Jerkbait Fishing
Here are a few tips on setup, retrieve techniques, and cover presentations that I feel extremely confident in at using for smallmouth bass, as well as largemouth, northern pike, and on occasion walleye in water with 2-25 foot of clarity.
We will start off with equipment setup. The best part of suspending jerkbait fishing is that the rod/reel setup DOES NOT have to be expensive AT ALL!!!! All that you need is a 6’6” to 7’ rod (7 ft is much better in my opinion – longer casts and better ability to fight one in without sacrificing casting accuracy.) The rod MUST have a fast action tip. Basically fiberglass rods or moderate power rods for crank baits are NOT what I recommend for jerkbait fishing. The reason is, when I snap the rod to entice a strike, I want an immediate response. I want that thing to dart very hard, and very quickly. My personal preference is the Cabelas Whuppin; Stick, 7’ Medium power spinning rod. I purchased mine for $19.99 and I think its currently selling for only $29. You can get the same success with a Shakespeare Ugly Stick 7’ spinning rod as well. I can not stand using a bait casting rod for jerkbaits, it feels very awkward and I lose all control of my jerkbaits with them, even though many pros LOVE them. It’s a personal preference thing, but I really advise everyone to keep the baitcasters for spinners, frogs, jigs, deep cranking.
For reels, just buy your favorite $30 spinning reel. You don’t need to go crazy on this either. The more you spend, the smoother the reel is, and the longer it will last. Its extremely important to test the drag out on the reels at the store. You need a very smooth drag when jerkbait fishing. It has to be set correctly, it will cause line breaks and lose fish if its set incorrectly or if its a junk drag. I like using cheap Shimano reels for jerkbaits but any brand will work if that drag is smooth.
The most critical part to jerkbait fishing is line!!!!!!!! You can not use garbage, you cannot substitute types of line. You can not use monofilament or braid!!!!! It will cause the line to float, it will not allow the jerkbait to go deep as possible, and I will catch 18 fish to your one if you are using these kinds of lines, I promise! You have to use a high quality fluorocarbon. I have tested several brands and strengths of these lines in the last few years and really have this figured out well. Sunline Sniper seems to be decent, but does have a little more memory than it should for its very high price. Seaguar InvisX is fantastic for memory and castability, but has HORRIBLE knot strength. P-Line 100% Flourocarbon is all around OUTSTANDING line for jerkbaits. And the surprise for me is that Seaguar RED LABEL (found cheap at Walmart) is very very good as well for around only $11!!! Berkley Flourocarbons are all an absolute nightmare and belongs in the bottom of a bon fire. They are like a slinky coming out of your rod guides. Absolute garbage. For line strength, 8 lb is not tough enough, 10 lb is perfect and seems to get down pretty deep without losing its ability to go invisible underwater.
The best knot I ever used is the SAN DIEGO JAM KNOT. Look this knot up on YouTube. Practice it over and over. Use it all the time. Its incredible how great this knot is, and its nice to use it on expensive lures that you don’t want lost to stinky pike in the Northern part of the US.
So here is the setup summary: 7’ MED Rod, fast action tip. 10lb P Line 100% Flourocarbon or 10lb Seaguar RED LINE.
Next thing you want to do is buy the correct jerkbait. At James Gang Fishing Co, Alex and I are all about honesty. In our history, we have caught a zillion bass on the X Rap #8 in silver with a black or green back. We use this color to imitate cisco. And the bass LOVE IT. We experimented with the Lucky Strike STX Rick Clunn Jerkbait, the Smithwick Rogues, the Live Target Smelt, but none of them compared to the X Rap in erratic darting and perfect suspension down in the water column. We have tried Strike King's KVD DEEP Jerkbait, and found that it is a better suspender on the market. It is the most erratic deep diver I have used, and it dives as deep as advertised. Unfortunately the hooks are junk and need to be replaced before its first use. When we got into crafting lures, we got a hold of blank Lucky Craft Pointer 78 and 100s . Our success with them was crazy. We painted them to look like a Bloody Cisco, and Alex named it the "Bass Jerker." To our surprise, the 78 size has a better action than an X Rap, but the 100 we were disappointed with. I do not believe there is a finer jerkbait around than our Bass Jerker or the Lucky Craft Pointer 78. We stopped making the 100, its more subtle so it would be great for fall jerkbait fishing, but its just not our style of something we wanted to produce. We only want to produce extreme quality lures that will catch a lot of fish with our favorite techniques. A major reason our Bass Jerker is better than store bought is that we upsized and upgraded to VMC Blood Red #5 hooks, and added a hand-tied set of feathers. I won’t fish without them anymore They attract bites like crazy. So if you want a killer 3.25” jerkbait, buy our Bass Jerker, if you need something 4” or bigger, or the deep diver, buy the X Rap at the store. We offer an amazing perch pattern, the ghost minnow is incredible as well, and the best fish catcher BY FAR is our custom painted BLOODY CISCO.
