A Fun Bait That Works All Year Long
A question I get asked a lot is, when is the
best time to throw soft
plastic jerk baits? My answer is always the same "I have
one tied on all
year long." I love to fish these baits so much because
of all the different
actions you can add to them! They are almost completely snagless
too, so
you can throw them just about anywhere. So lets talk a little
bit about
these soft plastic jerk baits.
Retrieves: When I start using a soft plastic
jerk bait I will always start
with an erratic retrieve, for example, "twitch, twitch,
pause." The reason I
try and do this is because this will attract any aggressive fish
or trigger a
reaction strike. If I don’t get a bite fishing the bait
this way or if I
have some fish come up behind the bait and just look at it then
I will slow
down my retrieve with the bait. Like a "pause, twitch,
pause." This makes
the bait look like a wounded bait fish that will be an easy lunch
for "Mr.
Bass." If I can’t get bit fishing the soft plastic
jerk bait this way then I
will slow way, way down. I will start dead-sticking the bait,
which means to
just leave slack line so it free falls to the bottom. Once my
bait has hit
the bottom I will pull it up every 10 seconds to check and see
if a fish has
it in it‘s mouth.
I will do this about 10 times through each retrieve.
Colors and sizes: I stick to very basic
colors and sizes "White and five
inches long." I don’t get all into the other colors
except during the bluegill spawning season. I will try and find
a color that resembles bluegill
best. I also take Spike-It dipping dye and dye the tail ends
of the baits
to make it more visible to bass. When I do this I only use orange
and
chartreuse. My favorite soft plastic jerk bait to use is a
Super Fluke made
by Zoom bait company. I have found that the Super Fluke has
the best action, it rocks back and forth when you pause it, which
resembles an injured bait fish very well.
Places to fish soft plastic jerk baits:
Whenever I use a fluke I will
experiment. When I say this I mean that I will cast at many
various depths
and target certain pieces of structure (humps, ledges, etc.)
or, target
certain pieces of cover (tules, trees, etc.) Fish will come
up from 25ft of
water to eat a fluke and they will chase it through tree limbs,
if you can
put the right action to them. That's why I talk so much about
these baits
because, fish will go absolutely crazy for them. One piece
of cover that I
love to fish is weed beds and isolated weed clumps. You can
bring them
across the top of the weeds and then let them fall in a hole
or opening in
the weeds. When you get the bait to fall through a hole just
dead-stick it, and trust me, you will know when you get bit.
They normally almost pull the rod out of your hands when you
use this technique. I can’t say that one way
of fishing the fluke will work better than another way because
it depends
what type of mood the fish are in on that particular day and
that's why I
always experiment.
Rods and lines sizes: I normally always
fish flukes with 6/30 braided line
on a spinning rod (7’ medium heavy.) I use the medium heavy
because it has
enough strength to pull the fish out of weeds and trees. It
also gives the
bait the action that I like and good hook penetration (especially
with the
braided line because it doesn’t have any stretch.) I will
use 8# test in
clear open water and especially if I am dead-sticking the bait.
By the way,
when you are fishing clear water make as long as casts as possible
so you
don’t spook the fish at all.
I hope the basics I have gone over
can help you become a better soft jerk bait fisherman. So go out on the
lake with just your soft jerk bait rod and make your-self learn how to
use them because, I can tell you that these baits are so fun once you
figure out how to use them the right way that you won’t be able to put
them down! Take care and go rip some lips.
Justin Lucas
"The California Kid" |
