In Japan, heavily pressured bass water is a given. Since necessity truly is the mother of invention, Japanese bass anglers tend to come up with new finesse techniques on a pretty regular basis. Although the individual anglers would dearly love to keep their deadliest tactics secret, word leaks out and before you know it, Americans have got their hands on the technique and are soon making alterations and trying new twists.
Called Inchi Wacky, Jig Head Wacky, or Flick Shaking, this method was introduced by Takuma Hata and Ty Ono. Ono and designer Seiji Kato started Jackall Lures in 1999, and they make special worms and jigs for the technique. Basically, the Inchi Wacky is a wacky-rigged soft plastic on a tiny jighead. But there’s a little more to it than that – the details are what make the technique so deadly.
Nitro Pro Gary Senft just loves to try new ways to catch bass. Gaining proficiency with a variety of baits and methods is the mark of a good angler, and Senft is one of the best. Two decades ago he discovered Inchi Wacky fishing and for almost a year he worked on perfecting his prowess with the Flick-Shaking technique. Today it is still one of his best-producing finesse methods. “Those special jigs are pricey,” says Senft, “so I just squeeze a tiny split-shot onto a worm hook and it works just fine.” The Jackall jigs are made on 90-degree bend hooks, but you can buy Gamakatsu 90-degree bend hooks in bulk at Bass Pro or Cabelas. Once you’ve got them, all you need is a variety of split-shots in weights from 1/32-ounce to 1/8-ounce. Make sure to get the kind without ears.
The big key to flick-shaking is more in the fall than in working the lure on the bottom. The Inchi Wacky should be rigged as light as possible. Jackall’s Flick Shake worms have an S-curve built in, so when they are rigged wacky style on a slightly weighted 90-degree bend jig head they really act strangely. The fall is unpredictable, and the bass can’t seem to help themselves. They bite. Their Wacky-Head Jig Heads have the 90-degree bend and tungsten weights, and when paired with their special curved worms they are deadly. (www.jackall-lures.com) You can buy the Wacky-Head Jigs almost anywhere, including Amazon.
Senft says that the basic technique is to simply throw the rig out and let it fall on slack line. He catches a lot of fish on the fall, and once it hits bottom he lets it stay there on a slightly slack line and shakes the rod tip. Gary has experimented with a variety of jigs and plastics, and most of his combinations have been successful. Finesse worms, small Senkos, even small swimbaits and larger plastic worms all catch fish when you rig them on these Inchi Wacky jigs. “You can fish them anywhere from a foot to thirty feet deep,” Senft says. The shallower you are fishing, the lighter the weight should be. He uses 4-pound-test fluorocarbon line and an ultra-light spinning rod with a very fast tip.
The open hook makes hooksets easy — a lot of the time the fish pretty much hook themselves. But it also means that in heavy brush or weeds, this technique is difficult to use. A hook or jighead with a weed guard can help, but for the most part this is more of an open-water method. Just remember to keep it as light as possible, rig it wacky, and give it some slack. A patient angler can drop it through tiny openings in floating mats.
In clear water, if you can see submerged trees and brush, just drop the Inchi Wacky rig right next to the cover and let it wiggle its way down. The fall is so slow that any bass lurking in the depths of the tree has plenty of time to see it and decide to take a little taste. Just try not to rip it away from the fish when you see it dart out. This technique can be used on any vertical structure as well – pilings, dams, piers, etc.
You don’t always see the fish come after it, of course. The bite can be a small tick or a tug, or you may just see your line swim off. Senft says that the bigger fish tend to simply swim off with it. All you have to do is sweep set and reel because the fine-wire open hooks do all the work for you.
I first learned about doodling from the Doodle King himself – Don Iovino. When Iovino’s structure fishing techniques hit the bass fishing world, it was a bit of a revolution. Back then, depthfinders were nowhere near as refined as they are now – many anglers were still using flashers or paper graphs. But Iovino truly mastered the method of structure fishing and taught the West how to use depthfinders. I fished with him at El Salto a few years back and the man is still a bass guru.
Doodling is a fantastic way to target bass that are lethargic. What you need is simple –faceted glass beads (6mm, 8m, or 10mm depending on the size of your sinker), brass sinkers, light line and fine wire #1 offset hooks. Iovino has designed special doodling rods – they are about six feet long, medium action, with a fast tip. Use the lightest weight you can – Iovino bases weight choice on how hard the wind is blowing, not how deep he is fishing. He also has special worms and even kits that you can get at www.iovino.com.
I fished Lake Pleasant in Arizona before the new dam was built, and it was tough back then. I’ll never forget one winter day shortly after attending a demonstration by Iovino. I rigged up a doodle rod – my 5-1/2 foot Enders topwater rod, actually — with the brass and glass, a fine-wire hook, and a hand-poured purple, blue, and pink worm that everybody called a Margie Worm. We located a great rocky point with a very steep drop off and just dropped the worms down there till they hit the bottom. Once the worm was down I reeled in just enough to keep the line a bit taut – tough with that light line – and I just started gently shaking it. I’m not lying – within half an hour we had an audience watching us catch one bass after another. It was amazing and one of the best days I ever had on Pleasant.
To get the feel of the bite you need to keep the line tight. You can actually feel the glass and brass clicking together better than you can the bite, so when it quits feeling sharp, set the hook. It helps to keep the rod a bit high. John Murray turned me on to fishing this rig uphill on points. It’s a lot easier to keep the line tight by reeling in than it is by trying to let it out, so Murray would sit up on the shallow side of the point, cast out til it hit bottom, then shake and drag it all the way back. He describes the bite as it feeling like you caught a rubber band.
You can get Don’s Doodling Kit for $70 on his website, and you can also get DVD’s and his book as well. You don’t hear a lot about doodling these days, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Give the Inchy Wacky and Doodling a try this winter. They’re even fun to say!
