Soft Stick Versatility To exploit the versatility of a soft stick, veteran Florida pro Bernie Schultz rigs it five different ways throughout the year: weightless Texas-style; wacky-style; Carolina-style; as a flipping or pitching bait; and on the back of a rubber-skirted jig. “I don’t know of another plastic that can be fished in so many ways,” Schulz says. “Usually, a worm that’s fine for wacky-rigging won’t produce in a flipping presentation. The Senko has the bulk and weight for pitching and flipping. You wouldn’t flip typical wacky worms with a big weight, but with this one you can.” Texas Rig: Schultz routinely rigs the bait Texas-style with the hook point barely tucked into the skin of the plastic on the top of the rigged bait (sometimes referred to as Texposed), and without a bullet weight. Flipping-pitching Rig: “I like it for flipping because it doesn’t stick to cover,” he notes. “If I’m flipping flat reeds and bulrushes or boat docks, a lot of soft plastics grab the cover. Soft-plastic baits with a flat side tend to stick to objects. Senkos slide through hyacinths well.” Wacky Rig: This involves impaling the hook into the mid-portion of the soft stickbait and leaving the point exposed. Under Schultz’s system, a wacky-fied stickbait excels when you want slow-falling presentations around boat docks, especially the floating kind. “It sinks slower than if you Texas rig it.” Carolina Rig: “Its subtle action makes it appealing on the end of a Carolina rig,” Schultz explains. “Drag it behind a 3/4-ounce sinker and get ready.” Jig Trailer: “It’s a great jig trailer because it helps a jig fall straight. When the jig hits bottom, that trailer stands up waving. Bass like that.”

“I rigged a weightless Texas-rigged stickbait and started throwing to the same stumps. After letting it sink on a slack line, I’d let it sit there a second and just tick it a bit with the rod tip. I went back through that area and had 15 bites.”

Wacky Rigs—Probably the next most common method is wacky-rigging a weightless soft stickbait. Hooking it in the middle seems to magnify the inherent action of these lures.

Yelas uses a small Mustad octopus-style hook for this technique, which he employs both for spawning bass and other hard-bottom situations like sandy holes in fields of shallow vegetation. Missouri pro Stacey King enjoyed success dead-sticking a Bass Pro Shops Stick-O rigged wacky-style around shallow weeds and wood in a Bassmaster tournament on the California Delta. To fish that cover, he used a 4/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook sporting a homemade weedguard.

Sinker Rigs—Back home in Missouri, King finds an application for a weighted stickbait as well. He rigs a 5-inch Stick-O on a 5/16- to 3/8-ounce ballhead jig from the Prespawn through Postspawn periods. The jighead helps him reach prespawn bass at their staging depths that may be as deep as 20 feet in these clear Ozark reservoirs. And he follows spawners as they move off their nests and into deeper water.

Last June, King showed me how deadly a Stick-O can be on postspawn bass—both on a jighead and a drop-shot rig. We fished the ends of long, tapering points that drop into creek channels, humps, and ridges in the James River arm of Table Rock Lake. To reach bass holding in 16 to 20 feet of water, King cast a watermelon-color Stick-O on a 1/4-ounce jighead tied to 8-pound-test fluorocarbon line from the front of the boat, while I dragged a pumpkinseed version rigged wacky-style on a Drop Shot setup that included a 1/0 Gamakatsu Drop Shot hook and 1/4-ounce tungsten ball weight on the end.

On an afternoon when fishing was reported by all to be tough, these techniques produced more than 30 bass that included largemouths up to 4 pounds and several 3-pound-plus spotted bass.

Flippin’ It

The productivity of soft stickbaits in heavy cover is something Gary Yamamoto didn’t initially anticipate. “I’ve discovered that it’s a great bait for flipping heavy cover because it’s slender and slips right through twigs or weed stalks,” says Yamamoto, who flips and pitches a 6- or 7-inch Senko with a stout 7-foot rod, 16- to 20-pound-test Sugoi fluorocarbon line, and a 1/4- to 3/4-ounce bullet sinker. “There’s nothing to hang up, and it’s a good way to cover water quickly. Just drop it in quietly and wiggle it around a bit. If they’re going to take it, they’ll bite as it falls in.”

Yelas flips and pitches a 5-inch Gulp! Sinking Minnow on 20-pound-test FireLine braid in heavy cover, but he switches to 20-pound Vanish fluorocarbon in sparse vegetation. “It flips well because it’s so heavy, which allows greater accuracy,” he adds. “I make my presentation and give it controlled slack line and watch as it falls. As soon as it hits bottom, I may hop it once or twice. Then I usually reel it straight in and make another flip or pitch. Ninety-nine percent of the time a fish eats the bait as it’s falling and wiggling.”