®
Summer 2023
page 64
The density and weight of the prey can determine how far into the mouth and throat the prey enter. Or in the case of your lure, how far your hook enters. The deeper into the throat your hook goes, the better your chance of hooking the bass when setting the hook. The Senko is better than most lures, but the Slinko wins the battle of being taken deeply due to those rings and spaces that move as easily as the water itself when sucked into the mouth of Mama Pesce. Rarely will you swing and miss when fishing a Slinko, especially when using a well-designed hook like those made by Gamakatsu.
Most know the famous Senko’s are often fished without added weight, but can dynamite when paired with weights as well. Because the new Slinko uses Mega Floater plastic, most applications will involve using a weight to allow them to sink.
With a weight at either the nose or the tail, the Slinko will rest vertically on the bottom. This makes the bait highly visible to cruising bass from a distance, making it a better choice when searching for bass. And for pinpointing a specific piece of cover where you expect a bass to be positioned, it provides a different look than the Senko.
SLINKO RIGGING
A shakey head, swing head, or even a Texas rigged Slinko takes advantage of the Mega Floater plastic qualities and allows the Slinko to shimmy like prey either feeding on the bottom or trying to escape into the bottom sediment. The high floatation plastic keeps the Slinko in a vertical attitude easily
noticed and vacuumed
into the mouth of a
hungry bass.
Another great
rigging method is the
Neko rig. The solid
head provides good
security for a nail
weight and the large
egg sack on this worm
is the perfect location
for the hook or 0-ring.
Some experimentation
is necessary when
choosing the size
of the O-ring as the
smallest sizes can
break the soft plastic.
I prefer to Neko rig
without using an
O-ring. Instead, I
like the Gamakatsu G-Finesse Cover Neko hook which rigs the Slinko weedless and the built-in swivel prevents line twist and fish-escaping leverage during the fight.
A new hook made by Gamakatsu provides a trick way to fish the Slinko. It is the “Power Drop with Hybrid Worm Hook” which utilizes a 3.5-inch wire as a dropper to which
you attach the weight of your choice. The hook
is above the weight on a welded ring, which
has a line-tie swivel also attached to the ring.
The movement this rig provides to a Slinko
is irresistible to bass that
have seen every lure in the
tacklebox.
Weeds on the bottom
can hide a lure when
Carolina-rigged, but the
Slinko will float above the
weeds when rigged with
the right length leader, and
without having to sacrifice
hook strength by using
light wire hooks. The Mega
Floater plastic is so buoyant
it will float a hook strong
enough to land a hawg.
So, do you fish the
Senko or the Slinko? The
answer should be BOTH!
One sinks and the other
floats. One has subtle
action and the other has
frenetic action. Having both
weapons in your arsenal
gives you options to deduce
which one the bass will eat
better on any given day or
under different conditions.
Ciao! •