The chief advantage of an unweighted soft stickbait like the Senko is its tantalizing, slow-sinking shimmy. A soft stickbait’s fat profile also has proven bass appeal, but it is the shimmy that makes this type of bait so irresistible to bass. While soft stickbaits are available in 3- to 10-inch lengths, the 5-incher gets the most play, by far. Some anglers never fish any other size.
Whether you rig it Texas or wacky style, a 5-inch soft stickbait is one of the deadliest bass lures ever created.
Many Bassmaster Elite Series pros fish a 5-inch stickbait with spinning tackle, especially when wacky rigging the lure. Those who Texas rig the bait tend to favor baitcasting tackle. A 5-inch stickbait is on the light side for a baitcaster, but capable casters do quite well with it.
Where the 5-inch stickbait falls short is with pitching presentations. It simply doesn’t have enough weight to be pitched effectively with a long, stout rod. Given the bait’s enormous allure, it would pay heavy dividends if you could pitch it precisely into tight spots in laydowns, willows, emergent grass and other cover.
A common solution to this dilemma is adding a bullet sinker to a Texas-rigged soft bait, so it has sufficient momentum for pitching. The bait tempts bass with its chunky profile, but the weight makes the lure sink nose down and kills its writhing, horizontal fall.
