This month the MONSTERBASS box featured the brand new XCite baits Senko worm. This fishing plastic is a classic in the industry and is guaranteed to catch fish. Today we have Todd Grubb of @Fishing GrubbZ dropping some knowledge bombs on how to rig a Senko for more fish!

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Video Transcript:

What's going on everybody. Welcome to today's episode on the MOSNTERBASS channel. I am your host Todd Grubb. And today we're going to be talking about five different ways to rig a Senko. What's going on, guys. I am here from Fishing Grubbz. If you guys haven't checked on my channel, I would really appreciate it if you go on over, hit the subscribe button. We do a ton of how-to videos on Senko and stuff like that. We also do a review video every single Wednesday. If you guys are into that sort of material. And I also invite you to please hit the subscribe button here on the MONSTERBASS channel and that little notification bell as well so you're notified when we drop videos here.

Todd Grubb:
But today, guys, we're here to talk about one of my favorite baits. They come in all shapes and sizes, all different colors. So many different brands. You got little three-inch Senkos. You got five-inch Senkos. Or six-inch Senkos. I think seven, eight... I think they go up to like nine. I don't even know. There's so many different types of Senkos out there, but today we're going to tell you five different ways on how we rig these things. And you can rig anything from the small ones like this, to the big giant ones to the normal, in my opinion, normal five-inch Senko. Now real quick, we're going to go over just a small little touch of history on this bait.

Todd Grubb:
This bait was invented about 25 years ago by Gary Yamamoto himself. And he wanted to make a jerkbait. That's what he set out to do. And it's funny because you can actually use Senkos just like a jerkbait, but we'll get into that in a little bit. He wanted to make a jerkbait. He got this whole machine to try and build from wood, a jerkbait, a wooden jerkbait. And it was so intense and he was just very overwhelmed by it. And he was used to soft plastics. So he's like, "Oh, you know what?" And he sent the guy that was working for him out to the store to go get a pen. They pretty much molded a pen, made the original Senko, which had no grooves on it whatsoever. It was just a completely smooth thing that looked almost just like one of these bad Larry's, but smooth as it can be. And it freaking worked.

Todd Grubb:
Then he tested it out on some bedding bass. He saw some things that he'd never seen bass do before. And that really gave him a ton of confidence in what was quickly to become one of the most sold baits on the market. And that goes for all the brands out there. Pretty much every major brand that sells soft plastic sells some sort of Senko. Today, we're going to go over five ways, five of the ways that I personally have the most success rigging up Senkos. Now, there are plenty of other ways. You can invent probably a new way to rig up a Senko every day of the freaking week. But guys, these are the five that I use the most.

Todd Grubb:
So if you dig the Carolina rig, that's great. I've never even used it. Same with the Tokyo rig. I know both of those rigs will probably produce greatly, especially the Tokyo rig, I've actually really been looking into that, but I still haven't tried it lately. So it's not something I'm going to talk to you about. I'm going to talk to you about the things that I've had success on. First off, we've got these really cool Ned rig jigs in a MONSTERBASS, I want to say two months ago. So that's going to be our first way to show you how to rig this thing. There's two different things you could do. You could get yourself a small three-inch or four-inch Senko and you can go ahead and feed that puppy right on there, right on there. Should have marked where I wanted it to come out, but pretty good at guessing. Just like that. That is a perfect little Ned rig with the full on Senko.

Todd Grubb:
Another thing you can do, is you could take one of your five-inch Senkos, pair of scissors or just bite it like I normally do, but I'm going to be slightly civilized today. And you can basically mark how big you want this thing. Do you want it right there like that, little stubbier than this. Almost the same, but it's a little bit fatter, right? So we're going to do that. Or you can even use the longer piece. Really, they're going to have a tiny bit different action, but you got the short stubby piece. You can use the longer piece. You can even cut this one up a little bit more if you'd like, and you're going to feed that on the same exact way. I know where you want it to come out. Find out where you want it to come out. I like to pinch my soft plastics where I want the hook coming out.

Todd Grubb:
So I'm going to drive that hook down to the middle where I have it pinched. I'm going to pop out. Slide it on up past the keeper. And you're looking at two of the very same bait. One of them is going to have a little bit more action because it's a thinner soft bass. You can even cut this three-inch one down a little bit if you'd like. And then you got this one here. So you can change a pack of Senkos into double the amount of Senkos that you have just by cutting them in half. Because a pack of these three-inch ones cost almost as much as the five-inch ones. So you could take the five-inch ones and just slice them in half and you get double the amount of Senkos.

Todd Grubb:
But again, you are looking at a totally different action. So this is number one, Ned rig. Number two. It all depends on what you're fishing. If I'm fishing a place that doesn't have a lot of weeds, I'm going to just probably go wacky rigged. So we'll talk about that in a minute. I'm sure most of you know how to do that. If it has a lot of weeds, I'm going to go Texas rigged. So I'm either going to go Texas rigged just like this. You could take, let's see, we got some Trokar Mag worms here. We got the VMC Heavy Duty Wide Gap. I've really liked these 3/0's. And then these came in our MONSTERBASS box, I want to say, two months ago as well, somewhere along those lines. This is dope. This is the MONSTERBASS variety pack. I didn't even see that in the corner there.

