Ive caught sunfish on balled up pieces of rubber on a hook lol. Also have caught stocked trout on a plain lead jig head.

Ive heard stories of my friends dad catching hornpout/bullhead on a cigarette butt (was a bet apparently)

yeah we used to catch bullheads out of the creek for bait with just a bare hook. I think they hit it because it was shiny. Most of the time I fish for bass or bluegills. I use a weedless rubber worm 90% of the time for bass. I use crickets with a touch of iodine for bluegills most of the summer, they can't resist them. I can get 100 crickets for a buck. That's about as cheap as it gets.

that's cool, never heard of that. Bluegills were illegally introduced in my state within the last decade. Pumpkinseeds & Redbreasts are really common though (a bluegill relative) and they're dumb as fuck they'll bite almost anything

for bass I use texas-rigged Senkos 90% of the time (on an offset Gamakatsu EWG hook), cheap and effective. can catch 20+ bass on one senko before it gets shredded/lost if i'm lucky.

ya the crickets with iodine work for most panfish even perch. Rubber worms is my goto for bass

How the hell do you catch that many on 1 Senko. I get 2 maybe 3 if I'm lucky before my worms nearly ripped on half.

youre probably rigging it wrong, or using bad senkos, or incorrect hooks.

1. I use Strike King Shim-e-sticks (if i can't get homeade ones, which are the way to go), I don't like the durability of Gary Yamamoto worms.
2. I use Gamakatsu Offset EWG (worm) hooks only (different sizes depending on what senko i'm using, usually 2/0 or 3/0 if i remember correctly)
3. Llearn to properly "texas rig" a senko worm (watch a youtube video). I HATE wacky rigs (personal preference)

do those three things and I promise you will get more bass out of your senko worms

hope this helps.

I use the yomomotos because of the falling action. No other soft plastic worm I've used as the wiggle a real Senko does. I use 3/o hooks to t rig all of them.

Not really a fan of wacky rigging solely because I'm more likely to gut hook the bass, while I can remove the hook I feel like it's pretty damaging and not to mention its a pain in the ass.

ditch the Yamomotos... I'll tell you why

A friend and I were fishing for largemouth bass out of a canoe, the same hooks, same methods. same line (8 lb mono), etc. He kept losing his (gary yamomoto) senkos to bass after about every 4 to 6 bass, while i was getting 10+ easy on one worm (a strike king shim-e-stick). I said, "youre doing something wrong if you're losing your senkos that fast" so he gave me one of his yamomoto senko worms, i put it on, after the 2nd bass, i lost it on the 3rd... (off the hook). coincidence? i think not. True story.

anyways, i like to shorten my senko worms with scissors by a quarter inch after every couple of bass, and rethread the hook through the senko (texas rig style), increases the durability & longevity of every senko worm you're using.

spent a little time out on the pond after work today

If it wasn't a stocked pond thats GFG