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Zen of the Big Ika
By Mike Whitten
April 29, 2004
The Zen of the Big Ika calls you, will you listen or ignore? Only the bass will know for sure!
 Gary Yamamoto is rightfully recognized as one of the premier creators and designers of innovative soft plastic lures. If Gary had just stopped with the Yamamoto Hula Grub and Senko, he would have clinched a lasting place in the annals of fishing history, and in the hearts and minds of thousands of thankful anglers. As if you needed any proof, just look around you at the number of copies of both these lures offered in the marketplace today. There's no better example of the "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" maxim.
But Gary didn't stop there. He continued to refine, innovate and improve. And another great example of his success and effort is the "Ika" family of baits. I'm told that "Ika" in the Japanese language means squid, and having seen these marine cephalopods first hand while scuba diving, I can tell you that the name fits very well. But, you reply, there are no squid in fresh water and therefore bass don't eat squid! Very true, but bass don't read biology texts and none I've met so far speak Japanese. But they do eat Gary's Ika's like it's candy!
Ika's are offered in 4 sizes, but my favorite, and the focus of this article is the 5" Big Ika. The Big Ika at first appears to be a hybrid between a chunk of a Senko and a decapitated Yamamoto Hula Grub. I would be hard-pressed to argue that's not how the combination happened. But however it came together, I do know that the Big Ika is by far the most effective pitching lure I've ever dropped in a brushpile.
 Texas rigged, utilizing a 3/16 oz Lake Fork Tackle Tungsten Megaweight and a 4/0 Mustad UltraPoint Megabite Tube Hook, the Big Ika is a power fisherman's dream. Since Brian Kerchal's success in the mid-nineties in Federation tournaments and Denny Brauer's Classic win in 1998, a Texas-rigged tube lure has become standard fare for flipping in close quarters for thousands of anglers. It is not uncommon on many of the lakes I fish, to see two or three dozen anglers fishing shallow cover, all pitching Texas-rigged tubes. And, make no mistake, they are catching fish.
But my angling soul rebels against doing the same thing as everyone else. I want a different stroke, an edge if you will, something that will trigger aggressive fish in bad places, and at the same time I wanted something unique that they can't recite the SKU number of so many soft plastic tubes flipped in front of their faces.
Enter the Ika
This different stroke I yearned for came to me one day while fishing a river oxbow, Lake Whittington, about 100 miles south of my Memphis, Tennessee home. Now, river oxbow bass are notorious for suspending 2-4 feet deep in flooded willow trees, and for knocking the sparkles off a black neon tube lure pitched into the inner branches of the trees. On this particular day, I was having trouble getting the tube into the inner tree recesses and getting it down through the leaves. Tucked into my tackle bag were two bags of Big Ikas, in colors 051 and 297.
 I grabbed the 051(black/red flake) and Texas-rigged it as described above (3/16 oz Lake Fork Tackle Tungsten Megaweight and 4/0 Mustad UltraPoint Megabite Tube Hook). The application was perfect! It was immediately obvious that the Texas-rigged Big Ika is much heavier than a hollow tube rigged the same way. The Ika fall is similar to a tube, but different as in more of a Senko power dive. The fish responded almost immediately, with the best five for that day in excess of 27 pounds. I'm hard-headed, but not stupid. Big Ikas, pitched into trees, brushpiles and holes in grassbeds became a reliable tool for me to find and pull in big bass.
The 297 color, with the tail dyed chartreuse, becomes an idea tool that tempts spawning and post-spawn bass feeding primarily on bluegill. I've had good success jig-swimming this color combination around spawning areas, and parallel to wood cover with bass hiding underneath. Big spotted bass, living suspended in treetops along Neely Henry's upper regions also respond well to this lure and presentation. My fishing memory banks have forever recorded the image of a 5 ¼ pound spot that ate a 178 color Big Ika in a downed white oak tree with current ripping through it - that fish triggered a day-long pattern that led me to a check in an Anglers Choice regional tournament.
One Last Tip, Buzzbait Follow-up
Everyone who fishes a buzzbait knows to keep a tube lure ready to throw back on a fish that misses the buzzer. The Big Ika, with its dense weight, can be thrown much further and more accurately that a regular tube, or even a Senko. It is an ideal throwback lure, and serves dual duty rigged this way - weightless with a 4/0 hook. It can still be pitched or flipped into isolated shallow cover. Say, did I mention that it is a marvelous skipping lure around docks and piers?
Well, there you have it. My secrets have eked out.
The Zen of the Big Ika calls you, will you listen or ignore? Only the bass will know for sure!
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