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Story by Russ Bassdozer

The Fat Ika's football-shaped body is a good mimic of a shad, young-of-year sunfish, crappie, tilapia and other deep-bodied baitfish.

The chunky silhouette of a Fat Ika even matches the shape of a backward-scooting crawdad, replete with trailing claws and legs represented by the Fat Ika's waving tentacles.

Whether rigged normally or rigged backward (more on that later), the Fat Ika always swims and falls nose first. So it always looks like, swims like and falls like a wide-bodied baitfish or backward-scooting craw.

So you see, the shape and action of the weightless Fat Ika may remind bass of many familiar tasty morsels.

It's also comparable in size and weight to a small fat-bodied crankbait. Unlike a crankbait however, the Fat Ika may be rigged weedless and snagless so it may be fished in the thickest cover.

Rigged normally with Owner Twistlock XXX 4/0 and 5/0.

Like the Yamamoto Senko, the weightless Fat Ika requires much patience to fish it properly. The Fat Ika rigged with no sinker is deadly for bass because it forces an angler to slow down and spend a much longer time fishing the Fat Ika ever so slowly. Used weightless, the Fat Ika is definitely one of the deadliest soft plastic bass baits ever.

Using Weighted Hooks

The Fat Ika weighs over 3/8 oz. by itself - and almost 1/2 oz with a 4/0 or 5/0 hook in it. Its natural weight makes it a great casting bait. Yet its slow fall and the patience needed to fish it properly means the Fat Ika is mainly used for bass when they're in relatively shallow water.

Something as simple as a weighted hook makes a whole new depth range possible so the Fat Ika may sink quickly into the often overlooked 10 to 20 foot zone.

The beauty of a lightly weighted hook (under 3/16 oz) is it changes absolutely nothing about the Fat Ika's action. It just falls deeper faster. As it falls, it still has that built-in side to side sashay which is all a bass needs to see some days.

Once you go up a little in weight (at least 3/16 or 1/4 oz), the side to side sashay turns into a more aggressive rocking action as the weighted keel begins to swing beneath the bait, rocking the entire body like a baby's cradle. Also, the tentacles wiggle more and bend upward like a craw raising its claws in defiance.

Rigged normally (top) and backward (bottom) with weighted 4/0 and 5/0 Gamakatsu Superline Spring-Lock.

A weighted hook makes it possible to effectively fish the Fat Ika in the 10-20 foot zone. That's a depth range where a Fat Ika has rarely gone before. It's still best to work one slow as molasses once it reaches bottom.

Flipping the Fat Ika Backward

Flipping the Fat Ika backwards is taF akI (got ya!). It's also an advanced flipping tool when rigged weedless and weightless with the skirt to front so that the tentacles face you. That's how to rig one "backward" which is the best way to flip, pitch or penetrate dense cover with it so it will sink away from you, going deeper into or under the cover as it falls. Remember, a Fat Ika always sinks in whatever direction its nose faces, whether rigged normally or backward. If you rig one normally, it falls forward nose first, Rigged backward, one falls backward nose first.

Flipping jigs and most other soft plastic flipping baits will all fall forward or pendulum toward you when they initially enter the water or whenever you jig or lift one. To the contrary, once the backward Fat Ika hits the water, it falls away from the angler, penetrating further into the target zone. As one falls, its tentacles wriggle alluringly, and as it comes to rest on the bottom, the tentacles fan out like a crawdad's legs clutching onto the bottom debris. As you lift or jig it, the Fat Ika continues to fall backward every time you lift and let if fall again. The Fat Ika remains in the strike zone longer than most other soft plastic baits or flipping jigs.

This is a neat trick and unique property that the backward Fat Ika possesses, but it would be mistaken to think the Fat Ika glides great distances back beneath cover. To use an example, lets say a blustery day has piled a dense canopy of floating grass, straw, wood and other flotsam has all been pushed and piled up into a corner that's 15 feet deep. The canopy in this case is so thick that it is impenetrable by any lure. However. a Fat Ika may be pitched at the edge, and if given slack, may glide 5 to 7 feet under the canopy before it reaches bottom in 15 feet of water. This is an extreme case. Most often, the Fat Ika may move several feet backward on the initial fall in shallow cover. On subsequent lifts and drops, the fat Ika will be pulled forward say 1-2 feet per lift, and glide backward 6-8 inches on the fall. Typically, its backward movement is measuring in inches on each subsequent lift and drop.

Still, the backward movement is significant since most other flipping baits only march forward toward you away from the strike zone on the initial fall and on subsequent lifts.

Of course, it requires that you give the Fat Ika slack line so it can inch backward. If you pull on or keep the line too tight, it will only move or pendulum toward you as it falls.

Rigged normally (5/0 top) and backward (4/0 bottom) with Gamakatsu Superline Spring-Lock.

As with practically any lure you flip into thick cover, most strikes occur on the initial fall, but if the bait settles to the bottom, twitch the bait upwards with a sharp lift of the rod tip. The fat Ika will shoot off bottom suddenly like a startled craw zigzagging left and right in an evasive maneuver. As you lift the bait, the skirt flares, and then folds back as the bait falls again to the bottom on a controlled slack line, just like a craw parachuting slowly back to bottom. As it contacts bottom, the tentacles fan out like a crawdad extending its legs all around it in order to use its legs and tail to propel itself off the bottom again. Of course, all this is very exciting to a fish! A very realistic crawfish action indeed is created by the Fat Ika's lift and drop.

Flipping the Fat Ika backward with a weighted hook is great in those deeper weed mats in the 10-20 foot zone. it won't move backward as far with a weighted hook, but it will penetrate deeper weeds better simply due to the added downward pull of gravity on the weight. Best of all, just like we describer above when rigging normally with a weighted hook of 3/16 oz or heavier, rigging backward with a weighted hook will cause a rocking action with the tentacles bent upward and waving madly, like a panicked craw hustling desperately to make it to the safety of the bottom.

Skipping the Backward Fat Ika

Rigged weightless and backward on the proper kind of hook, the Fat Ika makes a great skipping bait so it skips way back beneath docks, under boathouses and penetrates the shady lairs where big ones live under overhanging trees and brush hanging out over the shoreline. Using the Fat Ika to skip is only possible when using a hook such as the Owner Twistlock with its Centering-Pin Spring and the Gamakatsu Superline Spring-Lock hook. Reason is, these modern hooks have a wire corkscrew bait keeper which is critical in order to keep the head of the bait from slipping down when you skip it hard and fast beneath docks, weeping willows or whatever. Most other hooks, you'll skip the Fat Ika two or three times, and the bait will ball up badly on the hook, but not with the Owner Twistlock and Gamakatsu Spring-Lock. You can skip as hard as you want without causing any wardrobe malfunctions thanks to the sure grasp of the wire corkscrew keepers. Then, after it has skipped across the surface, landing deep under cover, it falls backward away from you, further penetrating the cover under water. There's nothing else quite like it.

Rigged backward with Owner Twistlock Light 5/0 weightless and weighted.

The backward Fat Ika is an advanced and unique flipping and skipping tool! Try one today.