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.”

Other Considerations

Rods—For his soft sticks, Stacey King selects a medium-heavy 61⁄2- or 7-foot pitching stick, and Klein prefers a 7-foot medium-heavy model. Bernie Schultz agrees with those baitcasting choices, but he occasionally switches to a 61⁄2-foot spinning rod for skipping small sticks on light line. Yelas, who uses a heavy-action 61⁄2-foot baitcaster, downplays the importance of the rod in fishing soft sticks.

“You don’t work the bait with the rod at all,” he notes. “You chunk it out there and let it do its thing as it sinks to the bottom. When it hits the bottom, I generally reel it in and throw it out again. But the rod is important for getting a good hookset.” Because soft stickbaits are so thick and the plastic so dense, most pros select a long, heavy-power baitcasting rod to get a strong hookset.

Line & Hook Size—Most experts favor an offset-shank wide-gap hook for Texas-rigging soft stickbaits and a bait-style hook for wacky-rigging. Tiny sticks like the 3-inch Yum Dinger call for a 1/0 or #1 hook, and size increases up to the 7-inch Senkos and Stick-Os that call for a 6/0 model. Monofilaments testing from 14- to 25-pound test are favored, depending on cover and lure size.

Lance Vick adjusts hook and line style and thickness to alter the sink rate of his Tiki Stick. In thick shallow grass he uses a larger hook and heavy mono. For wacky-rigging a weedbed in say 6 feet of water, he switches to fluorocarbon line (which sinks faster than mono) and a heavier-gauge hook.

Color—The most productive soft stickbait colors mirror the most popular choices with other soft-plastics— watermelon, watermelon-red, green-pumpkin, junebug, red shad, black-blue, and black-red.

“The soft stickbait is the wave of the future in bass fishing,” Jay Yelas concludes. “It’s not a cure-all that works in every situation, but the trend in fishing across the country is toward finesse baits, due to fishing pressure.

“Many anglers have been forced to try finesse-type presentations to consistently catch bass. The weightless Gulp! Sinking Minnow fits this trend perfectly. As more anglers become more skilled and the bass more educated, it takes an even more natural-looking bait and a natural presentation to fool them.”

*Tim Tucker, Hawthorne, Florida, is a freelance writer and photographer who has contributed articles to In-Fisherman publications. He also publishes “Pro Angling Insider: Your Guide to the Business Side of Fishing,” a bi-monthly newsletter for industry insiders. For information, call 800-252-FISH or visit www.timtuckeroutdoors.com.