The jighead minnow has taken the fishing world by storm, especially in major professional bass tournaments. Fishing with one while watching forward-facing sonar has become the dominant way to win or do well in these events. Plenty of different baits will work for this technique, but the Deps Sakamata Shad is one of the hottest baits on the market.
Bass Pro Tour pro Matt Lee uses the Sakamata in several sizes and varations and shares his insight on fishing the bait and what makes it so good
Find the Baitfish
Being around baitfish is one of the biggest keys to success with any jighead minnow. Forward-facing sonar dramatically helps speed up the process once you see fish, but it can take time to get near baitfish and feeding bass. To speed up the process, Lee moves quickly and relies on “old school” 2D sonar and DownScan and StructureScan on his Lowrance units.
“I would say that most of the time, there are always going to be certain sections of a lake that have more baitfish than others,” he said. "The biggest thing is finding these areas quickly and efficiently, and I do a lot of that while running down the lake and watching my 2D sonar. On my Lowrance units, I turn up the ping speed and maximum sensitivity to run on pad at 40 or even 50 miles per hour and watch for bait balls.”
Once he finds some baitfish or telltale birds in the area, he can put the trolling motor down and start looking closer. He also sometimes relies on his down and side scan to give him a better picture while idling and looking for baitfish.
“You can always just run to your favorite spots on the lake, but paying attention to the little things and details you see from your graph will get you in the right place much faster,” he said.
Shaking the Sakamata
Most fishing with a jighead minnow is done with a shaking retrieve called mid-strolling, and Lee says the Sakamata is the perfect bait for the technique because of the design features built into it. They come in several sizes and both a standard and “Heavy Weight” version that’s heavily salted, and generally, he opts for the 5-inch version in the standard version
“They have small fins on the side of the bait that help it glide through the water. The regular unsalted version was made for this technique, but the heavyweight will work as well, but it will just sink faster,” he said. “It doesn’t have much action, but that little roll as you are shaking the bait gets a few more bites than other fluke-style baits. The attention to detail is also excellent, and every bait is perfectly molded, and you don’t get any messed up baits. The colors are also great, muted, and not too flashy.”
Lee will rig them on various jigheads and start as light as possible. He also uses several brands, including the Deps Midst weedless jighead and Owner Range Roller, which give the bait even more rolling action.
“A 1/8-ounce head is a good place to start, but you can go heavier or lighter as needed,” he said. “I also experiment often during the day because it depends on how deep you are fishing. I usually have several different sizes rigged up and keep the baits I cut off in a small box to re-tie and reuse them if I need a different size. This helps so you don’t waste a bait while re-rigging to another head because the plastic is soft and these baits can be pretty hard to find at times.”
Lee says a light rod is necessary to get the best rolling action as he shakes the bait, so he opts for a medium-light spinning rod. He pairs it with a reel spooled with a 15- to 20-pound braided line and a short two to three-foot leader of 12 to 15-pound fluorocarbon line. He says that the shorter-than-usual fluorocarbon helps get more rolling out of the bait.
“A lot of the guys who do this a lot are using rods that are as whippy as spaghetti noodles,” he said. The key is getting the right shaking, where the bait is simply shaking back and forth and not popping up and down. It takes some time to practice but gets the best results with this technique and the Sakamata.”
The Deps Sakamata Shad has become one of the best-selling soft plastics and a favorite for those utilizing forward-facing sonar. It’s one of Matt Lee’s go-to lures and is tailor-made for mid-strolling.
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