Our Top Five Gary Yamamoto Baits for Big Mexican Bass
Welcome to “Top Five” week on Half Past First Cast. As Hanna and I start packing for our annual January trip to Anglers Inn Lake El Salto, I’m going to go through several key manufacturers’ lure lineups and tell you the five that I expect to take on every trip to Mexico for the foreseeable future. That doesn’t mean they’re the only lures I’ll take from that company; or that they’re the best in class; or that I’ll even cast them on every trip. What it does mean is that I have confidence in them because they’ve produced in the past or I have legitimate reasons and I can’t imagine heading South of the Border without them. Your preferences may vary. We’d love to hear them.
Here are the self-imposed. I have to pick five lures from a certain company, and pick my preferred single size or single color (alternatively, I can pick a different size and/or color, but that counts as another one of my five, so only in rare cases will I double-dip.
Today we come to Gary Yamamoto Baits, a company I’ve been affiliated with for over 15 years, writing for their various publications. That’s one way that this column differs from the others in this series. The other way is that it’s the only one in which I include several sizes of the same product among my choices. There’s good reason for that, as I’ll explain below:
6” Senko
Green Pumpkin (#297)
If you’re going to choose one Senko for Mexico, make it the six-incher – big enough to tempt giants yet still bite-sized so bass of all sizes will grab it. Also, it’s not quite as “girthy” as the seven-incher, which means that overall hookup percentages are better. You have to favor some shade of green, and while most guests like the lighter watermelon, I tend to go with green pumpkin first – just a confidence thing.
7” Senko
Watermelon with Black and Red Flake (#208)
For flipping deep trees and bluffs where I expect trophies to live, the seven-incher increasingly gets the call. On this family-friendly site I won’t share the name that bass pro Jeff Kriet gave it, but one secret frequent travelers know is that it’s a surprisingly good jig trailer. Since I already have Green Pumpkin in the sixes, I’ll skew watermelon on the sevens.
5” Senko
Watermelon and Green Pumpkin Laminate (#912)
While the Mexican bass skew larger than those here in the US, often by a substantial amount, there are occasional times when they get fixated on smaller bait. That’s why a Skinny Dipper is so good for us on a Carolina Rig, and the original Super Fluke excels in a variety of circumstances – they mimic the forage profile most closely. We’ve had a few times where the five-inch Senko vastly outfished its big brothers. Split the difference on the color preferences with the laminate.
5” Double Tail Grub
Watermelon (#194)
Grubs, most notably the Hula Grub, were what first made Yamamoto famous, but the double tail has kind of fallen out of favor. That’s a shame, because it’s a remarkably good trailer for lures such as flipping jigs and swim jigs, but in my experience it particularly shines on a football jig. That’s just one additional tool in the deep water arsenal, for times when a Texas Rig or Carolina Rig don’t get it done, especially in rock.
Zako
Sight Flash (#993)
The addition of the Chatterbait (and later iterations such as the Jackhammer) to the Mexican bass arsenal first paid dividends for us in 2013, when Hanna absolutely whacked a bunch of giants on the now-discontinued Phenix model. Yamamoto, with help from Brett Hite, designed the Zako specifically as a trailer for those baits, and it mimics the size of the mini-tilapia and prevalent shad very closely. Something white makes sense as a baitfish imitation. You can dip it for a dash of color if necessary.
OK, so (spoiler alert) this is the only one of my “Top Five” entries that features the same lure style multiple times. Why? It’s because the seemingly featureless Senko is so remarkably versatile and deadly. Yes, I have worked with the company for years. Yes, when the bite is good you can catch them on just about any of the copycat baits that it spawned. However, when I get in the pros’ boats – even pros sponsored by competing soft plastics companies – they invariably have the real deal tied on during tournament day. That should tell you all that you need to know. By having at least a small assortment of all three sizes, you give yourself maximum chances for a great day of pitching and flipping.
