The Day of the Jackall Lures

Jackall lures are highly-respected by bass anglers in Japan and are just beginning to become available in North America for the first time in 2007.

Seiji Kato is the person who started Jackall and the company's chief lure designer.

Kato's legacy in bass lure development begins in 1983 when Kato got a job at Daiwa right after Kato graduated college.

In 1988, he started to design fishing lures for Daiwa where Kato says he developed the whole TD (Team Daiwa) line of lures, best known for the legendary TD Minnow jerkbait.

In 1993, Kato left Daiwa to work for fledgling company Lucky Craft where Kato says he designed the Bevy Shad, Flash Minnow and perhaps the two most famous of all Lucky Craft lures - the Pointer and the Sammy.

In 1999, Kato stated Jackall on his own with Ty Ono who's a top pro tournament angler in Japan.

In 2007, Jackall decided to introduce the "best of the best" of its product line to North America, and Ty Ono has hand-picked Jackall's very best models and colors for his company's North American debut.

Of the Jackall products introduced to North America so far, the Mikey triple-jointed swimbaits (2 sizes), the Muscle Deep crankbaits (2 sizes) and the Squad Minnow jerkbait are doing real well for North American anglers.

North American angler interest in everything else seems to be spread evenly across the different Jackall product models.

There are some real gems in the Jackall line, just waiting to be discovered by North American anglers.

Following sections include comments, tips and plenty of pics to help you get familiar with the Jackall product line now in North America. Please enjoy.

Jackall Mikey Swimbait

The Mikey is a bulky three-piece jointed bait that has an excellent reputation among anglers who fish with big swimbaits for big bass. Many California big bass experts speak highly of the Mikey.

Although it isn't as gigantic as some other big jointed swimbaits, the Mikey is fairly bulky at 5-1/2 inches long and weighs 1-1/8 oz.

Mikey will dive down to 3 feet on a moderate speed retrieve with the rod tip down. It will also create a big wake on the surface water when fished with your rod tip held up. The best retrieve speed is slowly.

It's sometimes best to intersperse sudden stops that cause the triple-jointed body to react nicely (and trigger strikes) in between slow reeling.

Even deadsticking on the surface, especially when there's a little wind drift, water movement or ripple to bounce the three body parts around, can be effective due to the disjointed nature of the three-piece body.

Jackall Mikey ~ Swimbait ~ Chartreuse Shad

Jackall Mikey ~ Swimbait ~ Ghost Minnow

Jackall Mikey ~ Swimbait ~ Aurora Black

Jackall Mikey ~ Swimbait ~ Rainbow Trout

Jackall Mikey ~ Swimbait ~ Tennessee Shad

Jackall Mikey Jr.

Compared to the bigger Mikey, the Mikey Jr. hasn't earned as good a reputation among big swimbait anglers. Probably because it's not really a big swimbait.

On the other hand, the Mikey Jr. is the one favored by anglers who fish for big smallmouth or spotted bass species that don't tend to grow as big - or go for as big a bait - as their largemouth cousins.

It's tough to call the Mikey Jr a big bait - but it is bulky for its 3-3/4 inch size and weighs 5/8 oz. So if you're not looking to land 10 to 20 pound largemouth, but you would like to bag some hefty 4 or 5 pound spots or smallies, the Mikey Jr. may be for you.

It's tough to call the Mikey Jr a big bait - but it is bulky for its 3-3/4 inch size and weighs 5/8 oz. So if you're not looking to land 10 to 20 pound largemouth, but you would like to bag some hefty 4 or 5 pound spots or smallies, the Mikey Jr. may be for you.

It excels on a slow retrieve. It is at its best when slowly crawled across the surface. At times, experiment with slow steady pulls and pauses. Even deadsticking on the surface, especially when there's a little wind drift, water movement or ripple to bounce the three body parts around, can be effective due to the disjointed nature of the three-piece body.

Jackall Mikey Jr. ~ Wakebait ~ Tennessee Shad

Jackall Mikey Jr ~ Wakebait ~ Aurora Black

Jackall Mikey Jr ~ Wakebait ~ Chartreuse Shad

Jackall Mikey Jr ~ Wakebait ~ Rainbow Trout

Jackall Mikey Jr ~ Wakebait ~ Golden Shiner

The Giron ~ Ultra-Realism in a Jointed Jackall Sunfish Swimbait

The new Giron is Jackall's answer for anglers seeking an ultra-realistic sunfish imitating bait. The photos shown here do not capture the full beauty, coloration and realism of the Jackall Giron. You have to hold it in your hand to appreciate this work of art.