Now that you have a rod, reel, line, and a premium suspending jerkbait tied with a San Diego Jam Knot, you are ready to fish. They are extremely easy to cast accurately on a spinning rod. Always cast PAST your target, and make sure that cast is at least in 3 feet of water. When your lure hits the water, give it a slow pull or tiny jerk to get it to dive down a foot or two then pause. The lure will be down and it will not rise to the top. It looks so natural. Then retrieve it with a very hard snap to move the lure a foot, then pause for 2 seconds, snap it hard, pause. Repeat this all the way to the boat. Wear polarized glasses and watch for fish darting towards it from far away and attacking it at the side, they will travel very hard to kill a suspended jerkbait, and mostly when it is paused. If a fish gets right up to it but wont hit it, don’t panic, just give it a twich pause twitch pause as short of a distance as possible. It almost always generates a strike, usually right at the boat. The VMC hooks are nasty and they will hook their face somehow if the fish strikes.
As far as cover, this sounds crazy but I try and cast up a fallen log in the water that has about 2 feet of water above it. I run right down the tree trunk with that nasty jerkbait full of hooks. I give it softer snaps until the log gets deeper and deeper. Typically when you got about 5 feet under your lure of water above that log, then you can go wild with the nasty snaps once again and get that thing darting as hard as possible. This is where I usually get bit, about 7 feet deep. I have seen so many times a smallmouth comes out from under a log and comes up to drill it especially if my lure slightly knicks the log without snagging. I cant do it in twigs, but I can seem to knick the log on the main trunk going parallel if the log sinks down deeper and deeper as you pull the lure towards you.
You can fish weeds edges carefully, but its tough when the random weed or two is around them trebles. I pretty much set the jerkbait rod down at any weeds, and grab a finesse worm, or a top water around all weeds, and when I get back to clean water with rocks, boulders, and wood cover, the jerkbait immediately comes back out. The deep edge of a defined weedline is the only time I throw jerkbaits near weeds.
As far as crystal clear lakes, we are talking 25 foot clarity, there is no better lure than the suspending jerkbait. Ok, maybe the drop shot is tied. But the jerkbait calls them boys up from so far its crazy, especially in bad wind and crashing waves blowing you all over. What you do is position the boat out just enough that you can not see the bottom. My best example is Lake Michigan, because I have has success there. I find a ledge, which there is about 8 feet deep, that drops instantly to 30 ft deep. I cast as far as I can on that ledge drop off, and retrieve it parallel to shore, keeping the lure darting right at the ledge drop off all the way back to the boat. And in these places is where the school of giants may fight over your lure, especially if you hooked one. I landed a very fat and healthy 16.75” smallmouth on Lake Michigan on a jerkbait 2 years ago with a giant and a small legal one fighting over the lure when I reeled him in. I circled the boat and re-casted the same spot and the giant came and drilled it, it was the biggest bass of my life, a gorgeous 21” smallmouth weighing 5lbs 4 oz. The smallmouth were coming up from 25 feet down to crush that jerkbait. Its amazing what they will do when they see that thing dart around from so far away. Alex took a picture of the two beauties and then we released them like always. Suspending jerkbaits are something that every bass fisherman needs to try and get the hang of. There is no doubt that it is my favorite way to catch fish, I like it more than topwater fishing! I hope these tips help you with your fishing, and email me at [email protected] if you have any questions.
