"The fall is the key to a Senko. It's a dropbait for smallmouths. The tail vibrates on the drop, so I use this bait when smallies are pinned to the bottom. In water deeper than 8 feet, I put it on a 3/32- to 1/8-ounce Gopher Tackle Mushroom Head. Same thing. Try to drag it and let it drop. The Senko is as close to a magic bait as you can find.

"It's almost like fishing livebait, because it's both effective and fragile. But you can rig it backwards after a fish tears up the head, and it's just as effective. After a second fish rips the other end, I wacky rig Senkos to get one more fish out of the bait. A wacky-rigged worm or Senko is absolutely deadly around docks, with that gull-wing action flopping past, the fish can't resist it. If I've already hooked a big bass under a dock on something else, I'll throw a wacky-rigged Senko in there, deadstick it and, more often than not, hook them again."

Wacky rigging--slipping a baitholder-style hook right through the middle of a worm and letting the ends dangle to each side--is completely under utilized for smallmouths. It excels around docks, wood, and shallow boulders when retrieved with a slow twitch-twitch-pause cadence. A wacky worm dropped vertically and deadsticked around cover that holds smallmouths is another prime option. The best worms for wacky rigging are straight, no-action units with thick rounded tails, like the V & M Finesse Worm or the Assalt Salt Stik.

Falcon Custom Tackle makes a tactic-specific hook called the "K" Wacky that has weight added to the shank just below the eye. This simple addition to the hook makes wacky rigging much more efficient, keeping the presentation from rolling over, turning sideways, or snagging. The weight forces the hook to point up at all times. Falcon also makes a wireguard version.

The art of dragging a worm is simple. I prefer dragging a white, black, crawdad, or smoke blue-flake actiontail worm on a 1/8- to 3/8-ounce ballhead jig like the Owner Ultrahead or Yamamoto Round Head. Carolina rigging works, too--especially with a floating finesse worm, like the Venom Air-Light.

Just about any worm style can be dragged effectively, but I usually start with a rippletail style, like the YUM Ribbontail, which is a 6-inch worm. A 6-inch worm cut back to 5 inches is perfect for draggin' and one of the go-to styles for strolling, because its added bulk keeps it from falling fast on a light head. By late summer, lots of smallmouths in natural lakes and southern reservoirs are down 20 feet or more on humps, submerged islands, gravel flats, and other features.

Lots of anglers drag tubes for these deeper bass, but worms work better in many cases because bass aren't conditioned to them. Just drift in the wind with the line out at anything from a 60- to a 45-degree angle and keep the jig right on or just above bottom. Use a drift sock to slow the boat in a stiff wind, or use the trolling motor to aid the drift in a slight breeze, but keep the boat moving between 1.5 and 3 mph. Match the weight of the jig to the depth and speed, from 1/8 to 3/8 ounce, on 6- to 8-pound line.

DROP-SHOTTIN'

In the Great Lakes, southern reservoirs, and northern natural lakes, some or all smallmouths drop deeper by midsummer, down to deep humps, shipwrecks, rockpiles on flats, and gravel bars in the 18- to 25-foot range. This move to deeper water accelerates through fall, as more and more bass leave shallow habitat. During August up in the north country, a number of smallmouth tournaments were won on drop-shot rigs last year.