How A Pro Fishes Senkos
May 27, 2008
It’s May, not quite half-way through the 2008 Bassmaster Elite tournament schedule, and Yamamoto Pro Staff angler Todd Faircloth is leading the prestigious BASS Angler of the Year standings. If he can keep going at this pace – he has a win and a 7th in the first five events – he’ll pocket a check for a quarter of a million dollars.
His lure of choice? A five or six-inch green pumpkin Yamamoto Senko.
“I’ve been fishing Senkos since my first year as a tournament pro, which was 10 years ago,” laughs the Texas-based angler, “and in the years since, I’ve learned you can catch bass anywhere in the country and just about anytime of year with this lure. If ever there was a single lure that does it all, I’d say from experience it’s a Senko.”
What’s even more telling is that Faircloth doesn’t do anything special with his Senkos, nor does he have a “secret” method of rigging them. Basically, he understands the lure, even the subtle differences between the 5 inch and 6 inch models, and simply uses them to their maximum efficiency.
“The standard way to fish a Senko is to rig it with a 4/0 or 5/0 hook and fish it weightless in five feet or less around cover,” says Faircloth. “This is a typical pre-spawn or spawning situation, but actually, it’s the best way to fish the lure anytime bass are shallow.
“Fished weightless, a Senko has a different action in the water than it does when you add a weight. Weightless, it just shimmies as it falls, vibrating along its entire length. Suspended bass love a Senko presented this way, and they’re among the hardest of all bass to get to strike.”
Faircloth’s retrieve with a weightless Senko is determined according to what the fish will bite, and he varies his retrieve until he recognizes which presentation to make.
“Part of the key in fishing any lure is having total confidence that it is the correct lure for the water you’re fishing,” emphasizes Faircloth, “and I have that confidence in a Senko. I have fished it in enough lakes and under enough conditions that I know without a doubt it’s not the lure, but rather how I retrieve it, that is going to bring a strike.”
The Senko’s strong point is its end-to-end “shimmy” as it falls weightless, and to take advantage of that action, Faircloth often uses a rise-and-fall retrieve that 
creates multiple falls. By raising his rod tip he can swim the Senko two feet off the bottom, and by then lowering his rod, let the lure glide and shake its way back down.
“Then I might hop it a little, swim it above the bottom, and then bring it up again for another fall,’ he says. “I do this at different speeds, too, until something clicks.”
When he’s fishing deeper water, Faircloth frequently adds a ¼ or 3/8-oz. slip sinker that lets him fish as deep as 25 feet. Putting on a weight changes the way a Senko sinks; instead of fluttering, the lure falls in a series of loops. This is what Faircloth used in his Bassmaster Elite win at Amistad this past April.
“I was fishing isolated cover in deep water,” he says, “and I needed to get the Senko down a little quicker than it would fall without any weight. Even with a slip sinker, you can still get tremendous natural action with a Senko, so I often use a lot of hopping and rod tip motion to make the lure look alive.”
Flipping has long been one of Faircloth’s favorite presentations, and he usually uses a weighted Senko when he does; when he’s flipping vegetation he’ll peg the sinker, but all other times he lets the sinker slide free.
Faircloth uses the Senko on a Carolina rig, too, and he works water as shallow as five feet to as deep as he feels he might find bass, which may be 30 feet or more.
“I think what’s critical in using a Senko this way is always remembering and taking advantage of the lure’s weightless action,” he continues. “That means pulling it with your rod tip so the Senko swims up, then letting it shimmy back down naturally on a slack line. If you just slowly drag your sinker along the bottom, the Senko won’t float very high and you won’t get much action from it.”
Around summer boat docks, or for both pre- and post-spawn bass, Faircloth often rigs the Senko wacky-style, and in deeper, clearer lakes, he’ll even rig a Slim Senko on a drop shot. He won the 2006 Bassmaster Elite tournament on Missouri’s Table Rock Lake fishing the Senko on a drop shot, and thinks it’s one of the most overlooked ways to fish the lure.
“The Senko just dances when you shake your rod,” he explains. “I studied it in clear water, and was really amazed. You can fish a drop shot in shallow water, too, simply by rigging your hook just three or four inches above the sinker, and even if you’re using heavier line, you’ll still get plenty of action from the Senko itself.”
When he’s fishing lakes where the average size of the fish he’s catching are five pounds or heavier, Faircloth normally chooses the 6 inch Senko (or even the 7 inch model), which he usually rigs with a 5/0 hook. On most lakes where the average size is smaller, however, he opts for the 5 inch model and a 4/0 hook.
“The 6 inch Senko has a slightly faster fall because it’s a little heavier and more bulky,” he explains, “so you can actually fish it a little faster than you do a 5 inch Senko, depending on your line size. Overall, both lengths have the same action. “I nearly always use fluorocarbon line with a Senko, ranging from 14 to 20 pounds, with 17 pound being my favorite. When we were competing at Falcon with rocky cover and really big fish, I used braided line but with a fluorocarbon leader.
“Rod-wise, I usually prefer a 7-foot medium-heavy action for 5 inch Senkos, and a heavy action rod for 6 and 7 inch Senkos, but again, this depends on the amount and type of cover, and also on the size of the fish.”
Although Senkos are produced in dozens of colors, Faircloth tends to stay with five or six basic choices, including green pumpkin and watermelon in clear water, and june bug and black/blue in off-colored water.
“Really, I keep everything pretty basic with the Senko,” Faircloth concludes, “because it’s such a versatile lure. The best thing any fisherman can do is use it and gain confidence in it. After that, he can go anywhere and know he will catch fish with it.”