Jesse
Here are a few tips on setup, retrieve techniques, and cover presentations that I feel extremely confident in at using for smallmouth bass, as well as largemouth, northern pike, and on occasion walleye in water with 2-25 foot of clarity.
We will start off with equipment setup. The best part of suspending jerkbait fishing is that the rod/reel setup DOES NOT have to be expensive AT ALL!!!! All that you need is a 6’6” to 7’ rod (7 ft is much better in my opinion – longer casts and better ability to fight one in without sacrificing casting accuracy.) The rod MUST have a fast action tip. Basically fiberglass rods or moderate power rods for crank baits are NOT what I recommend for jerkbait fishing. The reason is, when I snap the rod to entice a strike, I want an immediate response. I want that thing to dart very hard, and very quickly. My personal preference is the Cabelas Whuppin; Stick, 7’ Medium power spinning rod. I purchased mine for $19.99 and I think its currently selling for only $29. You can get the same success with a Shakespeare Ugly Stick 7’ spinning rod as well. I can not stand using a bait casting rod for jerkbaits, it feels very awkward and I lose all control of my jerkbaits with them, even though many pros LOVE them. It’s a personal preference thing, but I really advise everyone to keep the baitcasters for spinners, frogs, jigs, deep cranking.
For reels, just buy your favorite $30 spinning reel. You don’t need to go crazy on this either. The more you spend, the smoother the reel is, and the longer it will last. Its extremely important to test the drag out on the reels at the store. You need a very smooth drag when jerkbait fishing. It has to be set correctly, it will cause line breaks and lose fish if its set incorrectly or if its a junk drag. I like using cheap Shimano reels for jerkbaits but any brand will work if that drag is smooth.
The most critical part to jerkbait fishing is line!!!!!!!! You can not use garbage, you cannot substitute types of line. You can not use monofilament or braid!!!!! It will cause the line to float, it will not allow the jerkbait to go deep as possible, and I will catch 18 fish to your one if you are using these kinds of lines, I promise! You have to use a high quality fluorocarbon. I have tested several brands and strengths of these lines in the last few years and really have this figured out well. Sunline Sniper seems to be decent, but does have a little more memory than it should for its very high price. Seaguar InvisX is fantastic for memory and castability, but has HORRIBLE knot strength. P-Line 100% Flourocarbon is all around OUTSTANDING line for jerkbaits. And the surprise for me is that Seaguar RED LABEL (found cheap at Walmart) is very very good as well for around only $11!!! Berkley Flourocarbons are all an absolute nightmare and belongs in the bottom of a bon fire. They are like a slinky coming out of your rod guides. Absolute garbage. For line strength, 8 lb is not tough enough, 10 lb is perfect and seems to get down pretty deep without losing its ability to go invisible underwater.
The best knot I ever used is the SAN DIEGO JAM KNOT. Look this knot up on YouTube. Practice it over and over. Use it all the time. Its incredible how great this knot is, and its nice to use it on expensive lures that you don’t want lost to stinky pike in the Northern part of the US.
So here is the setup summary: 7’ MED Rod, fast action tip. 10lb P Line 100% Flourocarbon or 10lb Seaguar RED LINE.
Next thing you want to do is buy the correct jerkbait. At James Gang Fishing Co, Alex and I are all about honesty. In our history, we have caught a zillion bass on the X Rap #8 in silver with a black or green back. We use this color to imitate cisco. And the bass LOVE IT. We experimented with the Lucky Strike STX Rick Clunn Jerkbait, the Smithwick Rogues, the Live Target Smelt, but none of them compared to the X Rap in erratic darting and perfect suspension down in the water column. We have tried Strike King's KVD DEEP Jerkbait, and found that it is a better suspender on the market. It is the most erratic deep diver I have used, and it dives as deep as advertised. Unfortunately the hooks are junk and need to be replaced before its first use. When we got into crafting lures, we got a hold of blank Lucky Craft Pointer 78 and 100s . Our success with them was crazy. We painted them to look like a Bloody Cisco, and Alex named it the "Bass Jerker." To our surprise, the 78 size has a better action than an X Rap, but the 100 we were disappointed with. I do not believe there is a finer jerkbait around than our Bass Jerker or the Lucky Craft Pointer 78. We stopped making the 100, its more subtle so it would be great for fall jerkbait fishing, but its just not our style of something we wanted to produce. We only want to produce extreme quality lures that will catch a lot of fish with our favorite techniques. A major reason our Bass Jerker is better than store bought is that we upsized and upgraded to VMC Blood Red #5 hooks, and added a hand-tied set of feathers. I won’t fish without them anymore They attract bites like crazy. So if you want a killer 3.25” jerkbait, buy our Bass Jerker, if you need something 4” or bigger, or the deep diver, buy the X Rap at the store. We offer an amazing perch pattern, the ghost minnow is incredible as well, and the best fish catcher BY FAR is our custom painted BLOODY CISCO.