Todd Grubb:
So these are spear points. They're just a different style, but they are wide gap and that's what we want. And that's what I want. [inaudible 00:07:02] on Senkos. We'll take one of these babies out. We'll take out the 3/0, that's the one right in the middle. I would use the 4/0 for these five-inch Senkos or the 3/0 and you could even use the 4/0 for a six-inch plus Senko as well. But again, this is how personally I like to Texas rig. What I like to do is I like to see how long this is here, because at the end of it, when we get to the end, I want the knot and the eye of this hook to be completely covered by the Senko. I want to make sure I go in further with the hook than I have room here. So that should be just fine. Because if you look, all that's going to be hidden within the Senko when I'm done.

Todd Grubb:
So again, we'll just pinch right there as normal. Pinch. We're going to take this end put that bad boy right down the center and come out right where we have it pitched. Like that. Knot's going to be here, obviously. Can you see that? Then we're going to come down all the way down, turn the Senko. Come all over the edge there. And boom! As you can see, that whole section there and the knot would be under there and the line will be coming out of there. All of that is hidden within the Senko. Completely gone. Completely hidden in there.

Todd Grubb:
Then your next step is going to be to pinch where you want it. Bring that hook point through just like that. So now the hook's standing out of it, and then you're going to want to hide that hook point. So you just pull up on the Senko there, drop it down. That hook point is hidden. This bad boy is now 110% weedless. So if I got a really weedy pond, especially mid summer and the weeds are super high and thick, this bad Larry is what I'm going to use. This is the way to use it as a jerkbait as well. So what I'll do is I'll throw this thing out. I'll let it drop to the bottom. Then I just reel up my slack and slowly lift up my rod tip making this thing go up and flutter back down.

Todd Grubb:
But sometimes if I didn't get a bite every once in a while, I'll work it back fast and jerk it. And this thing is going to act as a jerkbait in the water. It's going to look very similar to a fluke style, soft plastic. And I have gotten bid on that way more times than you would ever expect. So every once in a while, I literally just throw out a Senko, Texas rigged, just like that and work it just like a jerkbait. And you'd be surprised at how many hits you'll get. So if the weeds are thick and you want to move a little bit quicker and cover a little more water, throw a weedless Texas rigged Senko and see what happens.

Todd Grubb:
Next, what I'd like to show you, is one more way I like to do a Texas rigged, and that is with a bullet weight. Well, we're going to rig this thing totally different from when we rigged it, weedless and weightless because of one thing, we want to be very different down there. Now, if we're fishing a little bit deeper water, or it's a little bit colder out and you want that thing to be down on the bottom fast. You drag it along the bottom a bit more, whereas our bullet weight? Fricking had that thing somewhere. There it is. You guys want to put the bullet weight on the line before you tie your knot onto the hook. That's pretty obvious though, right guys?

Todd Grubb:
When I put a bullet weight on, I do not peg the bullet weight, a lot of people peg it and keep it in the spot that you put it. I do not do that. And I don't do that for a reason. When you take that very same Senko instead of putting it in so that everything's covered up at the end, we want to expose the top of the hook and the knot there. There's a reason for that. So instead of going in all the way like we did before, we're just going to go in a tiny, tiny bit. Pull that up and around. Same as before. Make it weedless, same as before, that thing in there. Only this time, top of the hook is standing up out of the bait there. You can see that, that's the eye of the hook. And you're little knot.

Todd Grubb:
The bullet weight comes right down to that. But when this thing's clinking around on the bottom, if you don't leave the bullet weight pegged and made to sit right in that same spot all the time, every time you move this thing, it's going to make noise. And in the winter time, in the cold weather months, that's huge. It's going to sound almost like a craw, a little crawdad, clinking it around on the bottom. And that is going to get the attention of a bass. And it might actually move a little bit further than it normally would to come check this bait out. Listen. You heard that noise. Now, if you covered up the eye of this hook, this thing would just be hitting the Senko itself. It would not be making the noise that it just made. So that's huge. So that is the third way we like to rig up the Senko.

Todd Grubb:
Fourth way and the fifth way. And you need a wacky rig tool. It's actually four, five and six. That's neither here nor there. You're going to take your Senko. This is my favorite color Senko, is black with blue flakes. This caught me my PB. Stick your wacky rig tool. Move one of your old rings up on it. Stick your little Senko in there. Roll that rubber band all the way up. You're going to put it directly in the center there as you can see. That little rubber band. First way I like to wacky rig it is a weighted wacky rig hook. We're going to use this in deeper water, or when you just want to get to the bottom quicker. This thing works almost as well as the weightless wacky.

Todd Grubb:
But I really enjoy this. This is a weighted wacky rig hook. I believe Berkeley makes this one. We're going to go ahead. Move the weed guard out of the way. We're going to come right in like that. And right there, you got yourself a weighted wacky rig Senko. so every time you move this thing, it's going to flutter up and it's going to flutter back down. That's the deal with the wacky rig. It's all in the motion that these make fluttering on the way down and the way up. They're going to have two different motions. When you lift it up, it's going to vibrate up. And then as it falls back down, it'll have a different vibration as it falls back down. That's number one.

