Hard vs. soft jerkbaits?

[VTFan]

I can catch bass on weightless flukes, no problem there but I have yet to catch a single fish on a hard jerkbait. Seems you work them both...pretty much the same but hard jerkbaits don't do it for me.  What am I doing wrong?

[padon]

i work a hard jerk bait usually a little slower . i also want it to always be darting side to side with very little just straight forward motion. you need to work it like a walk the dog topwater always throwing slack back toward the bait at the end of every jerk. so that when you jerk the next time you are actually pulling slack before you pull the bait.

[VTFan]

Thanks Padon, I'll give it a shot.

[bowhunter63]

I pulled the old Slug Go out of retirement. Best  of both worlds 

[thunderblack]

I use to fish flukes and now fish hard jerkbaits the most. It could just be me but I fished flukes in shallow water by docks or areas that were 6' and under. I have most of my luck on jerkbaits in clear lakes in 7-20 ft depths. If its summer I fish them fast with a pause here and there. When its colder the retrieve needs to be slow. If you want to fish a deep diving Megabass Vision 110 or Lucky Craft Pointer you can fish even deeper than 20 ft. Play around with the size of the bait too. If you are throwing a larger bait try using a Rapala XR-8 or something in the 3" range. Good luck! Try baits that look super natural. Silver / perch ect..

[WRB]

Soft jerk baits are weedless go anywhere.

Hard jerk baits have treble hooks open water lures.

Tom

[Munkin]

While they are both called jerkbaits I consider them two different lures. Spring and Fall cooler water is for the hardbaits. Summer if for the soft plastic ones for me generally with some overlap. Soft are fished more aggressively while the hard suspenders you want to just hover after a couple twitches or pulls. Tough to explain here versus being able to show you what I mean?

 

Allen  

[txchaser]

+1 on both of the comments for slowing down with hard jerkbaits

also, more subtle twitches than just hard jerks while you are trying to figure them out. once you see a jerkbait on livescope you'll realize how what feels like a medium movement is really pretty far. 

[Bazoo]

I consider soft jerkbaits to be more of a throw in the slop kind of lure though I fish them in open water too. I fish them everywhere.

[GetFishorDieTryin]

I catch a lot of fish in SW with soft JBs, but I struggle in FW with them at times.  I have more confidence in a floating worm.  I do well with hard JBs.  I feel like I have more ability to match the mood of the fish with a hard JB because they have so many variables.

[bigbassin']

To me a hard jerkbait is a clear water, rock and laydown lure. Flukes will get thrown in any clarity but chocolate milk and I’m typically throwing them at grass or lily pads.

 

While I will dead stick a fluke, I’m typically keeping them moving within 2’ of the surface. On a jerkbait I may just pull and reel, pull and reel just like a worm. Or I may do 3-5 twitches then a 3 second pause, hit will come on the pause or on the first twitch typically.