Attila

I guess it's different in every region; the way that I fish the bass need good light to hit a jerkbait and for that same bait to put out as much flash as is possible. That said, I'm going to try more jerkbait fishing for night bass next season to see what happens.

Greetings fellow Ontarian, and welcome to Bass Resource; look forward to your posts!

The longest leader I start with is usually about 8' in length, and I'll usually use it so long as I don't drop below a 3' leader length; I attach it with a uni to uni knot. With regards to bottom contact, there are situations where I'm casting over a saddle which will result in bottom contact when I'm retrieving over the rocks on said saddle. As well, I've found zebra mussels attached to aquatic weed growth that I'm fishing in. The fluorocarbon I use does a great job at holding up to the zebra mussels and rocks that I encounter. As to zebra mussels cutting line, I suggest watching the following; it changed how I feel about fluorocarbon and, while I wasn't using Tatsu (I was using InvizX, switching to Tatsu for next year), really convinced me mentally that I was making the right choice in the gear I was using to throw jerkbaits on. It can be found here - http://www.westernbass.com/video/underwater-viewpoint-benefits-seaguar-abrasion-resistant-fluorocarbon-lines I fished jerkbaits for years and really focused on them this year and found that my catch levels increased a great amount with the addition of a piece of fluorocarbon. Tying a leader takes less than a minute and with the improved success I've had, it'll be something I'll be doing at all times.

The water that I fish is gin clear and is filled with rocks and zebra mussels, and I don't find that braid does well when I'm fishing around such structure. As well, it helps from straightening out small trebles found on a lot of jerkbaits and also pulling said lure away from fish too quickly, something which in the past has cost me a few decent sized fish. Finally, braid is so limp that I would get line around my rod tip and into my trebles on practically every cast. That, to me, is a pain in the backside. Since incorporating a fluorocarbon leader, I haven't lost fish in any situation noted above. As well, I haven't noticed any adverse impact on the suspension, rising, or sinking characteristics of the jerkbaits that I throw which include Rapala Shadow Rap's and Shadow Rap Shads, Strike King KVD 2 hook baits, and Lucky Craft Slender Pointer and regular Pointer family baits. Hope this helps.

It's interesting reading a post of mine from back in May...lol I spent a whole summer fishing jerkbaits and learning different things about them with a good amount of success. I really believe that braid with a fluorocarbon leader is the way to go especially when setting the hook into a fish a long distance away, but that's just me. As long as you're catching fish that's what matters. I recently picked up some Slender Pointer 112's and had a great day with them and I'm looking forward to using them a lot more over what's left of the summer and next season along with my Shadow Raps and Shadow Rap Shads.

Been one of my go to multispecies baits for decades, has caught me more largemouth than I could have ever imagined. It may be silent but that action, especially in colder water conditions, really can't be beat.

Here’s what I’ve noticed during this past season when fishing jerkbaits. Our bass season starts pretty late here in central Ontario, with opener happening the 3rd Saturday of June. At that time of the year, most bass are in a post spawn, summer pattern that has them setup on their usual structure. For smallmouth that means rocks with weed lines and drop-offs and for largemouth it will mean heavy cover or weed flats that need to be picked apart. During the start of the season I threw average size jerk baits, namely those which were about 4-5” long which, I believe, would be in the 100 – 112 sized category. The bigger lures provided a bigger flash which helped the fish see the bait from a longer distance, resulting in more hook-ups especially when it came to the smallmouth in my lakes. Because of this odd fall we’ve been having, I have continued to throw regular sized jerkbaits and have continued to have success doing the same thing that I did all summer, including using aggressive retrieves while the water temperature made its way into the low 60’s as of this Saturday. There were two times when I used a smaller sized jerkbait (for me it was a size 8 X-Rap in olive green) this season; the first was when I had found myself fishing in a body of water where the fish were very highly pressured, usually from a 2 or 3 day tournament that had just taken place. The second instance was when I was on a school of fish that had seen the baits I was throwing the day before and had decided that they wanted a smaller profile bait the next day. I learned that trick from Brent Ehrler while he was fishing the BASS tournament on the St. Lawrence River back in July of this year. My suggestion to you is to fish big, especially in this season, as fish are eating and will continue to feed up through ice up. Here's Ehrler talking about his decision to fish a smaller jerkbait; https://video.bassmaster.com/detail/videos/2017-st.-lawrence-best-of-live/video/5518263725001/taste-the-bait:-brent-ehrler-s-jerkbait-pattern

