when I ord'd the Shakits. I never had any luck with the Beavits, but had good success on the Shakits (Black w/Bkue Flake). Maybe the bass around here are picky, but I definitely need to order some more Shakits!


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## shamoo (Dec 14, 2007)

Mr. SMDave, Berkley still make the power finese?


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## shamoo (Dec 14, 2007)

I havent seen them at bass pro shops for a couple of years


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## SMDave (Dec 14, 2007)

shamoo said:


> I havent seen them at bass pro shops for a couple of years


 They're now called the Powerbait "Hand Pours" finesse worms. Cooler colors


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## shamoo (Dec 14, 2007)

Thanks Mr. SMDave, didnt know that


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## the hammer (Dec 15, 2007)

I use tungsten nail weights with my finesse worms and craws. You can insert the weight in any points along the bait providing various actions. Place the weight in the center of the worm, adjacent to the hook in a wacky rig, it allows the ends of the worm to flutter as it sinks. Place a weight near each end of the worm and you get an excellent dead stick.
You can nose weight a plastic lizard and it looks like the lizard is rooting through the bottom of a bass's nest at spawning time, while the tail is lifted up a bit.
You can also wacky rig a craw toward the head and weight the tail. It allows for smooth movement and minimizes hang-ups because there is no exposed weight and the exposed hook would be minimal. You can also Texas rig a craw head first with the weight in the tail. You lift and drop the rod tip and it moves quite naturally, scooting back.
With 4 or 5 inch grubs, I insert a weight or two and push it in a bit, then Texas rig it. Again, it reduces hang up because there is nothing to get wedged in cover.


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## shamoo (Dec 15, 2007)

Nice, I'm going to try the nail in the tail of the crawdad, the scooten backwards sound like the deal to me, thanks for the info.


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## redbug (Dec 15, 2007)

My choices are fairly simple.. you might notice mast have 1 thing in common

Stick bait: the wacko from wacky worm in the red bug color 

creature bait : reaction innovations sweet beaver in hot tamale (red with green flake) or zoom super hog in red bug 

finesse worm : 4"zoom finesse in redbug 

I will use other colors watermelon red green pumpkin and watermelon candy. among others but red bug has won me a lot of money over the years and is my first choice on most waters

Wayne


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## bassboy1 (Dec 15, 2007)

I got lazy, and didn't read all the posts. But, for stick baits, I use yamamoto senkos, and yamamoto thin senkos. Generally in blue pearl, or green punkin. But, unlike a lot of people, I love to throw a finesse worm, but fish it like a senko. My favorite finesse worm, is a 6" YUM houdini worm, in green punkin. I have a whole bunch of other worms in my bag, due to the bait monkey, but they rarely, if ever, get used. Plus, I don't get to fish more than once a month, usually once every two, so they don't have much chance of getting used.


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## little anth (Dec 15, 2007)

the berkley hand pour finese worms work great. they still make em.i like them on a drop shot along woth the bps dropshot minnow and the zoom trick worm in watermelon red


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