The Power of the Jerkbait

Without question, one of my favourite and most relied upon baits for multi-species fishing is a jerkbait! This past week I was pre-fishing for a local bass tournament on a classic Canadian-shield type lake. This lake, like many lakes up north featured granite outcrops, tonnes of main-lake structure, multiple basins and even some shallow bays with weeds and boulder piles. When you're fishing lakes like this up in northwestern Ontario you really don't know what's going to bite your lure. One of the most consistent ways to cover water and locate fish on these big sprawling lakes is with a jerkbait. Although I was targetting smallmouth bass in preparation for the tournament, I caught almost as many pike and walleye as I did smallies tossing around a jerkbait. The fishing industry has released some incredible baits that really mimic a number of the baitfish that fish love. Up north, a lot of our fish key in on smelt or ciscoe (lake herring) so natural coloured jerk baits in the 3.75-5.5" range usually excel. Having said that, I've had some great success fishing really bright colours like clown, hot head (orange and chartreuse) and even pink when the wind picks up. From my experience, these bright colours work really well under hot, windy conditions when fishing adjacent to weedy areas. My all-time favourite jerkbait is without a doubt the Rapala X-Rap. This bait can be cast long distances and fished aggressively, both important characteristics in a jerk bait. Another favourite bait is the Husky Jerk, an often overlooked jerk bait that produces a pile of fish when the fish want a less aggressive bait. Of course like any fanatical angler, I've dabbled in some of the "high-end" Japanese jerkbaits and I have to say there are some great ones out there. Having said that, up north, we're constantly dealing with toothy critters like northern pike that love jerkbaits which results in a lot of "snip-offs" throughout the course of the season making baits like the X-Rap that much more appealing to use. I love fishing jerkbaits on a longer spinning rod in the 7 to 7'6" range with a high-end spinning reel loaded up with a no-stretch line and a 15lb test fluorocarbon leader. Ideally, I like a rod that has enough backbone to set the hook on bigger fish at the outer end of my cast while still having enough softness to keep the hooks from pulling out on a fish making some last minute runs at boat side. The spinning gear allows me to maximize my casting distance and work the bait a little more aggressively than I can on a casting rod. Another tip for catching more fish on a jerkbait is to swap out the factory hooks on most baits and switch them to the Gamakatsu EWG treble hooks (#4 or #6). These hooks are incredible at sticking fish and result in far more fish ending up in the boat. When time permits, I'll doctor up some of these replacement trebles with some feathers and flash for my tail hook. Following smallies seem to love nipping at the tail hook, especially when the bait is paused on the retrieve. One last tip for fishing jerkbaits is that they really do excel when the wind blows. If there's a chop on the lake, you really can't go wrong throwing a jerk bait, but remember, you never know what you're going to catch!