Stick worms, Senko’s, Shim-E-Stick, Yum Dinger, Tuff Bait Stick’s, the list goes on and on and…..
You get the point. It happens all the time. Somebody invents the magic bait, Senko’s are magic, and the copying begins and continues until the market is saturated with near identical baits.
Then, another thing happens. How do we rig it?
First, it was Texas-rigged, weightless. Everybody across the country was throwing these things the same way, and it produced, big time.
Somewhere along the way, some smart fella, somehow decided to hook the bait in the middle.
Now we have wacky-rigged, weightless. This even generated special hooks and O-rings and O-ring tools. Holy cow, this thing is the super lure! It flat out catches fish.
The last few years, my fishing partner’s name is Bruce. He’s 81-years young.
I’m not sure there is a better angler in the world at fishing a wacky stick worm. Even in 20-feet deep and high winds, he still catches em!
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THE NEW BASS FISHING TACKLE RAGE
The new rage? The Ned Rig
I fished the BASS Nation western regional in 2016 at Lake Mead. There was a lot of talk about ol’ Ned that week. I didn’t pay any attention to it.
I reaction baited myself to a nice 80-something-ish finish. Solid work on my stubborn part.
When I got back to my cozy little corner in Montana, I ordered some TRD’s to see what they’re all about. They sat in my tackle box for about two months. I just am not a finesse type of angler – very big downfall to my fishing game. I know.
Sometime that June, Bruce and I were fishing a buddy tournament on Noxon Reservoir in Montana. I pre-fished Friday, established what I perceived to be a solid reaction bite and we flopped on Saturday.
Bruce did manage a few on his trusty Senko though. Sunday morning came and we decided just to fish, enjoy ourselves and the beauty that is Noxon. I tried dropshotting for about 10 minutes, got mad at myself and started digging through my tackle.
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MANLIER THAN A DROPSHOT
I came across some Flick-It heads I had picked up somewhere along the way. “Manlier” than dropshotting I thought to myself.
What do I put on this thing? I dug around my plastics and settled on the 2.5” TRD. I wacky-rigged it, of course. Bruce has nothing on me!
Four cast’s later I boated a 15” largemouth. Bruce thought that fish must have bumped his head to eat my new “go-to” lure.
Thirty minutes later, we found ourselves presented with a row of docks. We fished em, resulting in the “wacky, Ned Flick-It thingy” boating us a solid 17” largie. Fished ‘em again. This time skipping that little gem underneath. Magic! We boated three solid keepers from under one dock. Finished the day with a respectable limit, and maybe a new secret lure.
That 2.5” piece of plastic on a 3/32-ounce Flick-It caught me a ton of fish that spring. Deadly around and especially under docks.
Fast forward a month or two and we found ourselves at Idaho’s Dworshak Reservoir. Smallmouth heaven – not a lot of docks though. Hmm, dug through the tackle, found some 3/16-ounce Flick-It heads and thought, what the heck!
Proceeded to graph points until we found some fish in 30-feet of water, made a long cast, and waited. Thump! Boated a nice three-pound smallie. Long cast, thump, three-pound smallie. I was convinced this baby worked. We ended up weighing 25-pounds or so and finished 5th, not terrible for never being there before.
Since last summer, I have mixed and matched the short TRD and also the longer one, with various Flick-It jig head sizes. It has caught fish from Montana to Arizona. In two-feet of water under a dock, to 30-plus feet on deep points.
I have been successful with other stick worms, rigged the same way. I just believe the floating characteristic of the TRD sets it apart. Just something about the way the “arms” flutter, both on the fall and the upward movement of jigging. If you find yourself having a tough day, dig this rig out of your box and give it a try, you’ll thank me.
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