Jerkbait Help/ Advice

[joshuaray83]

So, I just started experimenting with jerkbaits. I bought a Husky Jerk 10 and 12 suspending. I also have a few white Zoom flukes. I'm thinking about trying them side by side this weekend. Water temps will likely be in the mid-40s (though I don't have a thermometer to check) and weather will be upper-50s and sunny. Should I plan to fish the HJ any different than a weightless Zoom fluke?

[Emiliano]

I usually fish soft jerkbaits with lighter  twitches than hard baits ( to make the same action) since they can easily swim through he water with less effort.

Having no lip, a lighter twitch produces a good sharp movement, but that it's just my personal experience with the baits I use to throw,  Zoom Super fluke, MB oneten, Rerange, LC flash pointer...  

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

I’m a pretty well rounded angler. But this is one bait I can’t do well on, no mater how hard I try. I just can’t do it. I always try and fish wanting to learn but I never do well. Maybe a fish or 2 if I’m lucky.  Got plenty of good baits. Mega bass vision, lucky craft pointers, and smithwick rogues 

[MassBass]

On 12/19/2021 at 8:50 AM, Mr. Aquarium said:

I’m a pretty well rounded angler. But this is one bait I can’t do well on, no mater how hard I try. I just can’t do it. I always try and fish wanting to learn but I never do well. Maybe a fish or 2 if I’m lucky.  Got plenty of good baits. Mega bass vision, lucky craft pointers, and smithwick rogues 

Try twitch twitch pause, twitch twitch pause...every time; just experiment with the length of the pause. Deadly early to late spring bait.

[Mr. Aquarium]

15 hours ago, MassBass said:

Try twitch twitch pause, twitch twitch pause...every time; just experiment with the length of the pause. Deadly early to late spring bait.

Yea I’ll do the twitch twitch pause and count.  Nothin 

[BlakeMolone]

On 12/19/2021 at 7:50 AM, Mr. Aquarium said:

I’m a pretty well rounded angler. But this is one bait I can’t do well on, no mater how hard I try. I just can’t do it. I always try and fish wanting to learn but I never do well. Maybe a fish or 2 if I’m lucky.  Got plenty of good baits. Mega bass vision, lucky craft pointers, and smithwick rogues 

Do you do sharp twitches on slack line? Fish them in clear water?

[Mr. Aquarium]

25 minutes ago, BlakeMolone said:

Do you do sharp twitches on slack line? Fish them in clear water?

Yep. Sharp twitches slack line. I do reel in a little slack before I twitch again. 

[N Florida Mike]

I catch most of my fish with hard jerkbaits by just throwing it out and reeling it in.   ( Not that I set the world on fire that way either) but I rarely catch any by twitching it and waiting, and repeating. I keep hearing that’s the best way, but it hasn’t been for me. I am trying to improve my jerkbait success this year as I know I’m mediocre at it… I can really only fish treble hook baits from late fall to mid spring, then the weeds get too thick in my home lake in many areas…

[Bird]

It's by far my go to bait in pre-spawn. 

 

I fish extremely clear water and while standing in boat with polarized glasses on, always have a visual of bait.

 

If it's cloudy and calm, I RACE to the water with a bone suspending Jerkbait making 2 - 3 foot sweeps with rod tip down. 

Possibly due to the clear water, not sure but Jerkbaits are killer here and the fish practicality hook themselves. 

[BlakeMolone]

On 1/9/2022 at 10:34 AM, Bird said:

It's by far my go to bait in pre-spawn. 

 

I fish extremely clear water and while standing in boat with polarized glasses on, always have a visual of bait.

 

If it's cloudy and calm, I RACE to the water with a bone suspending Jerkbait making 2 - 3 foot sweeps with rod tip down. 

Possibly due to the clear water, not sure but Jerkbaits are killer here and the fish practicality hook themselves. 

Just curious, what are your go to jerkbaits?

[Bird]

1 hour ago, BlakeMolone said:

Just curious, what are your go to jerkbaits?

For the past 3 years it's been nothing but Luck E strike, affordable and catch fish here.

[BlakeMolone]

2 hours ago, Bird said:

For the past 3 years it's been nothing but Luck E strike, affordable and catch fish here.

Caught my PB on one, I may never catch a bigger bass than that actually. Just curious do you have an opinion about the old vs the new stx baits? Have you fished the h20 ultimate jerk shads? I picked one up the other day and I am actually really impressed with the action and have hooked a couple on it too.

[Bird]

3 minutes ago, BlakeMolone said:

Caught my PB on one, I may never catch a bigger bass than that actually. Just curious do you have an opinion about the old vs the new stx baits? Have you fished the h20 ultimate jerk shads? I picked one up the other day and I am actually really impressed with the action and have hooked a couple on it too.

I'm just an older stubborn fellow. Lol

If a bait is producing, I stick with it.

I still use Rapala Jerkbaits on top with good results. 

BUT your right, action is what we look for. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

On 10/29/2020 at 8:31 AM, joshuaray83 said:

So, I just started experimenting with jerkbaits. I bought a Husky Jerk 10 and 12 suspending. I also have a few white Zoom flukes. I'm thinking about trying them side by side this weekend. Water temps will likely be in the mid-40s (though I don't have a thermometer to check) and weather will be upper-50s and sunny. Should I plan to fish the HJ any different than a weightless Zoom fluke?

