Senko Red — Met My Match

Gear

Jun 16

Do you carry a wide variety of Senko colors or do you keep it simple?

“Hey Hanna, do you need anything from Yamamoto?”

It’s funny that Pete asks me that every time I make an order because as we have written many times before, I love to fish but don’t have a passion for tackle. That’s changing. On recent trips to Alaska, Panama and Mexico I realized I need to understand why and how certain lures work for specific fish in specific places at specific times.

So this time I threw a curveball at Pete: “YES!” I’m sure he thought I was kidding, but I wasn’t and I wanted to try some new things on our upcoming trip to Anglers Inn El Salto. We’ve proven again and again down there that the Gary Yamamoto Senko is magic, but we always use the same colors. I wanted to test out if some different colors could help me get an edge. These are the three that I chose:

Rainbow Trout #908 (half green/half pink)

A laminate senko works even in lakes where there are not any trout

No, there aren’t any trout in El Salto but I caught onto a secret that at certain times bubblegum is the hot color. Everyone knows that green/watermelon is a great color almost everywhere you fish so why not a combination? Fish become conditioned to lure color. If they don’t get turned on by the pink then perhaps the green will be tempting. I feel like the fish will always eat green/watermelon but if pink is the color of the week and I have both then rainbow trout could a sure bet. I only bought one pack of Rainbow Trout so if they don’t work it’s not the end of the world but if they do work then I will kick myself for not purchasing more (but I’ll also be proud that my hunch was right).

Senko Brown indigo is similar to oxblood, a good color in western desert lakes

Brown Indigo #325 (reddish in color -- my second favorite color is red)

Pete was a little doubtful on this one: “Really???”

I said, “It must work somewhere or they wouldn’t sell it.”

He admitted that it looks similar to the Oxblood color that is popular on the desert lakes out west. We will be on the west coast of Mexico and in the desert, so I am hoping the fish deem it a popular color and bite the heck out of it.

Pumpkin #186

Will an orange senko work at Lake El Salto Mexico?

I have an odd favorite color. Most people like blue, purple, green, red (my second favorite) but orange is my number one, so when I pointed out the 5” Senko in Pumpkin, Pete didn’t even have to ask, he knew and clicked add to cart.

I said, “We always use green pumpkin so why not just plain old pumpkin?”

According to scientists fish don’t see color like humans do but they must be able to distinguish them somehow. After all, professional anglers have signature colors they use all the time. There must be something to color. The rule of thumb is in stained or dirty water you use something brighter, like chartreuse or orange. In clear water you should use a bait color that is more natural in appearance.

I have been fishing Lake El Salto for over a decade and I’m usually handed a green pumpkin Senko, watermelon red lizard or a black and blue ten-inch Berkley Power worm. Why would the bait companies create so many different colors? Is it to just catch fishermen, or is there some science behind it? I am hoping that I can figure out something a little bit different and gain an edge. If it doesn’t work, I can always go back to the old standards. Wish me luck. I’ll report back on whether my tackle purchases pay off.