Been doing pond fishing for a couple years very casually. Usually would just get bluegill with my kids using cut up live worms. Wanted to up my game and start going after bass, and after trying tons of different lures and setups….. the wacky rig senko is actually GOATed. Bass just absolutely eat this thing up, if I’m at the pond more than an hour, I can almost guarantee I’m getting something, often even multiple bass. I’ve been doing the o-ring trick where you put two o rings in an x shape on the worm, so you can slide the hook under without actually spearing your worm, making it last longer.
I’ve been casting out, and give it about 5-10 seconds to sink, if no bites, I tug it up once or twice and let it sink. It’s the sinking action that makes the worm flop up and down and that seems to be what the bass like. If I don’t get something within about 30 seconds, I reel it in real quick and cast again. Almost all of my catches have been within 5 seconds of hitting the water, during the senko’s initial descent.
Hook wise I was initially losing a lot of fish but switched to a 1/0 wicked wacky or 1/0 wacky seedless with the weed guard snipped off. These hold the fish about 90-95% of the time, and it’s been awhile since one slipped off.
I hope this is helpful for someone because it was absolutely game changing for me, and has made fishing so much more enjoyable