He's Sold On A Senko
By Stan Fagerstrom
Western Staff Writer
October 28, 2009
Part One
It ain’t big, it isn’t what you’d call pretty and it even smells a bit.
But bass anglers with sufficient smarts don’t just toss it into a remote corner of their tackle box and forget about it. No indeed! Those who really learn how to use it often wind up having a rod rigged with it every time they’re on the water.
One of the anglers who shares those sentiments is a friend of mine. He might be a friend of mine but the bass in the lakes and rivers in Western Washington and Oregon sure as hell aren’t all that fond of him, and with darned good reason!
Few bassin’ men have caused both the largemouth and smallmouth in that part of the world more misery than the guy I’m talking about. His name is Roger Luce, a resident of Aloha, Oregon.
Talk to knowledgeable bass anglers in the area and Roger’s name surfaces often sooner than later. That figures because he was one of the area’s few bass guides for 10 years. When his name does come up you’ll also hear more about that stinky little bass bait I mentioned in the beginning.
Roger himself is on the small side physically, but he’s plenty big where his bass fishing talents are concerned. I say that after having shared a boat with him and by having kept an eye on the record numbers of both largemouth and smallmouth bass he’s caught and released since our trails first crossed years ago.
As I’ve mentioned before in my Inside Line features, I lived smack on the shore of Southwest Washington’s popular Silver Lake for 35 years. It’s one of the Evergreen State’s best lakes for largemouth bass. I also fished it long before I started living there. Roger began guiding on Silver Lake not long after my wife and I moved to Oregon.
He spent 10 years guiding Silver Lake anglers and learning a heap about bass and the best baits to catch them in the process. He still guides occasionally but now he does most of his own fishing on the lakes and rivers along the western slope of the Cascades in Oregon.
Take my word for it, Roger Luce is one fish catchin’ son of a gun. So what’s his number one favorite bait for both largemouth and smallmouth bass? It’s what I endeavored to describe in the beginning---Gary Yamamoto’s 3-inch Senko. Roger’s not just fond of it, he says it’s the best bass bait ever made.
Roger is a regular contributor to the Discussion Board of an Internet site my friend Jennie Logsdon Martin operates out of Tillamook, Oregon. You can find it yourself at www.ifish.net.
You’ll find Roger’s comments in the Bass & Panfish portion of the site’s Discussion Board. Look for postings by “exbassguide.” Following is an example of one of Roger’s comments. This entry was posted just a few weeks ago.
“I was fishing for smallies near The Dalles. I was after bigger bass now that fall has started. I could have got over 100 bass but I was fishing deeper. I focused on 15 to 25-feet of water. I hooked and lost two big smallies, about 4-pounds or more, but both just came unbuttoned. I did land one of 4-pounds, 5-ounces and several over 2-pounds. The smaller bass were on the bank but the bigger bass were 20 to 30 yards off the bank.
“The lure of choice was the wacky rigged Senko 3-inch like normal. The better fish liked it worked real slow and the bite was hard to detect so a sensitive rod really helped. I ended up with about 55 bass for the day. The color they liked best was black. The shad fry are very thick and the last couple of days the fishing has been a little slow on the river. The bass are busting the shad all over and they are filled to the gills with shad. There are billions of shad fry in the river right now.”
How would you like to put more than half a hundred smallmouth bass in the boat and still feel like that the river had been a “little slow?” Catching 55 bass sounds like pretty darn good fishing where I come from. Note also that Roger figures he could have caught 100 smallmouth if he hadn’t been concentrating on larger fish.
Also note that he describes his use of the 3-inch Senko as being “normal.” As I’ve mentioned, that little hunk of fish catching dynamite is this bass specialist’s first choice in baits. 
The river Roger makes reference to is the Columbia. I find there are still those who continue to think only of salmon or steelhead where the big river that divides the states of Oregon and Washington is concerned.
If you’re one of them---forget it. The Columbia does continue to support dwindling runs of the migratory species despite up river dams and the down river’s commercial fishery. Today, however, it also provides some of the nation’s best action for both smallmouth bass as well as walleye.
Roger Luce qualifies as every bit as much an expert on either the Columbia River or Oregon’s Willamette River as he does on Southwest Washington’s Silver Lake.
Roger isn’t one of those secretive dudes who removes his baits and hides the good ones when he’s got his boat at the dock. For years he’s shared his techniques and tips at numerous in-store seminars and through Internet postings at different sites. He doesn’t sit on his secrets. He’s forever helping someone or other. He’s definitely a guy you can learn from and I’m among those who have.
I’ve told you that Roger’s all time first choice in bass baits is the Yamamoto 3-inch Senko. Just knowing that is one thing---knowing exactly how he fishes it is another.
Stay tuned. I’ll provide those details in Part 2 of this feature. Don’t miss it because it contains tips and techniques you’ll be wise to build into your own piscatorial pursuits.