The Mystery of the wacky rig senko o ring

[acm95301]

Ok, I probably don't fish a wacky rig as often as I should, and when I do I often forego the o-ring. Yep, It costs me baits when I do this.

I've been told to buy size 10 o-rings , and I did in both black and red. and while I've used devices to put them on I find that larger orings just slip on....and they seem to work that way.

So what I want to know is what is the peril of using to large an o- ring?

Does using the o-ring decrease bite totals?

and when fishing the Delta, what hooks and or tricks do you use to get it weedless?

[jletsinger]

Go to walmart or target and get the "goody" brand clear latex hair rubber bands, there strong as heck, cheap and you can hardly tell they are on the senko, zero, or whatever stickbait your throwing.

[Long Nguyen]

I found a great money saving tip from a member on Tackle Tour similar to what jletsinger mentions. If you go to your local "Sally's" beauty salon (I looked, there's one in Atwater on Commerce near Target), they sell braiding bands that are the size of a nickle. For less than $1, you get 250 bands. Just double or triple them over and slide them on your wacky worms. I use the O-ring tool to put these rubber bands on when double or triple the bands.

The bands look like this:
http://www.sallybeauty.com/Braiding-Rub ... lt,pd.html

One of the drawbacks of using an O-ring when wacky rigging was the hook would be rigged parallel and not perpendicular to the bait. I prefer it perpendicular because it creates more drag and the bait doesn't move forward as much when you work your rod tip.

FLW pro and Dobyns pro staffer Phil Strader provided a tip in FLW magazine that remedies this issue while using rubber bands or O-rings. Simply overlap two O-rings (or find where the band crosses) into an "X" and rig the hook at that intersection so it's perpendicular.

Perils of using a large O-ring? Don't know of any yet.

Does the O-ring decrease bites? On a stained water fishery like the Delta or Clear Lake I don't think it does. I haven't seen a decrease since using O-rings. I used them at Shasta a couple weeks back and caught fish too. But maybe the guys that fish Havasu or Mead can chime in.

As far as fishing weedless, I use my limited inventory of RI WW Hooks or the Falcon hook.

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/viewlarg ... CODE=FKUWH

Stay far far away from the Gamakatsu Wide Gap finesse hooks. Those hooks are possessed and you'll lose fish.

Another option, since RI no longer makes the WW hook, is what MikeD suggested in another thread. I'm going to explore this myself and learn how to tie a mono weedguard when my WW hooks are all gone.

the old WW hook is a gamakatsu 524

http://www.johnnyspond.com/gamakatsushi ... degap.html

hooks em in the roof of the mouth pretty consistently

Now is the time to fish the Wacky Senko on the delta. Don't be shy to change sizes from 4" all the way to the 7" version.

[Dan Stahlman]

Somebody mentioned that you can take the bands that you use on a horses mane, double them and their good plus inexpensive

[acm95301]

Thanks guys, good suggestions.

[mr.bass91]

I have tried the o-rings and personally don't care for them. I like to use a small piece of shrink tube(about 1/4 inch). Get some shrink tube just slightly larger than your senkos cut a piece, slide it on the bait, hit it with a lighter for a couple seconds and you are done. You barely have to put the hook through the shrink tube and it will not go anywhere. Clear shrink tube for light colored senkos black for dark colors. The tiny piece of shrink tube on the bait does not affect the amount of bites you will get even in clear water.

[mark poulson]

My youngest is getting her braces off next week, so I'm inheriting a few bags of the rubber bands she had for them but never used.
They look like the perfect size for small wacky worms.

[PeteD]

I choose to use Dental bands, small elastic bands used for braces.

PeteD

[acm95301]

the dental bands are a good idea, and the shrink wrap idea is good too...I didnt know shrink tubing came in a clear colr...so ill check that out.

[lonewalker]

I learned this online.

The soft stick bait shown is a Yum Dinger in Smoke Pearl Laminate, which is protected from ripping prematurely by adding a protective sleeve consisting of a 1 cm section of bubble tea straw. The straw is slid over the soft stick bait. The hook is pierces through one side of the straw, then the soft stick bait, then the other side of the straw. If you prefer, you can use a rubber O ring instead of the piece of straw. The O ring goes over the soft stick bait and the hook. I prefer that the hook to go through the soft stick bait at 90 degrees rather than parallel to the soft stick bait.

[johnny senko]

i just use a 1/4 inch or so strip of electrical tape wrapped around the bait, works great

[Flippinjigs]

You guys are funny, and some of the ideas are really clever, BUT, you'll spend thousands of dollars for a Bass Rig, equipment and tackle, And your going to penny pinch on "O" Rings? For a few dollars you can buy hundreds of real "O" Rings on ebay.

Good Fishin