Ehrler's Top-3 Senko Moments
Posted by David A. Brown on Apr 13th 2020
By David A. Brown
Diversity plays an unquestionable role in a pro angler’s success. No bait does it all, right?
Brent Ehrler won’t argue the point, but the decorated competitor from Redlands, Calif. knows there’s one bait worth inclusion in just about every imaginable scenario his fishing career may present — the Senko. Simplicity meets variety; this bait boasts so many different rigging options, Ehrler literally will not leave home without it.
“Traveling across country, I could be fishing a lake and in a couple days, going to another lake that could be completely different,” he said. “I could be flipping somewhere in the southern United States and the next tournament, I could be up in New York fishing for smallmouth; so the Senko is a bait I always leave in the boat.
“Whenever I get to a new place, I take out the stuff I don’t need and I put in the stuff I think I’m going to need (for that fishery). I have a Daiwa Tactical Tote soft case — it’s actually made for saltwater jigs — for my 5-inch Senkos that is a permanent fixture in my boat.
Noting that he cannot recall the last time he fished a tournament when he did not have at least one rod sporting a Senko, Ehrler said he keeps his colors super simple: With few exceptions, he sticks with black and blue for stained water and green pumpkin for anywhere else. His baits stay well protected in his soft case, but for storing Senkos in clear plastic trays, Ehrler warns against mixing colors and allowing unwanted fading via sun exposure.
So, what’s the difference between opinion and argument? Proof — something Ehrler lacks not for. He’s enjoyed countless moments of Senko success, but demonstrating the bait’s range of potential, he’s curated a set of illustrative examples.
DAY-MAKER
This one reaches back about a decade, but it’s one Ehrler won’t ever forget — for obvious reasons. Practicing on the California Delta for what was, then, FLW’s EverStart Series, Ehrler’s fishing a hydrilla edge in one of the tidal fishery’s many sloughs when he rigs a 7-inch black and blue Senko on a 5/0 Gamakatsu offset round bend hook and sends it into a lane within the vegetation.
“Something just looked right about this area; it was a perfect spot in the tidal environment where big fish would feed,” Ehrler said. “I threw it out there and my line jumped, so I said ‘I’m gonna catch this one.’ I set the hook and the thing took off like a tuna. Actually, it looked like a tarpon when it started jumping.
“I get it in and weighed it — it was a spawned-out 12 1/2 pound fish. If it had been a month earlier, the thing would have been 15 pounds. It was one of the biggest fish I’d seen in my life.”
Some might question the decision to boat such a toad before it was worth any money; but Ehrler disagrees. For him, confirming his personal best gave him confidence to stick with an attractive spot.
“You catch big fish everywhere, but you catch your personal best, it’s a big deal,” he said. “And, it was a good spot that I fished during the tournament and I did well. I never caught a big one there, but I did catch fish to have a good finish.”
BRUSHING UP ON HIS DEEP GAME
A 2013 FLW Tour event on Lewis Smith Lake found Ehrler struggling mid-morning of Day 1. With only a couple keepers in the boat, he had hit several unproductive spots before making his way to a deep brush pile he’d found in practice. This selection, plus his decision to fish a Neko-rigged 5-inch green pumpkin Senko tilted the scales of fortune in his favor.
“Around 10 o’clock, I drove by the spot and remembered that I had marked it because I had seen fish on the graph, but I never had a bite there in practice,” Ehrler said. “I eased up to the brush pile and I saw a fish down there, so I backed away from it and did an underhand flip with my Senko.
“I let it sink to the bottom in, like, 30 feet of water and I just sat there and jiggled that thing for what seemed like entirely too long. My line jumped and I pulled into it and it was a 4 1/2-pound spotted bass. I showed up to that spot with two fish and I ended up culling out to about 16 pounds there in 15 minutes.”
Ehrler not only lead Day 1, he swept the event and won by more than 7 pounds. Bites were tough, but trusting that Neko-rigged Senko for most of his work yielded a convincing victory that included what was, at the time, his P.B. spotted bass — a 5 1/2.
“I won that event on a spot where I didn’t have a bite in practice, but I caught ‘em in the tournament,” he said. “I had run so many spots, but I was running by the spot and thought ‘I might as well check it.’ That was a key decision.”
EXIT STRATEGY
A 2019 Bass Pro Tour event on Lake Chickamauga saw Ehrler facing deflated hopes that ultimately ushered him toward a big opportunity. Starting on a spot he’d located prior to the event, Ehrler found that the previous night’s rain had stained the water and dropped the temperature.
“I thought I was going to catch them really good, but I fished almost the entire first period there but I only caught one,” he said. “Leaving this creek, there was a little pocket with two docks. On one of the docks, I had seen two 6-pounders sitting under it. I had 10 minutes left in the period, so swung in there and eased up to the dock.”
Ehrler skipped a wacky-rigged 5-inch green pumpkin Senko into the strike zone, but balanced optimism with pragmatism. “If they’re spawning they might still be in the same area, but if you just see one sunning itself under a dock, you’re not going to catch it three or four days later.”
Fortunately, the fish dispelled that theory. Although his first presentation yielded nothing, persistence prevailed.
“I said ‘Man, I know he’s in there,’ so I skip it in there again and let it sink all the way to the bottom and start shaking it and working it really slowly,” Ehrler said. “I drop my rod tip and reel in the slack a little bit and when I lift up, it’s heavy.
“My line starts moving, so I set the hook and sure enough, a 6-pounder comes jumping out of there. I land that fish and went from 30th place to eighth place with one fish. That really shows the Senko’s diversity — one weightless in shallow grass, one on a Neko rig in 30 feet of water and a wacky rig on a spinning rod.”
Ehrler’s advice on Senko efficiency addresses the fall. So often, anglers cast a Senko — however the rig it — engage the reel and let the bait fall on a taught line. This, he said, limits the bait’s best feature, its natural motion.
“That bait works best on a completely slack line,” Ehrler said. “I tell people: cast it out, strip some line out and then ignore your line. Let that bait do what it’s made to do.”