I absolutely love the zoom fluke! It literally catches everything’ one of my

ab Go to baits! 

[theokayangler]

I've been bass fishing for about 4 years now and one thing i just can't figure out is a jerkbait. I've had one good day on them but that's it. I've thrown them on many occasions but I just can't figure out the bite. I fish mostly deep highland reservoirs like Lake Cumberland and I know they will work but I just can't get the right method down. Any tips would be awesome!

[thediscochef]

So the tuning and hooks on jerkbaits has been touched on here a few times, but it's been a while. I did a little experimenting yesterday with some existing results.

I love the action of the H2Oxpress ultimate jerk shad, but it's had a tendency to rise in the cold water lately. I like the depth they swim to and I really love the jerk action, but I'd like them to suspend. I think that will add to my ability to pause the bait.

 

I swapped out the #6 hooks for #4 owner STX EWG, which are VERY sticky. I got myself several times on them. On one of the jerk shads I have, I replaced all three hooks, the other I did just the front two. I much preferred the action of the mixed-hook jerk shad, it had a harder nose-down action, but it sank just a little too much. The baits naturally rise just a touch. So I know the #4s were enough to make them sink. I was also having issues with the #4 hooks swinging up onto the top of the bait and getting stuck there, affecting action. I still caught a fish on it, but I couldn't help but feel like a yet still more glorious dawn awaits.

 

So last night, I changed out those #4s all back to #6 owner STX EWG and gamakatsu short shank ewg. The #4 owners went onto some lipless crankbaits.

I added one extra split ring on the front eye of two jerk shads.

I also got two more of these jerk shads in other colors and swapped their hooks to either owner STX or gamakatsu short shank but didn't add split rings. I'm going to try the split ring-added baits either today after it snows or maybe in the next couple days just to see if that made any difference at all in buoyancy and nose position at stop. I may wind up grabbing some of the dots I saw mentioned in prior posts. I also want to see if maybe just changing the hooks out was enough in these water temps, hence the new ones with only the hooks changed, no extra split rings.

[thediscochef]

So I'm absolutely loving the owner stx #6 hooks 

They are just so dang sticky. Nothing gets away. Except the whole bait when my leader snaps. Fluoroclear is bad and I feel bad.

Split ring seemed to have increased the nose-down but I think other weight alternatives or bait alternatives are probably the thing. The owner hooks weight slightly more than the originals, I think, as the main bait I used today did not float as quickly as what I'm used to with these ultimate jerk shads.

[thediscochef]

There's a ton that's already covered in this thread, like suspendots and suspenstrips, hooks etc. I've been using the owner STX38ZN hooks, spro 32lb power split rings, and vision 110 sized/clone type jerkbaits almost exclusively. I'm not using stock hardware on anything if I can help it. The megabass 110 to me is just something with predictable action and a pretty paint job, I'm still finding myself replacing the hardware. for way less you can get a huge variety of "clones", like the academy brand ultimate jerk shads, the yozuri 3db, the 6th sense provoke 106x. Very few of these baits including the megabass have reliably suspended or sank for me, the suspendots and suspenstrips are a MUST if I'm leaving much of a pause in my retrieve. I still have a lot to learn, I've not even started with baits that dive below about 7ft. Hooksets are still a work in progress, I'm still losing about one to two fish per outing, but the landing percentage has gone from like 45% to probably 75%+. 

[Dwight Hottle]

Smithwick Rogue DD modified with Owner ZoWire STX-38ZN hooks. Occasionally tagging bottom in 15-16 fow on spinning tackle spooled with 10lb braid & 8' mono leader using 12lb Suffix Advance. 

 

 

[Bird]

17 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Smithwick Rogue DD modified with Owner ZoWire STX-38ZN hooks. Occasionally tagging bottom in 15-16 fow on spinning tackle spooled with 10lb braid & 8' mono leader using 12lb Suffix Advance. 

 

 

That fish is an absolute TOAD !!!

[Jack Hanson]

On 5/21/2022 at 11:56 AM, Dwight Hottle said:

Smithwick Rogue DD modified with Owner ZoWire STX-38ZN hooks. Occasionally tagging bottom in 15-16 fow on spinning tackle spooled with 10lb braid & 8' mono leader using 12lb Suffix Advance. 

 

 

What a great fish!

[roadwarrior]

 

 

                                                 

[Masaccio]

On 10/15/2012 at 10:18 AM, J Francho said:

Here's a breakdown of Lucky Craft slash baits, by my friend Burnie.

http://www.burniehaney.com/files/Cold_Water_Jerkbaits_LOO_Spring_09_.pdf

The page didn't appear.  I'm new to LC.  They seem very popular. 

[J Francho]

Well, that was from 10 years ago. 

[Obee]

Can be very discouraging.  Just got done watching a dozen yesterday follow my jerkbait 25ft and never hit.  Tried all sorts of kinds and retrieves.  They definitely did not like the rapala's as they would rise way to fast.