Todd Grubb:
Number two, that old ring still on there, you're going to take one of these fancy deals or you can just use a regular old nail. Doesn't even matter what you do, but this is a nail weight. I like to put it on the thicker end of the Senko. Right in the bottom. Straight up. Right there. Just like that. All the way up in there until it's inside the Senko. Just like that. Then you can use a wacky rigged hook or you can use a circle hook. Whatever you got, you can use it, but they make these fancy things called Neko hooks. And this is for the Neko rig, which is what this is. Just a fancy alternate version of a weighted wacky rig. So you're going to take your Neko hook here and you want it to come in this way. It actually matters which way you put your hook in. But the weighted wacky rig, it didn't matter. You're going to get either way, same with the weightless.

Todd Grubb:
This is the way you want your Neko rig set up. Because you get the weight down here. So you want the hook point at the top. Because when it's on the bottom sitting there like this, when a bass bites this and you set the hook, this hook point is going to go right in the snoot. And that's just the way we like it. Right in the snoot. Right Rush? Right in the damn snoot Rush. That is how we like it. Just like that. Neko rig. Neko hook, nail weight in the bottom and your O-ring guys, if you don't use the O-ring, your Senkos will not last half as long. If you use one of these O-rings these things last double, triple, quadruple the amount of bites you'll get. If you just go right through the plastic.

Todd Grubb:
In fact, with this Neko setup, I would never even do it without it. Weightless wacky rig, I would go right through the middle. I've done it. Same with the weighted wacky rig. But with the Neko rig, the way this hook is standing, this is going to give you the ultimate hook-up ratio. So that is exactly what you want. If this rubber band wasn't in there, you wouldn't be able to do it like that. So last but not least, the regular plain old wacky rig, which is my personal favorite. Again, O-ring right up there, right in the middle. Sure it's right in the middle like so. Then, I got a Finesse Wide Gap Gamakatsu. You can use these super needle point. I like 1/0 or 2/0. You can use these, these are [inaudible 00:17:15]. There's a million different wacky rig hooks out there. VMC makes just a wacky rig hook. Trokar makes a wacky rig hook.

Todd Grubb:
There's so many different brands you can choose for them out there on the market. It really doesn't matter which one you use. Take that hook and you're going to put it just like so. And that there is, in my opinion, one of the best ways to catch large mouth and small mouth bass. I can not tell you the amount of times I've been out on the water trying new stuff and been pissed because I'm not getting bites. And I switched to a wacky rig and I absolutely hammered them. Now when there's too much weeds in the way, it's really hard to use one of these.

Todd Grubb:
There are weedless wacky rig hooks out there that work fairly well. But that's usually when I switch over to Texas rig, if it's too weedy. But in any place with rocky bottom or just a low amount of weeds or nice hard weed edge, this thing is getting thrown the whole time. Quickly, before you guys go, I want to show you the biggest bass I ever caught, and that was on a five inch black with blue flake Senko. I still haven't even come close to it. And that is this fish right here. Oh my God! Oh my God, dude!

Speaker 2:
[inaudible 00:18:44].

Todd Grubb:
Yep. Get it. Get the net. Oh my God! Bro. Bro. Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Right here. It's coming here.

Speaker 2:
Coming back?

Todd Grubb:
Yeah. Oh my God!

Speaker 2:
He's so low. Can you get him higher?

Todd Grubb:
Yeah. I got it. Move. Move. Move. Here its comes. This is the biggest fish I've ever caught. Oh my God! Oh my God!

Speaker 2:
Yeah.

Todd Grubb:
Oh my God!. That's definitely my PB, dude. 75. Dude, that is an amazing fish. Wow!

Speaker 2:
Believable.

Todd Grubb:
Oh my gosh! So guys, that fish alone is the reason why these garsh, darned dirty pen looking baits that don't look like they should be doing anything are easily one of my favorite baits out on the market. Plain old Senkos folks. They are insane fish catchers. From Bama baits to the Xcite baits, you name it. Lunkerhunt. Any of these guys. If you start rigging up these Senkos the way I just told you, you're going to up your fish catch a ton. And that just about does it guys. So again, if you did enjoy the video, please do me a favor. Hit the subscribe button for MONSTERBASS down there. Hit the notification bell to make sure you are notified when we drop some videos.

Todd Grubb:
Let us know down in the comment section below. I check these comments all the time. Let me know if you have any questions. Let the guys from MONSTERBASS know if you have any questions, we will gladly answer them. And also if you could do me a huge favor, head on over to my channel, hit that subscribe button and give some of my videos a watch. And not only do I bass fish, but I'm out on the salt water quite a bit lately. I've been working as a mate on a party boat and those videos are insane. So do me a favor, head on over to my channel and we'll catch you guys soon. Thanks for tuning into another episode on the MONSTERBASS channel. Fish out.