Did you ever think you’d eagerly pay almost a dollar apiece for a sack of soft plastics? Well, if you’re a serious bass chaser, chances are good that you’ve done just that—forked out nearly $5 for a pack of five Senkos. And if you’re like most anglers, you probably agree it was money well spent.

Since its introduction in 1997 by Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, the Senko has been the hottest soft plastic bait in the world. Yamamoto, the two-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier now living in Texas, invented the pace-setting soft stickbait and has gone on to sell over three million Senkos.

Need proof of the Senko’s allure to both bass and bass anglers? Consider the plethora of lure companies that now offer a similar bait: Berkley’s Gulp! Sinking Minnow; the Yum Dinger; Zoom Z-Nail; Wave Tiki Stick; Gambler Ace; Bass Pro Shops Stick-O; Kinami Flash; Case Magic Stik; Gene Larew Sinking Slugger; Prowler Slim Jim; and Bass Assalt’s Salty Stik, just to mention a few.

Imitation is more than the sincerest form of flattery in the lure industry. It’s a necessity when it involves a whole new genre of fish-catchers. For lure makers and bass enthusiasts alike, it was either jump on the wagon or be left behind.

Why They Work

In case you’ve been living in a cave with Osama bin Laden, you know that a Senko features a tapered head, wide middle section, and pointed tail. Heavily laden with salt, the Senko casts well and sinks quickly for an unweighted lure. But it’s the distinctive manner of its descent (with both ends shimmying slightly) that makes the lure so irresistible to bass.

“I think what makes it unique is that it’s almost featureless,” says accomplished Florida pro Bernie Schultz. “It’s a fat-bodied, straight-tailed worm, and it has the most unusual sink of any piece of plastic. Moreover, there are no ostentatious features for bass to get used to.

“The wiggling action as it sinks does the trick. If you rig a Senko wacky-style, both ends wiggle as the weight of the hook and the lure pull it down. If you rig it Texas style without a weight, it still wiggles but with more tail action. This unique lure also will back up if you pull it along and then throw slack into the line. No other worm will do that.”

All-time tournament king Roland Martin also is a Senko fan. “It has subtle, natural action on the fall,” Martin says, “and when it falls to the bottom, it’s like a stick in the water. An object lying on the bottom like that tends to arouse the curiosity of nearby bass. One feature that nobody has been able to copy is that a Senko has so much salt in it that its specific gravity is way heavier than other soft plastic lures I’ve used, so it sinks faster than any other piece of plastic.”

No doubt that soft stickbaits have proven themselves during nearly every season and in a variety of situations in their short life spans. “We’re still learning about baits like Berkley’s new Gulp! Sinking Minnow,” Texas pro Gary Klein says. “Some guys on the West Coast have been using them for a while, but most of us are still discovering all the things that various styles of baits will do and the different techniques that work best with them.