Had a nice morning of casting and even a few tugs on the end of the line today. And wouldn’t you know it, the Jackall wacky jig (and cola-colored Flick Shake) was just as effective as it had been earlier in the spring. (And see that 5.8-inch bait down in the maw of this dandy.)

Still, as I looked at the rig (a worm draped on a weedless jig head) I thought back to the days when we were all paranoid about the fish seeing the hook, the sinker or an unpainted jig head.

Jim Emmett, a friend and partner since my club days in the 70′s, likewise, said as much. As a mold maker in his working days, he produced some interesting creations over the years, but almost always with the thought of small hooks and light sinkers–as he reminded me, “As light as I can get away with.”

But with Senkos, Texas-rigged with 4/0 hooks, followed by wacky jigging of all manner of worms including the Flick Shake, we have changed our minds about what matters.

But we weren’t alone in our consideration about what might put off the bass from striking. The Japanese anglers who came up with their version of the technique were worried about too much hardware. According to Curt Arakawa at Jackall, the original wacky jig they brought out had a very small hook–by design. That’s what the finesse-minded Japanese were looking for.

But the American bass fishermen (especially in the Bubba portion of the country) were scared to death of the little hook. It was for that reason, at Curt’s urging, the current wacky jig was imported specially for the American market. And not just with its bigger hook, but also a weedguard not available in the original.

But now, with every trip it becomes more and more evident that bass tend to home in on the worm, but pretty much ignore the jig head. The pounding of the tungsten on the bottom and the bowed worm flailing behind has become a “lure action” that bass either haven’t got used to–or it just fires ‘em up.

I know it did for me today–not once, but several times. Perhaps it has more of a crayfish look than we think with the two ends rippling. Or maybe it’s much simpler, the Flick Shake just some kind of skittish creature that draws the predators’ attention.

But in any event, that amount of exposed hardware seems unimportant to the fish. And even beyond today and some trips earlier in the month, even anglers using standard, long-shank pea head jigs are getting bit as well. Of course, there are options. But I tend to think Jackall has the right hook, size and weedguard configuration. And based on yet another six hours of  “testing,” I have no reason to change my mind.

And a trip over to Lake Perris later this week will provide another test.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 8:48 pm and is filed under News, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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