Ike: Wet Noodle Can Put A Hurtin' On The Fish
Thursday, January 28, 2010
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Photo: BassFan
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All around the country, bass are becoming more and more accustomed to seeing finesse presentations. Fortunately, new ones are being developed all the time. And perhaps the greatest thing about them is none are all that complicated to rig up, nor are they difficult to use properly.
Mike Iaconelli is an advanced practitioner of finesse tactics, and one that he relies heavily on these days is the "wet noodle rig." It's a variation of the ubiquitous dropshot, but it's vital that the bait be a Berkley Gulp! Wacky Crawler.
Gulp! baits resemble their plastic cousins, but they're different, and the Wacky Crawler is definitely a breed apart from your standard 5-inch finesse worm. It's got some bulk to it, but it's as flimsy as all get-out and almost seems to try to wrap both ends around your finger when you hold it by the center – or the point at which you insert the hook for a wacky rig.
That characteristic is the key to the wet noodle's effectiveness.
Half and Half
Iaconelli calls the wet noodle rig a "50/50 bait," meaning half the bites it triggers will come on the fall, and the other half after the weight has settled to the bottom. It utilizes standard spinning gear with 6- to 10-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon line.
The weight – which goes at the end of the line as on an ordinary dropshot setup – should be 1/16- to 1/4-ounce, depending on how much is needed to maintain bottom contact under the wind and depth conditions. The hook should be a No. 1 or No. 2 octopus-style, and tied just 2 inches to 8 inches above the weight via a Palomar knot.
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Photo: Berkley
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It's important that the bait fall on a semi-slack line. On a taut line, it will swing to and fro, which will decrease the number of strikes it draws on the way down.
At depths of 15 feet or shallower, you can keep the slight bow in the line by manipulating the rod's position with your arm (i.e. raising and extending it). To go deeper, you'll need to use your fingers to feather it off the spool.
If you don't get a bite on the fall, just let it sit once it reaches the bottom. The underwater environment will impart a subtle action to the Wacky Crawler that will entice finicky bass.
"Don't move the bait – let the current and the other forces down there do it," he said. "It'll just twitch and flicker very subtly, and that's what will get them to bite."
He chooses his bait color based on water clarity. He uses watermelon seed more often than anything else, but he also likes green-pumpkin, pumpkinseed and junebug.
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