I posted a picture of my biggest smallmouth so far this fall on a lake in the Kawartha Lakes chain in Ontario, Canada. The details on its surroundings are as follows; the water temp was 61F at a depth of 9ft. I caught 6 fish in total that were on a rock flat with a sand transition to deeper water and a weed edge on both sides. I’ve been catching more and bigger smallmouth after sunset; I really don’t have an explanation for this, as everything that I’ve read tells me that smallmouth become way more active in sunny weather, perhaps with a bit of a breeze present. The areas that I fish are very rocky and I believe that they hold onto the suns heat better than sandy bottoms which results in more fish activity when compared to either weeds or sand flats. Over the last few outings I've noticed that the fish are really holding close to structure. The larger fish I caught last week were right on the drop off of a saddle; the fish that I caught last night all hit in an area that had a small hump which went from 9ft up to 7ft and then back down to 9ft about 30' away from the pier I was fishing on. I figured out its location while throwing a deep diving jerkbait earlier in the evening. It's amazing to see just how much of a difference a couple of feet in depth make to the fish. I don't know if there are weeds present but I'm certain there are different sizes of rock, ranging from large to small pebble sized rock which could also hold crayfish for them to feed on. I have stuck primarily with one jerkbait this year, the Rapala Shadow Rap in yellow perch. I swapped out the trebles and put a dressed treble on the back, and it resulted in one of my biggest smallmouth of the year. I’ve spent the better part of the year learning and refining my jerkbait techniques and find that it’s paid big dividends in helping me catch more and bigger bass than any other pattern I’ve used all year.

Thanks for the feedback Further North, I appreciate it! The technique sounds like it might work on a smaller trout/bass creek, say no bigger than 10' across. I haven't used a fly rod in years and at this point would be worried if my roll cast would end up in some grass or tree limb situated just over the surface of the water...lol

I've always used a Rapala Skitter Pop (silent, no rattles) and the original size 7 floating minnow (also silent) when it comes to subtle smallmouth baits. The flies mentioned sound like they could be a lot of fun too, wondering if I could try flinging them on an UL - anyone tried that?

Thought I'd make an evening trip out for some walleye today, instead I ended up catching a few smallies just after sunset on a yellow perch patterned Rapala shadow rap. The location was a rock flat with a sand transition and a weedbed along each side. Biggest smallmouth shown below, guesstimate on the weight was about 4 1/2 lbs. The others were in the 1-2lbs range. Water temp 9ft down was 61F. And don't be alarmed...that's me in the picture...lol

I'd stick with a spinnerbait and perhaps even try a chatterbait or swim jig with a trailer.

Took the slender pointer out today for a trial run...I stopped counting once I hit 20 smallies on a dropoff from a saddle. They were really on the feed today. Nothing huge but did lose one that was probably around 4 lbs...hopefully run into more of those next week. Still waiting for the weather to cool as our air temp was in the 70's with the water in the high 60's.

I love that area. I've never had the chance to fish there, hoping that will change next year. I go there for the military hardware.

Personally I've never seen a reason to colour my line. When I flip I use fluorocarbon. When I fishing walking topwaters and hollow body frogs I use straight braid, originally in timber brown but now in green. I haven't noticed a difference in the number of strikes I get and I've had smallmouth in water with 20ft of visibility come up and hit walking baits tied directly to braid. Your braid should be fine.