Since getting a boat a couple of weeks ago, I've really learned a lot more about fishing. Last weekend, my dad and I fished Lake Jordan, near where he lives. We did pretty well for a quick evening outing. He had the big bass at 2+ lbs and the only thing I could muster was a dink and an ugly channel catfish that was 4 1/2 pounds and almost had me tricked into thinking it was going to be my new PB LMB. (There are photos of that, if anyone cares.)

So yesterday, my brother and I hit Lay Lakeour local place to take a boat and wet a line. I had just read a ton of articles on BR about the senko and even though I've had several packs in my tackle bag for awhile, I hadn't fished them much because my confidence in fishing soft plastics is lacking. (In less than a year of bass fishing, I've come to embrace the odds of 6-to-1 that crankbaits provide over single-hook setups. )

Long story short, I decided to really give the senko a shot. We hit the water at 6 AM and even after some heavy rain on Friday, the water was surprisingly clear (maybe this is normal for Lay, I don't know.) So I felt good about tying on a solid green pumpkin senko from Gary Yamamoto.

Second cast of the morning. BAM. And a MISS. But still, my head was spinning. "What have I been missing?!" 20 minutes later, another swing and miss, but I was getting really excited. I just needed to calm down and figure out how pay good attention to what was happening underwater and get the right hookset on impact. Find the confidence.

We fished a little longer with one more missed opportunity and decided to change locations when the action seemed to die. Without a depthfinder, I'm finding myself really limited in what I can do, so I pulled up Navionics on my iPhone and found an area of the lake where the deep channel lined up close to the shore. We decided to fish docks, rip rap and walls along this area.

Five minutes at the new place and I pitched into an the slip of an empty boat dock. It was hot so I felt like hitting the shade of the dock might help our chances. The cast was dead center of where I wanted it (luck to be honest) and I let the senko fall. Tap, tap. Wham! Hookset was dead center top lip and a beautiful 2 1/2 pound spotted bass emerged.

Senkos are my new favorite.

A half-hour later, I caught another spotted bass that came in just a little under 2 pounds. I was actually shocked about this one because I pitched under an overgrowth that I could only access by getting really close to the bank. My pitch was all of six feet away from the boat and before the senko hit the bottom one time, the fish inhaled it and ran. Hookset was like what I've seen others do fishing drop shotstraight up. Now we had a party.

We had to knock off for the day a few minutes after that with not much more action, but I left the lake with way more confidence in general and a big respect for the senko. Maybe the conditions happened to be right for this angler who really doesn't know much yet. But all I could think of were all the articles and people on BR singing the praises of the senko. Well, here's my voice joining that chorus!

WTG ! Success does breed confidence and that only breeds more success ~ and of course "Good Times"

A-Jay

Nice job man, I myself have recemtly found confidence in senkos. Keep whackin em 

Great report and congrats on your success with the Senko.

I love 'em and this past weekend caught all of my keepers in a club tournament on a #297 as did my nonboater partner.

Keep those reports and pics coming.