Double Trouble Senkos

By now almost every one is throwing or has thrown a Senko. And if they’re not, they have something against catching fish. I have been throwing the Senko for several years now and like everyone have had a great deal of success. It has helped my tournament fishing and is tough to beat when the bite is slow.

But as always with me, I like to experiment with techniques and baits and I couldn’t resist seeing if I could make the Senko fish differently.

I experimented with colors at first then started using different ways to rig the bait. I fished the Senko traditional, reversed, used different hook sizes, added bullet weights, threw it wacky rigged (love that one), threw it on a Carolina rig (wow), skipped under docks, into trees (whoops) and anything else I could think of. This bait works great. I kept thinking the only way this bait could be any better was if there was two of them. In the words of Homer Simpson “Dooh!”

I thought back to my days of living in Texas and fishing for striper on Lake Texoma. We used to take two white flukes and rig them on the same line to imitate schooling baitfish. I thought, two Senkos could trigger more strikes from bass if they thought dead bait was falling from up above and thus activating a feeding mechanism. Many fish by now have seen one Senko falling from the skies, but not two. So I started throwing my double Senko rig.

To make the rig I took two 4/0 hooks (I use Owner “J” hooks or Gammy EWG’s) and rigged the first one traditional style on 15lb test green Big Game. I then tied the second hook 12-18 inches up the line using a polymer knot like a drop shot rig. After adding my favorite 5” Senko’s, I then had a double Senko rig. (When fishing for spotted bass on the clear lakes I will sometimes downsize to 10lb test, 2/0 hooks and “baby” Senko’s.)

I started with two Senkos of the same color and immediately started catching more fish when I went out. It seemed to trigger more strikes.

But the real value came when the fish were not hitting my favorite color. I started using different color Senkos on each hook I would put my confidence Senko on the bottom hook and start switching out the top Senko until I found the color that the fish wanted. Once I found the color the fish wanted most I would place that color on the bottom hook. This allowed me to catch more fish while fishing the Senko. Three times more fish. My bite per pitch ratio went up automatically.

And the kicker to this rig is the ability to double up fish. Especially when fishing for spotted bass. So many times I would catch a spotted bass and have three follow it to the boat trying to take the bait away from it. Now when that happens and they see that second Senko darted back and forth I get double hookups almost all the time. It’s great.

As far as throwing this rig I just pitch it the same way that I do a single Senko. Just grab the bottom bait and pitch. It is very easy to control because the second bait is attached to the main line.

So if you want a different way to fish a Senko, give the Double Senko rig a try. You won’t believe how many more fish you are going to catch.