Bass dine on bluegill, sunfish, crappie and panfish everywhere. Sunfish are close cousins of bass. Actually, bass are sunfish themselves. Sunfish live in the same spots as bass, eat the same prey as bass and in turn are eaten by bass. When shad, shiners, other baitfish and even crawdads become scarce (and even when they're not scarce) bass eat sunfish as a staple in their diet. Why not get a Jackall Giron jointed sunfish swimbait today and try it?

Whereas the current crop of many other brands of sunfish swimbaits are overly big, the jointed Jackall Giron is not so big, but it is bulky at 4 inches long.

Most other ultra-realistic sunfish imitating swimbaits are much bigger, longer and deeper-bodied and weigh up to several ounces. That really makes most of the others too big for everyday use - but not the Giron. In fact, due to it's moderate size, it would be hard to say the Giron's even in the same class as other bigger sunfish swimbaits. It's really not.

The Giron is just about palm-sized and that's the prefect snack size for bass. The Giron weighs a good, solid 3/4 ounce. It's ruggedly constructed and can be used with a range of medium/heavy to heavy gear of your choice, depending on just how big the bass are, and how thick the cover they're in. The Giron can handle even heavier hooks than stock, on commensurately heavier gear.

As good as it looks in the photos or in one's hand, the swimming action in the water will simply blow you away. It has one of the most lifelike swimming motions you may ever see. There are some video clips of the Giron swimming, but you really have got to see it for yourself. The video clips hardly do it justice.

The Giron jointed sunfish is a slow sinking lure and versatile. It can be used with a wide variety of actions, twitches, short frantic bursts, dead stick falls, flops and gasps, and a full gamut of any retrieve speeds. Experiment and practice, and become a true master with the jointed Giron. Learn to make this productive panfish puppet perform it's deceptive sunfish dance with every pull of you, the puppet master's string.

Jackall Muscle Deep Crankbaits

Jackall's latest crankbait. This new crankbait for 2007 was created using cutting edge computer technology. Prototype baits are designed using a computer to generate a three dimensional image of the lure, which is then made into a crankbait by a machine that can shape the bait and reproduce it from the computer image within minutes. This allows Jackall to create and test different design features and allows their pro staff to field test more bait variations rapidly.

The secret to the Muscle Deep's success lies in its moving weight system that allows longer casts, deeper retrieves and most importantly, better action than ever before.

All the tech talk aside, the 3/4 oz Muscle Deep 15+ and the 1/2 oz Muscle Deep 10+ (there are two models) have both been embraced by North American crankbaiters. As their names imply, these crankbaits get down over 15 feet and over ten feet deep respectively.

There are many good shallow-running crankbaits out there. Once you start getting down to 10 and 15 feet deep, the crankbait options become few. The Muscle Deep 15+ and 10+ are not wasting any time finding their way into the strike zone and tackle boxes of North American bass anglers. They are among the best-selling of the new baits introduced here by Jackall. If you fish deep cranks, the Muscle Deeps are something to try.

Jackall Muscle Deep 15+

Jackall Muscle Deep 10+

Jackall Squad Minnow Jerkbait

Jackall's latest jerkbait. A new jerkbait for 2007, the Squad Minnow includes darting and stop and go action. The weight system is the reason why the minnow is able to create a great darting action. Also, once you stop your rod, the action quickly stops as well.

The Squad Minnow has become very popular in North America. It weighs 1/2 oz and acts beefy on baitcasting gear. The Squad Minnow dives up to 3 feet deep.

Other Hidden Gems in the Jackall Line

The Jackall lures above are the most popular in North America today - the Mikeys and the Giron swimbaits, the Muscle Deep crankbaits and the Squad Minnow jerkbait.

There are a number of other hard plastic lures and some real hidden gems in the Jackall line, just waiting to be discovered by North American anglers. For instance, there are three other models of Jackall suspending jerkbaits, both sizes of the Bonnie topwater stickbait, the Dagored jointed prop bait, the Aragon and Cherry series of surface-waking crankbaits and the TN70 lipless crankbait (to name a few) are excellent also. In the fullness of time, more and more North American anglers may discover them also.

Until then, the Jackall baits shown above are the ones that have found biggest favor among North American anglers so far.

Other Jackall Jerkbaits

Overall, Jackall produces four suspending plastic-lipped minnow jerkbaits. Used together, all 4 models of the Jackall jerkbaits represent a complete set of suspending jerkbaits to fish from shallow to deep in the water column:

1. Smash Minnow - Shallow - 1/2 oz
2. Squad Minnow - to 3 feet - 5/8 oz
3. Squirrel - to 4 feet - 3/10 oz
4. DD Squirrel (Deep Diver) - to 8 feet - 3/8 oz

Jackall Smash Minnow

Has a more exaggerated darting action and a special weight distribution system that enables super long distance casts.

