TOXIC

There are many more on this site much smarter than me but in all of my years using spinning gear for weightless Senkos addressing the baitcaster opinion in seminars and demonstrations, I’ve just put it this way…. In order for a weightless Senko to perform at its maximum potential, it MUST fall on a slack line with as little resistance as possible. This fact alone rules out heavier line and braid due to the resistance tension heavy lines create in and on top of the water. The heavier the line the more it pulls on the nose of the Senko resulting in a nose up fall. Line on a baitcaster, even in free spool mode, must spin the entire spool of line when casting. That means you have resistance from both the spool weight and the weight of the total amount of line you have on that spool. The heavier the line, once again, the heavier the spool. As minimal as it may be with the new baitcasters designed to throw light baits, there is still resistance from the bearings. That is not the case with spinning gear. And finally for the 90% of anglers using traditional baitcasters, having to strip line off manually as the Senko sinks contributes to interfering with the Senkos action and will increase the chance of missed strikes because the majority come on the fall and are best capitalized on by watching your line on the water. Fall behind on your feeding of the line and the Senko will pendulum back towards the rod. The last consideration and I honestly don’t know which setup gets the most benefit of is line guide resistance. Do the larger guides on spinning contribute to less resistance or does the straight line smaller guides of a baitcaster? Let me reiterate once again, I have no problem with someone fishing a Senko on a baitcaster, it is done everyday and fish are caught everyday. If you feel more comfortable with a baitcaster, by all means throw it. It’s just that I have thrown Senkos for so many years my mind has drilled down into the smallest influences on a seemingly simple bait the same as someone who is super proficient in throwing a crankbait, jig, spinnerbait, jerkbait, etc.

If you are a follower of Yamamoto on Facebook or subscribed to the Inside Line, they have asked me to do the series.

Some would call us old school and not up on newer gear. I have yet to see a baitcaster allow a Senko to fall on slack line without manually stripping line off the spool. We are never going to change their minds and they will never change ours. I’m just glad everybody catches fish on them. ?

As has been said it totally depends on the rod. Some will perform with the weight, others will not. To me, there’s nothing worse than overpowering a rod. It reminds me of a trip on St Clair where the wind was howling and even with drift socks we were moving at a pretty good pace. In order to get tubes down on the bottom we had to go big with the tube weights. If I remember correctly it was 1/2oz and up. I am a finesse fisherman first and foremost so my rods were absolutely not cooperating and I couldn’t feel anything from bites to bottom. I came up with a combo of a 5 inch Senko on a 1/4oz football head jig (hook exposed) that rocketed to the bottom and left me with plenty of rod to feel bites and set the hook.

It’s never been that it’s not possible to throw a Senko with a baitcaster. It’s always been possible and it catches fish just like me nose weighting them catches fish. My point is that the mechanics of a baitcaster will never give the “weightless” Senko the freespool action a spinning reel will. I’ve proven it so many times on tank demos in Bass Pro Shops seminars, it’s not even a consideration for me.

Haha. For me, I use a screw in Bullet weight in 3 situations mainly. 1. To get through vegetation (punching). 2. To counteract current or tide 3. When I want/need a fast vertical fall like on a weedline or in brush. Keeping in mind that once you put the weight on, it no longer has any of that magical Senko action anymore. It’s just a stick bait. Weightless will always be on spinning gear with 6-8lb test mono. A baitcaster cannot mimic the freespool action needed for a weightless Senko to work up to its full potential.

7 foot medium heavy spinning with 10lb mono. Pro Qualifier wide spool reel. Senko with a screw in nose weight. Second fish baitcaster 12lb mono 7.5 inch Yamamoto Kut Tail with a screw in nose weight. I use both.

For me a re-hashing of all the reasons why the proper way to fish a weightless Senko isn’t necessary because there’s absolutely -0- chance you will ever change my mind. ??

While normally I would agree with you, and since the Senkos I threw were all weighted so I had no real consideration for action on the bait, I went with 10lb straight mono for weighted and 8lb straight mono for weightless. We had to go to some of my fish that were in the heavy cover and I had a harder time setting the hook on long casts but I was extremely happy with the performance of my gear and on this trip the Senkos absolutely ruled along with the new Yamamoto 7” Speed Senko.