Now that you have a rod, reel, line, and a premium suspending jerkbait tied with a San Diego Jam Knot, you are ready to fish. They are extremely easy to cast accurately on a spinning rod. Always cast PAST your target, and make sure that cast is at least in 3 feet of water. When your lure hits the water, give it a slow pull or tiny jerk to get it to dive down a foot or two then pause. The lure will be down and it will not rise to the top. It looks so natural. Then retrieve it with a very hard snap to move the lure a foot, then pause for 2 seconds, snap it hard, pause. Repeat this all the way to the boat. Wear polarized glasses and watch for fish darting towards it from far away and attacking it at the side, they will travel very hard to kill a suspended jerkbait, and mostly when it is paused. If a fish gets right up to it but wont hit it, don’t panic, just give it a twich pause twitch pause as short of a distance as possible. It almost always generates a strike, usually right at the boat. The VMC hooks are nasty and they will hook their face somehow if the fish strikes.
As far as cover, this sounds crazy but I try and cast up a fallen log in the water that has about 2 feet of water above it. I run right down the tree trunk with that nasty jerkbait full of hooks. I give it softer snaps until the log gets deeper and deeper. Typically when you got about 5 feet under your lure of water above that log, then you can go wild with the nasty snaps once again and get that thing darting as hard as possible. This is where I usually get bit, about 7 feet deep. I have seen so many times a smallmouth comes out from under a log and comes up to drill it especially if my lure slightly knicks the log without snagging. I cant do it in twigs, but I can seem to knick the log on the main trunk going parallel if the log sinks down deeper and deeper as you pull the lure towards you.
You can fish weeds edges carefully, but its tough when the random weed or two is around them trebles. I pretty much set the jerkbait rod down at any weeds, and grab a finesse worm, or a top water around all weeds, and when I get back to clean water with rocks, boulders, and wood cover, the jerkbait immediately comes back out. The deep edge of a defined weedline is the only time I throw jerkbaits near weeds.
As far as crystal clear lakes, we are talking 25 foot clarity, there is no better lure than the suspending jerkbait. Ok, maybe the drop shot is tied. But the jerkbait calls them boys up from so far its crazy, especially in bad wind and crashing waves blowing you all over. What you do is position the boat out just enough that you can not see the bottom. My best example is Lake Michigan, because I have has success there. I find a ledge, which there is about 8 feet deep, that drops instantly to 30 ft deep. I cast as far as I can on that ledge drop off, and retrieve it parallel to shore, keeping the lure darting right at the ledge drop off all the way back to the boat. And in these places is where the school of giants may fight over your lure, especially if you hooked one. I landed a very fat and healthy 16.75” smallmouth on Lake Michigan on a jerkbait 2 years ago with a giant and a small legal one fighting over the lure when I reeled him in. I circled the boat and re-casted the same spot and the giant came and drilled it, it was the biggest bass of my life, a gorgeous 21” smallmouth weighing 5lbs 4 oz. The smallmouth were coming up from 25 feet down to crush that jerkbait. Its amazing what they will do when they see that thing dart around from so far away. Alex took a picture of the two beauties and then we released them like always. Suspending jerkbaits are something that every bass fisherman needs to try and get the hang of. There is no doubt that it is my favorite way to catch fish, I like it more than topwater fishing! I hope these tips help you with your fishing, and email me at [email protected] if you have any questions.
Jesse
Alex holding my 21" Lake Michigan Smallmouth Bass, 5 lbs 4 oz caught on a silver suspending jerkbait
16.75" and 21" Smallmouth Bass caught two casts in a row on a suspending jerkbait
