Favorite plastic lure bass techniques – What plastic and Hook ?

I’m curious what some of your favorite plastic and hook combo’s are for bass fishing. Here are a few of mine:

Jigworm – Jighead is either a all terrain Mighty jig or the Outkast tackle Money jig 1/8 ounce about 90% of the time 3/16 once in awhile
Plastic either a 7″ Berkley Powerworm or a Yum Swim n Dinger

Texas Rig – 3/0 or 4/0 Mustad Ultra lock Hook.
Plastic either a 7″ Berkley powerworm or a Yum Dinger.

Drop shot – Gamakatsu TGW hook – Either a 1 or 1/0 size or a Daichi standout hook in the 1/0 size
Plastic is either a fat roboworm or a Berkley powerbait fluke

Weightless – 5/0 Mustad ultra lock hook
Plastic either a Lake fork ringfry or any stickworm ( Mostly yum dingers )

What are some of yours ???

Wonder what mine might be……

#1. Neko Rig #2 VMC Neko Hook, 1/16th oz VMC Nail Weight with a Yum Dinger and Wacky ring to save the plastics.

#2. Texas Rigged Strike King Rage Bug in Black/Blue Flake or Purple Smoke. Killer for skipping docks and shoreline cover and has been doing pretty well out deep as well. 3/0 VMC EWC Hook, 1/8oz Woo! Tungsten flipping weight and rubber bobber stop.

Gator Tail worms by Ditto with big sickle tails have always gotten a few.
Used to be Phenom Mr Twister but then I started using a jig & trailer along with Texas-rigged worms like a Producto worm with thick body segments tapering to a paddle tail. Good thing I still have quite a few of both in two sizes. Neither company is still in business.

My main soft plastic lures are hybrids: taking the parts from two lures and joining them with a candle flame such as this small lure joining grub bodies together:

Try it – you’ll be amazed at the fish it catches!

A Yamamoto Kut Tail worm attached to a thicker grub body and has

always

produced:

The tail of a Mann Auger Tail was added to a grub body:

Always been a fan of wacky rigged senkos, this past weekend, fish were shallow under docks in weeds. T-rigged weightless Senko and smashed them! Quality fish too. Otherwise, I’ll Neko a hula stickz or bang stickz. Always have a frog tied on too…

Craig, you can’t T-rig a senko (shhhhhhh) and if you throw it at the dock and hit the pontoon you are missing that nice BANG! you get from lead against aluminum-bass and homeowners love that sound!

Good one Tim and worse when your partner is trying to unstick his hook from one of their ropes.

Here are my top 4 most popular plastics:

1) wacky rig senko (largemouth)
2) jighead and tube (smallmouth)
3) texas rig with power worm of some kind (largemouth)
4) ned rig with TRD or big TRD (smallmouth and largemouth)

Mahtofire probably isn’t real happy that I didn’t list a neko rig but oh well.

mahtofire14 wrote:

#1. Neko Rig #2 VMC Neko Hook, 1/16th oz VMC Nail Weight with a Yum Dinger and Wacky ring to save the plastics.

I have to give the Neko Rig a shot one of these days. I finally got all the correct tackle needed for it. I’m heading out later today – May have to rig one up and give it a shot.

Constantly trying new jigs and plastics, few things have stayed the same, Gamagatsu Skip Gap Hook for all T-rigging, plastics stay put and hook ups are solid. Stick baits for wacky and T-rigging, have the spendy GYs and some cheapies. Bass Pro shops has some good quality ones for T-rigging, not the same wiggle Jiggle as GY but pretty good.

gim wrote:

Here are my top 4 most popular plastics:

1) wacky rig senko (largemouth)
2) jighead and tube (smallmouth)
3) texas rig with power worm of some kind (largemouth)
4) ned rig with TRD or big TRD (smallmouth and largemouth)

Mahtofire probably isn’t real happy that I didn’t list a neko rig but oh well.

I’m honestly thinking I need to stop talking about the Neko so everybody doesn’t start using it around here and have the fish conditioned to them like everything else.