Good write up. At one time I was going to do a series of articles for Yamamoto called “From the Back Deck” because I spent so much of my fishing time on the back deck of my fishing partners boat. While not exactly the same being in a tournament situation, I had a lot of tips and tricks that worked from the back deck. I will say a boater who wants to “back boat” you all day can be very frustrating, there are some things you can do to salvage your day. Good luck on the trail.

What’s all this crazy talk about stripping line down to the spool and then putting backing on? Sure, I reline my reels both spinning and casting a lot but I only replace the backing about once every 5 years?. I just take my line off the spool to the knot where I attached it last time to the backing, snip it behind the knot and reline from there. It’s backing, no need to be fresh or replaced IMHO. When I feel it’s time to stop the backing (rare) I just strip the line down to the spool and respool with whatever line I am putting on the reel. I more than make up the cost with all of the respools I do before removing the backing.

I used to think so until a friend of mine born and raised on St Clair called me out and caught open water smallmouth (not on beds) with a shoestring, a cigarette butt and a gummy worm. The gummy worm I could see but the others????

With the prices on these hooks, I’m extremely lucky I have a friend who pours his own and makes them with quality hooks. It’s not unusual to go through 10-15 on an average day on the river we regularly fish.

If your lake is oriented with coves on the east and west sides and open in the middle (look at Lake Champlain for example) a north wind is going to come straight down the lake from north to south. As has been mentioned, going into coves and fishing the north side would keep you more sheltered. Assuming you are taking all the other factors into account like season, water temp, depth etc, in my opinion I would be more keyed into sun angle assuming, like on Champlain, you are not taking your life in your hands with a stout north wind no matter the season.

This^^. Personally I would look at a multi-species boat like the Ranger as mentioned or in the Fisherman series. The key is having the independent seats. Bench or buckets don’t work well for over 4 people. You’ll soon come to find out that a fish n ski doesn’t do either very well so it’s better in the long run to choose the function it will be used for. Generally, the “Walleye” style boats will put you into what I am talking about. Seating for multiple people, rigged with a big enough motor to tube or ski (with a pylon) and works well for fishing.

Gamakatsu used to offer this hook. I never dropshot wacky but my buddies that do used to like it for the added action.

Nice! We got a little derailed on the weather. You did great! It is extremely difficult to time the spawn on this lake because of the temperature differences. Generally speaking it occurs earlier and lasts longer.

Totally dependent on where we went but it was 60-69.

Update from last Sunday. Cold. It was cold. ?. Fish did not cooperate as well. We had to hang close to the ramp for an extended time due to the heavy fog on the lake. It wasn’t just water fog either. I drove through a lot of it getting to the lake. Ned’s did the most damage and our blade bait bite was greatly reduced. I was on the catfish big time for most of the day?

There’s no right answer but if it were me I would evaluate each boat on its own. Big items in my mind are durability, quality of build, engine condition, trailer condition, manufacturer. As for graphs, upgraded trolling motor, etc, you can add those piecemeal as budget allows. If you are going to keep the boat long term is also a consideration as to manufacturer and build quality. The big motor is paramount. Those would be the first 2 things I would look at. As for a personal example, I looked at a lot of boats before I bought mine. All used. I focused on manufacturer quality and I am still running a 2005 model. I have upgraded the troller a couple of times but I do not have an ultrex or any spot lock capability. That will come in a future upgrade. I do not have the latest and greatest in electronics, I run gen 2 with side and down scan. I have a 2 stroke with 500 hours. Out of everything I would like to have a 4 stroke but for my needs, my setup works just fine. I have added a center seat step/storage box, went from a motor guide to an minnkota fortrex troller and powerpoles.

Word from my LEO friend is that it was a buried body from a murder in Tampa. I haven’t heard from him on the op’s story.

Until they make licensing a requirement on inland waters, anyone who can float a boat can claim to be one. I’d wager a lot of clients are not verifying insurance either.

There is no excuse but you have to remember the guides on Headwaters are seriously on the proverbial gravy train. They can almost guarantee clients new personal bests drowning shiners on that lake. It’s going to bring out the worst in them. Not to say there probably are guides who have no business on the water there as well.

No but Roland is.???

I sure would be interested to read an account of this incident seeing as how we just got back from there a week ago. All of the guides we ran into were friendly and helpful if you asked. Now where we were staying in Blue Cypress there was a murder scene at a residence along the highway on our way to the cottages. We passed it everyday. Command center, vans, police cars, etc. One lane of the highway shut down.