The Pachinko is a soft plastic stick bait that looks very similar to a Senko. The very first thing that impressed me about the Pachinko was the fact that MG Lures will custom blend colors and formulas for you so that you are able to get whatever action out of the bait that you are looking for. This is just something you will not find in today’s soft plastic market – it was refreshing and greatly appreciated. More often than not when I use this type of bait, I throw it weightless during the pre-spawn thru the post spawn, or on a shakey head jig when the bite is tough. I found out quickly though, that the Pachinko is a very viable bait on a Carolina Rig. It’s subtle quiver when dragged on a 36” leader is irresistible to a smallmouth bass. On one of my days testing this bait, I was on a smallmouth pattern in 15’ to 20’ of water on Big Chetac Lake in Birchwood, Wisconsin. I was catching 2 to 2.5 lb. smallmouth on a lizard when the bite slowed. I did nothing more than changed out the lizard for a 5” Pachinko in watermelon/red flake, and immediately landed a 4 lb. smallmouth. In the next 60 minutes, I plucked 11 more smallmouth out of that area, with the largest 5 breaking the 18 lb. mark, anchored by a 5.11 football shaped smallmouth. These fish wanted no part of a bait that had more appendages, but simply said, were all over the Pachinko – regardless of the 3 colors I tried, they all worked equally well.

Some points worth mentioning:

The Pachinkos are very consistent in regards to action and rate of fall – this is something that is hard to find in a soft plastic stick bait.
You can use a 5/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook on the 5” Pachinko without hampering the action – getting a hook in a fish is a non-issue.
The colors seem to have a translucency to them that is very helpful in clear water presentations.
I caught as many as 3 fish on the same bait – they seem to hold up very well!

All in all, the Pachinko is a great bait! I am excited to use them in shallow water spring presentations!

Tim Domaille, Rochester, MN:
The MG Lures Pachinko is a very soft hand poured stick bait. They are extremely soft and at the same time, very strong. I have used them for quite some time now and really like them. The sink rate of the Pachinko is very good. Easy to cast and control in windy situations. They are very tough and durable. Either rigging the Pachinko whacky style with either a Straight shank hook or an Octopus hook, to rigging the Pachinko weightless Texas style with a Wide Gap hook, the hooks do not rip out of the bait very easy and that lets you catch more fish per bait than other brands out there. The color selection is second to none. Every color you want and then some. I was using a 4/0 wide gap Mustad Ultra Point hook when hooking the weightless Texas style. If hooked wacky, I used a Gamakatsu 1/0 Octopus hook. The darting action when rigged weightless Texas style is just plain awesome. When wacky rigging, the Pachinko had very good action. The Pachinko action would flutter on the drop just how I would have expected it to.

I would give the Pachinko an A+ for durability, color selection and action.

Ken Warren, Olin, IA:

This past fall I had a chance to use the 4" Pachinko from MG Lures. The shape and appearance of these is very similar to the well known Senko. While these baits were more supple than standard injection moulded plastics, I did not consider them to be a great substitute for the Senko. I put them side-by-side with the Senko on a little hot spot I have and the first thing I noticed was they did not have the same degree shake that the Senko has as it falls but I would not call it action-less. I alternated back and forth between the Pachinko and the Senko for about a half hour and at the end it was obvious that I caught at least 2 times as many bass on the Senko. In this time, however, I went through 10 Senkos and only 2 Pachinkos so MG Lures does get a good score for durability but I would trade that for more bass in the boat any day.

Now, I understand that this review has been somewhat negative, but I do like the hand poured material. I would very much like to see this in a jig trailer or creature bait. I think these baits would really shine with this material and have more action than most of what is on the market. I do see that MG has these type of baits available but unfortunately I only had the Pachinko to review.

Derek “Duke” Jenkel:

I recently received a package containing several packs of soft plastic stick baits manufactured by MG Lures. As many of you already know the fishing world has been over-run with Senko type baits. However this one seems to have a few benefits that many of the regular run of the mill baits lack. The 4” and 5” bait both have excellent action. The manufacturer has taken great care to ensure the blend of plastic is not to stiff to prevent an excellent wiggling action as the bait sinks to the bottom. I also found that for a bait as soft as this one, it was fairly durable. The second benefit I found with MG Lures and their bait was the availability of colors. Although the colors I received were pretty standard, MG Lures advertises the ability to produce custom colors, an option not often available with many manufacturers. This is definitely a great option. All in all, I would recommend that you check out these baits, I felt like MG Lures has produced a bait that is effective, affordable and has given the angler a lot of color options. These are definitely going to find a place in my tackle box.