Senkos at Utah Lake for largemouth

I have been having really good success targeting the LMB at UL this being my first year, I have figured a few things out on my own, but have gotten a ton of help from some really nice bass guys (the usually open up after they find out I am 100% C&R, I never go Bass to Mouth)..one thing I was told and haven’t tried are the Senkos…I had a guy tell me you can pretty much catch them all year on a Senko…

for those in the know, how are they fished/rigged and what color??? I am always willing to try new things out, I absolutely slammed them a couple of times recently with a KVD 1.5 square bill crank bait…that was fun, and I have been getting them lately slow retrieving a spinner bait as well…just wanting to try soemthing new to put in my bag of tricks :slight_smile:

Any pics? Whats the size? Do you also get white bass or cats while fishing for them?

Senkos are deadly on bass, and you don’t have to do anything special. Rig it wacky or texas-rigged, and toss it to some cover. Let it sink and watch your slack line. If it twitches or moves off, reel down and set the hook. If it hits bottom and you haven’t gotten a hit, reel it in and repeat.

That’s it. Senko fishing my way.

Some people like to hop the senko back in, but I just don’t catch as many fish as when it is free-falling. That’s what triggers those strikes.

I do have some pics…I usually fish alone so no photographer and I dropped one camera in the drink trying it solo. :frowning: Best place to go see them is on my photobucket…I usually catch in the 2lb-5lb range…we have never caught one smaller than 1.5 lbs in Utah lake and we have gotten a couple in the 5-6lb range as well..spinner baits have caught one catfish and one white bass…I usually catch what I am targeting. I go for catfish, we catch catfish; bluegill, white bass and so on…we did get a catfish on a finesse jig as well. Also, one crappie took a mister twister when I was going for white bass…

To get some good info on Senko’s go to Gary Yammamoto’s web site ( just Google Gary Yammamoto). There are several articles on how to rig and fish. Russ “BassDozer” has several and I believe Ron Colby has a couple also. They also have a color chart. I would go with the standard dark colors, but one that is a bit different is pearl white with gold flake !!

Rig up a roboworm 3 1/2" zipper grub in bold bluegill on an offset Owner (I like Owner hooks, very sharp) oversized worm hook. Rig it weedless. Put a bullet weight on your line before you tie on the hook. Break off the end of a toothpick in the bottom of the bullet weight so that you can slide it up and down and it will mostly stay in place. Slide the weight about 8 to 10 inches above the hook so that the grub falls slowly once the weight hits bottom. Pitch it up against the bank (no such thing as too shallow at UL) and work it back to the boat. You can also toss it into cover without hanging up too much. They are not generally line shy, so use heavier line. The LMB there feed heavy on bluegill - so do the cats. You’ll catch them on that set-up all year long. I use pro-cure scents. They seem to make a difference.

Wacky rigged is my favorite way to fish for bass. Pretty simple and fast to rig when out on the water. It is difficult to use if there are lots of available snags on the bottom though.

I caught a nice one on a Texas rigged purple Robo, my 2nd ever LMB… I’ll have to try the hook you said and the pattern, sounds deadly :slight_smile: