Not So Confident With Jerk Baits 2024
Brnnoser6983 reply :
So I have been looking at buying some jerk baits. I have lots of cranks, spinners, jigs, but jerk baits I do not.
The reason. I don't want to say I'm afraid, but I am not confident at all. To me a jerk has always been a mystery. How, when, and where do you use them?
Am I the only person out there that didn't use jerks out of a confidence problem?
Senko lover reply :
Me too. My brother uses them all the time but I don't mainly because they're typically expensive and I lost my only one. Lazy, I know, but I'm more of a soft plastic person. I would like to try them sometime though.
Scott F reply :
You're up in Minnesota. If the ice ever goes out, start throwing them in any area you suspect might hold fish. I find I do better using longer pauses while the water is colder and shorter pauses was the water warms. Adjust the pause length to suit the mood of the fish. You can throw them over deep water and the suspended fish that are staging before the spawn will find them. Your confidence will grow sharply as you start wacking them.
Grizzn N Bassin reply :
x2^^ was the same way until I started throwing them. you'll gain confidence with them its the same as any other lure.
Djman72 reply :
Jerkbaits are great little things. The above answers already outline how I fish them. I feel like the clearer the water, the better with these guys. The erratic action (sometimes) is the ticket to get finicky bass to bite.
Don't forget softplastic jerk baits (Flukes). They can be killer around any type of cover.
Crank Bait Nut reply :
A Little Tip On Jerk Baits , If Your Allowing Slack In Your Line On The Pause , Watch Your Line For Hits.
Mike
Dwight Hottle reply :
On 3/10/2015 at 7:33 AM, Brnnoser6983 said:So I have been looking at buying some jerk baits. I have lots of cranks, spinners, jigs, but jerk baits I do not.
The reason. I don't want to say I'm afraid, but I am not confident at all. To me a jerk has always been a mystery. How, when, and where do you use them?
Am I the only person out there that didn't use jerks out of a confidence problem?
.
Have you ever seen a dying baitfish near the surface? How about a small school of minnows or bream where one fish strays from the school?
All a jerkbait does is try to imitate a dying baitfish. Try to make the bait glide or swim irregular. You can practice near the bank or boat side. Watch what the bait does when you twitch it with a quick snap of the rod. Then stop & let the bait come to a stop. After a short pause try again. All you are trying to do is make the bait look like it is stunned or disoriented. The more irregular you make it swim and quiver the more lifelike it will appear. Big fish eat little fish. Just try to make your soft or hard jerkbait look like a dying fish.
After your first bite you will start to gain confidence real quick. I guarantee it.
fisherrw reply :
jerkbait are great.. i use them a lot even caught a nice 2 pound chunk in the dead of summer on a 100 degree day on a strike king kvd in strobe shad. i like lc jerkbaits and kvd jerkbaits the best
BaitMonkey1984 reply :
Jerk baits can be intimidating but use the advice already given to help you learn quick. Cold water conditions, and clear water is where this bait excels. Cadence is the most important factor, and remember not to fish your bait too fast. The Fluke is a great soft bait, as is the caffeine shad by Strike King. I like the Rapala Husky Jerk for hard jerk baits and they are reasonable at around 8 bucks a pop. Good luck!
papajoe222 reply :
A mistake I made when I first started using them was retrieving them like a crankbait. Actually, I was fishing an original floating Rapala long before crankbaits, but I'd always used the reel to move the bait. When I read my first article on them and tried the retrireve, I was sure they'd never catch anything worked that way. Needless to say, I was wrong. Give them a try and not just during the prespawn. The have their place all season long.
ClackerBuzz reply :
same rod motion as walking the dog with a spook except underwater. snap on a slack line
EmersonFish reply :
The good news about the jerkbait; particularly the hard, suspending baits, is that currently they are one of the most common topics of instructional fishing videos. They are fairly expensive, everbody has their version, and they want you to buy one. So they make videos showing you how to fish their bait, when and where it is likely to be most effective, and what kind of tackle you should probably use. (I believe KVD has some really good videos, but virtually all of the professional videos are more instructive than what I can articulate here.) Doing the research will give the information; but only time on the water will build the confidence. It takes a bit of practice getting use to that little slack line pop you need to mimic a dying baitfish and not overwork it, but once you understand the how and when, everything will come together.
roadwarrior reply :
On 3/10/2015 at 12:25 PM, EmersonFish said:The good news about the jerkbait; particularly the hard, suspending baits, is that currently they are one of the most common topics of instructional fishing videos.
We have tons of videos for you to watch, then just start fishing a few.
Your confidence will grow quickly.
smalljaw67 reply :
Catching fish on a hard jerkbait is almost as fun as topwater for me and you'll like it too once you understand it. You already got good information and if you have smallmouths in the water you fish, well you'll like it that much more. You get 3 kinds of stikes with a jerkbait, the first is what I call the "Oh look, a fish" bite, that is when you give the bait a few jerks and let it sit and when you go to jerk the next time instead of the lure moving you rod instantly loads up and you already set the hook without knowing a fish was on it. The next one is the "sneaky Pete" bite, this is when you get a bite on the pause, you finish the cadence, jerk-jerk-jerk and pause, and after 3 seconds your line just moves off and the rod loads as if the fish is trying to sneak off with the lure. The 3rd type of bite is the "rip the rod from your hands" bite and I find when one hits like that, most of the other will follow suit and you'll have a most fun day. This bite will happen the very second you stop the bait most of the time, but it will also occur in between jerks and it is the bite that usually catches you off guard. You begin fishing and you have been at it for about a dozen casts or so and you get into the cast and retrieve lull and that is when it happens and if you aren't careful and you let your guard down and loosen the grip you have on the rod, it may end up pulled right from your hands!!! Go get a few different kind and have at it, you can catch them on the jerkbait 3 to 5 days after ice out but I find 43 degrees is the magic temperature for smallmouth and 50 degrees is the magic temp for largemouth, and all the means is when they really smash the bait but you'll get them is lower water temps, just long pauses.
Brnnoser6983 reply :
On 3/10/2015 at 7:13 PM, roadwarrior said:We have tons of videos for you to watch, then just start fishing a few.
Your confidence will grow quickly.
I have been watching them, and I think my main problem as other started is I used them as a crank. I didn't fully understand the proper retrieve.
Brnnoser6983 reply :
I know I am going to put in a TW order and in that I am going to throw in a couple jerk baits. nothing to expensive. Mainly Rapala, vicious, and a Spro. I think I have 5 or 6 in all that I am eyeing.
Crestliner2008 reply :
Get yourself a couple of XRaps and you're good to go. Pike are the only critter that will take them away from you, so they last a very long time. I've had several in my box that are over 10 years old and still going strong.
Remember another thing. Depending on the water temperature, any jerkbait will suspend differently at various times of the year. Sometimes they will suspend perfectly. Other times they may sink (in really cold water, like right after ice out) or start to float up (warm water, summer months). I usually carry a small spool of wire solder and after a cast or two, I may add a bit around the shank of the lead treble to adjust the fall/suspension rate. I find that if I can make it sink slowly, that's better than floating upward as in summertime.
Hogsticker reply :
Good read fellas. I think my favorite is when a fish hits it right at the boat or shoreline. Couldn't resist letting it get away! You just have to put your time in.
HardcoreBassin reply :
I just started throwing them in the fall of last year. I found pretty quickly that I would love fishing them. I caught 2 fatties, so I'm excited to pick up a few more and give them a try. I wasn't sure how I would like them, so I stuck to something cheap. I found a couple Matzuo suspending jerkbaits at my Dick's on clearance for $1.50, so I figured "why not?!" Like I said, I'll be picking up a variety of jerkbaits now
good luck!
- Dale
Bassguytom reply :
All good info. I will add 2 tips.
1. If you are not fishing them with slack in your line you are not fishing them correctly. Meaning use the rod to jerk the bait not the reel.
2. While pausing the bait twitch it a little sometimes this is all it takes to get bite.
Go get em!
EmersonFish reply :
One of the hardest parts of learning to work the bait on slack line is getting use to taking up the right amount of slack between your set of jerks. You have to take some line in to see what is happening with the bait better and prepare for the next set of jerks, but you don't want to reel in too much and pull the bait just when it is suspending there after a few erratic moves. That's the time when you really want to make sure the bait just sits there as tantalizingly as possible; particularly when the water is really cold. Pay close attention to this. Over time you won't have to think about it as much.
Dwight Hottle reply :
On 3/10/2015 at 7:23 PM, Brnnoser6983 said:I know I am going to put in a TW order and in that I am going to throw in a couple jerk baits. nothing to expensive. Mainly Rapala, vicious, and a Spro. I think I have 5 or 6 in all that I am eyeing.
Don't forget to get a suspending smithwick rogue.
Brnnoser6983 reply :
On 3/11/2015 at 11:20 PM, Dwight Hottle said:Don't forget to get a suspending smithwick rogue.
That is one I have been eyeing. I picked out a couple different brands.
DocNsanE reply :
Jerkbaits are really a lot of fun to fish in my opinion. You aren't just cranking away like a crankbait and you aren't just slowly lifting your rod tip like when you're dragging a jig across the bottom. It's a fun twitch-twitch-pause motion that allows for a lot of variation.
I'm not an expert on them, but as others have said, the suspending models are fantastic in cold waters. You want the bait to sit slightly nose down and to suspend or fall ever so slightly when on a slack line. In the warmer months you can change it up with a floating model and increase the cadence of your rythm.
Fun fun fun
yakingfisherman reply :
I just started really getting into jerkbaits. Like you, I had no confidence in jerkbaits as it never worked. Whenever I worked one where I marked fish, I could not get one to bite. I worked them with pauses in between and with slack in my line to make the most action like the pros advise you to do. They just would not bite until I got ticked and just started jerking it fast without any pauses while maintaining a constant reel. As soon as I did that I landed an 8lb striped bass. Did the same cadence and landed a 3lb largemouth after.I've been doing rely good with this style. I think the most important factor is just figuring out the cadence and the fish. What works for me may not work for others. Once you figure out what they like then a jerkbait is deadly as i have found out. Jerkbait is definetely one of my go to baits now.
Crestliner2008 reply :
One other consideration is that if you are a CPR fisherman, you probably should consider removing the center belly hook on the 3-hook versions. You'll cause way less eye damage that way.
Brnnoser6983 reply :
On 3/12/2015 at 11:37 PM, Crestliner2008 said:One other consideration is that if you are a CPR fisherman, you probably should consider removing the center belly hook on the 3-hook versions. You'll cause way less eye damage that way.
That's i good idea
WIGuide reply :
If you're going after largemouth up north in the late fall or early spring when the water is still very cold, an often overlooked retrieve is a slow pull instead of a twitch. Sometimes you can mix them in with your twitching cadence as well. I've had a good deal of success doing so.
Ozark_Basser reply :
Jerkbaits are a lot of fun to fish with. I use a jerk pause jerk jerk pause cadence with bigger pauses in cold water. Once the water gets over about 55 degrees, i only pause about one or two seconds. Make sure you are jerking on slack line. This is key if you want the most action out of the bait. Braid with a fluoro leader makes this a lot easier. Jerkbaits are the only treble hook baits I like with braid.
bootytrain reply :
On 3/12/2015 at 12:25 PM, Brnnoser6983 said:That is one I have been eyeing. I picked out a couple different brands.
I suggest you spend a little extra money and get a lucky craft pointer in American Shad color as well. Its caught fish for me when all other failed.
Brnnoser6983 reply :
On 3/14/2015 at 1:26 AM, bootytrain said:I suggest you spend a little extra money and get a lucky craft pointer in American Shad color as well. Its caught fish for me when all other failed.
I will look into them. I know I don't want to go overboard, and if it goes well I will look at higher end. As it stands now I just want the comfort of using them correctly.
roadwarrior reply :
On 3/14/2015 at 1:48 AM, Brnnoser6983 said:I will look into them. I know I don't want to go overboard, and if it goes well I will look at higher end. As it stands now I just want the comfort of using them correctly.
Starting out with tackle that performs "as promised" is a great confidence builder.
The Lucky Craft Pointer is an excellent jerkbait.
Edited by roadwarriorBrnnoser6983 reply :
On 3/15/2015 at 7:54 PM, roadwarrior said:Starting out with tackle that performs "as promised" is a great confidence builder.
The Lucky Craft Pointer is an excellent jerkbait.
That is another one I am looking at. The only thing stopping me from putting in the order is a back story of how I didn't order it... lol
I got scolded finally the other week about no more tackle for the season, and well if a $200 TW order shows up in my name . Not good. I would love to go to a Cabelas, but I know they don't have 1/4 off what else I want to get.
webertime reply :
A pointer should be in your shopping cart.
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