Help Me Understand Jerk Baits And How To Use Them

[TNBassin']

I've never used these lures, and don't know what to look for when buying them or how to really use them. We have very few good shallow spots to use these in my lake, so it's one of those baits I've never felt the need for. Until now. These are the hot bait out on our lake right now, but I'm clueless lol. Any info and advice is appreciated.

[bowhunter63]

I use mine on spinning tackle.There great in colder water.I use a slow twitching retrive stopping often and letting the bait suspend.They have them now that run down to10 ft.Storm makes suspend dots that stick to your bait so you can control the depth you want your bait to hang at or how fast it will rise.In the fall its slow fishin for sure.I use Thunder sticks,Rapalas and Rouges.I have alot of luck around rip rap.Try to match your forage in your water.Vary your time of pauseing till the fish let ya know what they want.Usally i snap my rod about 6 inches or so then pause.Good luck

[roadwarrior]

We have a thread pinned at the top of the page.

[Raul]

You want to know about jerkbaits, what kind of jerkbaits ? because "jerkbaits" describe two different universes: soft and hard jerkbaits. Hard jerkbaits are made from wood or plastic are represented by minnow shaped lures ( like the X-Rap ) which also present several subdivisions: floating, sinking, neutrally bouyant ( suspending ), shallow runners, deep runners, so hard jerkbaits can work in practical terms all throughout the water column dending upon type and rigging.

Soft jerkbaits are made from soft plastic and tend to mimic bigger than minnow size forage fish like shad or shiners and can be rigged in many ways to attack the different layers of the water column.

It´s not an easy question to answer, because is not an answer but an entire theme to discuss.

[TNBassin']

We have a thread pinned at the top of the page.

Wow. I didn't see the forest for all the trees. my mistake. Seemed like that focused more on suspending vs non suspending though.

[11justin22]

Get a rogue, chrome side blue back in the suspending model. Use erratic twitches and let the fish dictate the speed. Generally the colder the slower between twitches. Also don't confine a jerkbait to shallow water. I have had great days next to a bluff in sixty feet of water with a jerkbait.

[Silas]

I just started using jerkbaits a couple of weeks ago. After looking through the forums, I chose to buy a couple of Lucky Craft Pointers: a 100 in Ghost Phantom Chartreuse, and a 78 in Sexy Shad. In the past couple of weeks I've been trying to fish some flats.....I've never fished them before.

So, in 2 weeks, I have caught more and bigger bass than ever at this time of year. A personal best yesterday over 6 pounds, with several over 3 pounds. And all of this on a little bayou in South La.

I'm delighted with the success, and ordered a couple more Pointers and even ordered a couple of Magabass Vision 110's since so much has been written about them

Went out for an hour today and caught 5 bass averaging 2 pounds on the Pointer 100.

Learned a lot from the videos about retreive (jerk, pause, jerk, jerk, long pause) and about using a moderate action rod and mono line. All have worked well.

Now, I just have to do the same with JIGS. Haven't fished them much and should do well here.

[SirSnookalot]

One way I fish jerkbaits is what I call "lazy fishing", in that I'm extending very little energy. I do not retrieve my lure, I pull it thru the water with an a slowish arm swing, reeling up the slack. As I'm taking up slack the lure is at rest in the water, that's the time where I some good strikes. Any ambush fish like a bass IMO goes for the easiest target, unless they are in a highly aggressive mood, that being the case I change my technique accordingly.

[thehooligan]

Theres really only two jerkbaits i use now, the yozuri floating and suspending pins minnows. I use the floating for warmer weather and suspending for the cold.

Im a jerkbait nut and have tried alot, but the yozuri's are awesome.