To start things out I thought I’d review a product that seems to have been overlooked by some people. Pretty much every angler out there has heard of the Yamamoto Senko, but I haven’t seen much talk about their Sensei worm. This worm is a 6.5″ straight tail worm and can be used in a bunch of different ways. In my case, after setting up a small water tank and testing out a bunch of different straight tail worms in it and seeing how they looked underwater this one really stood out as a good potential bait to use on a drop shot.
It’s been a while since I performed that tank test, but to this day this worm remains one of the two that I like to use when I’m throwing a straight tail worm on a drop shot. The Sensei is a little longer and a little wider than the other worm I like to use (which is a Roboworm Straight Tail Worm), which makes it my preferred worm when the water is stained or if I’m targeting bass in deeper areas and the visibility is not as high.
The worm itself is very soft which gives it a bit of a unique action compared to some of the other straight tail worms on the market. Of course the downside to that is they don’t tend to last as long, but what is lost in durability is more than made up for in the number of fish this thing seems to catch. They also claim it’s ‘neutrally buoyant’ and while I have yet to see any worm that actually accomplishes this, the Sensei does seem to hover a little better and take a little longer to settle on the bottom.
If you were to put the Sensei on a Shakey head you would see the tail also stands up a bit more than some other worms out there, which means it could also work for that technique, but there are a couple of other worms that I personally prefer when I’m throwing a shakey head. Having said that, I really like this worm and use it all the time on a drop shot and in certain circumstances I’d argue there is no other worm out there (that I’ve found) that will do a better job on a drop shot than this one.
Tackle Summary
Product: Yamamoto Sensei Worm
Category: Straight Tail Worm
Length: 6.5″
Suggested Colors: OG Junebug, Redbug
Suggested Lures: Drop Shot