Don’t overlook the tube for largemouth either. I’ve caught some of my biggest largemouth with a tube jig.

1) 1/2 ounce skipping jig and any kind of creature bait plastic. I love firing
that thing way back into a dock and tying into a good one.
2) Any kind of punch setup. You wont get a ton of bites but man your average fish
doing that is pretty decent.

mahtofire14 wrote:

I’m honestly thinking I need to stop talking about the Neko so everybody doesn’t start using it around here and have the fish conditioned to them like everything else.

I really do think it’s effective. I just don’t see it as a top 5 plastic finesse presentation in my arsenal.

“I’m honestly thinking I need to stop talking about the Neko so everybody doesn’t start using it around here and have the fish conditioned to them like everything else.”

Haha, for that reason I’ll only list my #2-5 and leave #1 out

2) Weightless 5 inch wacky worm – either Maxscent General or Kalin’s Wac-O-Worm on a #2 VMC weedless Neko hook. Thrown or skipped into a high percentage area, the slow fall rate is hard to beat.

3) Neko – I’m a fan of the bigger worms – 7.5 inch Yum Genie or bigger Powerbait Flute Worm 1/16 or 1/8 nail weight on a VMC #1 Neko hook.

4) Keitech Fat Swing Impact on a Davis 3/8 oz swimbait hook.

5) 4 inch Biwaa Craw on 1/8 oz jig head, skips like a pebble, or down in/near rocks for smallies. Some serious stank that bronzies like.

I would list the old “Ball & Chain” (C-rig) before Ned and drop-shot but they all have their place –

A 1/4 oz VMC rugby jig with a strike king rage baby menace grub is my #1 favorite confidence bait.
I use it for largemouth, smallmouth, and it catches walleyes and nice crappies from time to time as well.
I almost always have a 4 and/or 7 inch power worm on a Texas rig or jig worm on the deck as well.
An 1/8oz Texas rigged 4″ power worm fished painfully slow has been very productive on tough bites for me lately.

Yes 3/16 or 1/4 Rugby jig is great… the trailers you listed or a twin tail Hula grub

Hey Mahtofire I would like to share a story. I bought my friend a hard to find chatter bait at Scheels when they opened and gave it to him today. He immediately tied it on. He caught 2 nice bass on it and then ol slimy mr pike showed up and snipped him right off. 30 pound braided line. He swore so loud. I got a pretty good laugh out of it too. Musta been a pretty big one too because it literally engulfed the whole lure and sliced it clean.

He waited 3 weeks for that lure, paid me 14 bucks, used it for half an hour, and then lost it.

Yeah it’s a rotten thing those snot rockets…..I ordered four Thundercrickets but got them on sale for a semi reasonable $12 each. But I haven’t seen much difference in effectiveness to make spending the money worth it.

Frydog, I cannot buy a fish on a Yum Genie. I don’t know what it is but I just can’t catch a fish on it. Then I throw a Yum Dinger or Fat Neko in the same spot and they get bit. I don’t understand it.

I fish from shore (no boat).

#1) Texas Rigged 5 inch senko unweighted on 3/0 Eagle Claw Offset Sproat Worm Hook.

I have best luck with the original senko, dark color like green pumpkin. Sometimes I use shim-e-stick and have tried yum dinger. Occasionally I use a small split shot immediately above the worm.

#2) Small crank baits and other shallow diving lures like floating jointed minnow occasionally work. But the senko rules.

I do get some northern bite-offs and also some snags. The main area I fish is pretty heavily fished and I’ve had good luck accidentally “catching” lures. I’ve reeled in multiple crank baits and diving minnows. It’s actually been a net positive except that I tend to better like the ones I lose than the ones I “catch”.

One more story. Last week fishing a senko, I felt a weak bite and had a small fish on, clearly not a bass. It was a bullhead, but not on my worm. I had snagged a Rebel-like lure, and it had a live bullhead on it, hooked in the mouth. Who knows how long that fish was hooked to the lure.

Bob P