Winter 2021
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I only ever buy one size weight – a 3/32. Eighty percent of the time, I use 8-pound fluoro, but if the water is super, super clear, I may go down to 6- or 7-pound.
I use the Alberto knot to join the fluoro and braid, because I can tie it in about 20 to 25 seconds. I know there are other knots that some people say are better, but for me they take longer to tie and if I am going to retie four or five times in a day and use up time doing that, I want to do it with as little time as possible. The more time that I take tying a knot is less time that I have to make casts.
For Neko-rigging, I use the G7 silicon tubing to hold the hook in a good position. For a five-inch Senko, I use 7mm and for a six-inch Senko I use 8mm. I thread that on all the way up to the egg sack and hook it from the head side first. I want the hook point to be on the side of the tail. This keeps my hookup ratio high.
DELTA – 10 th PLACE FLW WESTERN DIVISION
Fishing was a little tough for me at the Delta. The fish were pretty skittish. My area was mostly clear water in Franks and Big Break. It was a protected area on the inside.
I resorted to weightless, wacky-rigged Senkos.
For wacky-rigging I don’t use a band, ring or tubing. I put the hook above egg sack. I don’t want any hardware on it. I want the Senko to look as natural as possible.
I usually fish a six or seven-inch Senko at the Delta, but this was one of the rare times, when I had to go back to a five-inch, because it was lighter and when I skipped it across the surface it made less of a disturbance and also (less of a disturbance) when I made a bomb cast with it. I had to make super long casts with no splash. If there was a splash, the fish wouldn’t eat it.
The five-inch would land a lot softer. It sounds like the six-inch wouldn’t be that much different, but it was a massive, because its bigger, its longer and its heavier.
The fish I was catching on the Delta were way up in the tules, behind the grass beds in 1- to 3-feet of water.
A key fish on the 2nd day came on a green pumpkin Yamamoto Zako attached to a 1/2-ounce green pumpkin Jack Hammer. I dipped the tail in chartreuse and I fished it with the same setup as Havasu.
I was using the original Zako, not the paddle-tail. I like the original with the blade, because it doesn’t have a competing action. I do use the paddle-tail with a swim jig and also as my buzzbait trailer. For those baits, I like the paddle-tail, because it helps keel the bait.
WACKY-RIGGED SENKO SETUP
• 5-inch Yamamoto Senko
• Size 1 Decoy Worm20 Hook
• Yamamoto Sugoi Fluorocarbon 8-pound to
12-pound braid
• 7’ Fitzgerald Stunner Series medium-heavy
spinning rod
CLEAR LAKE – 1 st PLACE FLW WESTERN DIVISION
I went from having one of my worst practices ever to winning the tournament. It was pretty amazing.
Au’s Personal Best
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