Jackall Squirrel

This jerkbait has a long bill which makes it possible to dive deeper. It produces a tight wobbling action and has a life-like stop-and-go action.

Jackall DD Squirrel

This jerkbait has a long bill which makes it possible to dive deeper. It produces a tight wobbling action and has a life-like stop-and-go action.

Jackall Bonnie, an Undiscovered Topwater Star

The Jackall Bonnie is one of the best unknown topwater baits in the USA today. It is the same style of bait as a Heddon Super Spook and Lucky Craft Sammy, meaning you use rod action to "walk the dog" with the Bonnie. What does the Bonnie do different? Why do you need it too? The Bonnie becomes necessary because its difference is it can be walked side-to-side with a faster frantic action. This heightened level of action in the Bonnie is often a strike trigger that many other lures cannot as easily reach. When you think you are working the Bonnie too fast, it's not fast enough. Working it incredibly fast is when the Bonnie leaves other baits behind in its wake. Few can match the Bonnie's productivity when bass are triggered by the fast action level of the Bonnie. So that's what makes it different - and necessary.

Now when I say fast, I mean fast side-to-side action. You can work the rod tip fast, but not retrieve line fast. So the Bonnie develops a fast side-to-side blurring action, but does not move forward fast.

The Bonnie is a great topwater bait to use with braided line, and you may tie direct. No leader and no split ring is required. You hear a lot about braid fouling in the front hook with topwater lures, and there's a way you'll learn to minimize that. You'll need to learn to optimize your techniques and lure manipulation movements to avoid that braid catching the front hook. Practice makes perfect. You can get the knack where braid really won't get caught the front hook any more with braid than with any other type line. Get used to tie braid right to the lure eye (no split ring) as that may help the braid stay untangled, and the suppleness of braid serves as a sort of substitute for what a split ring does anyway.

A soft action rod goes great with braid. The softness compensates for the lack of stretch in braid.

That's all I have to say about the Jackall Bonnie. It's an "undiscovered star" among topwater baits.

Size comparison of Jackall Bonnie 128 (top) versus Jackall Bonnie 95.

Size comparison of Jackall Bonnie 128 (top) versus Jackall Bonnie 95.

Jackall Bonnie 95 ~ Topwater ~ Aurora Black

Jackall Bonnie 128 ~ Topwater ~ Aurora Black

Jackall Dagored ~ Jointed Surface Prop Bait

The big bait craze and all the big California swimbaits hit Japan in the year 2000. These big kind of lures had never been seen there before but it didn't take long to realize that California size swimbaits were a little too big for Japanese bass fishing. So the bait manufacturers there designed and developed the little bit smaller swimbait sizes that suited them best, and that are honestly better-suited for the majority of North American anglers too. The Jackall Dagored is one of them. I guess you can say the Dagored is a big bait with a big surface swishing action - but it isn't overly huge.

This is really a niche or knack that's been perfected in Japan - slightly downsized swimbaits - and nobody makes them better. The Japanese swim baits are still a little bigger or bulkier than ordinary baits, but not nearly as big as "California" swimbait sizes that dominate the US swimbait market. How shall I describe the difference? Well, the California size swimbaits made in the USA are awesome to catch truly trophy-sized bass, and the closer you fish to the big bass belt that spans from Florida to Texas, Mexico and California, the better off you'll be to use big California swimbaits. For the majority of us fishing elsewhere, the downsized Japanese swimbaits will get us more of a bigger grade of bass on a consistent basis. The Jackall Dagored, Jackall Giron, Jackall Mikey and Mikey Jr. are perfect examples of downsized swimbaits from Japan.

The Jackall Dagored is a great surface-swishing lure. Although the Dagored is practically unknown in North America, you really out to give it a try. You'll be impressed with the spectacular action and its uncanny ability to draw smashing strikes.

The prop is designed to hit the screw on the Dagored's tail top make more noise.

Jackall Aragon Wakebait

The SSR stands for Super Shallow Running and really, the Aragon SSR is at its best when kept on top of the water's surface. Even when it gets barely subsurface, it often throws a wake.

Like other types of topwaters - poppers and buzzbaits for example - the Aragon SSR also appeals to bass with sound. It is an intense cracking sound that attracts bass to the Aragon SSR. The jointed body produces a tight wobbling action that's very lively - and emits an attention-getting cracking noise whenever the two pieces of the body hit.

Jackall TN70 Lipless Rattling Crankbait

This lipless crankbait is weighted on the outside of its body. The mouth is a tungsten metal weight. That helps keep the nose down. As the crankbait hits brush or snags, it sort of does a headstand and practically flips over backward, thereby flipping the treble hooks up and over snags.

With the action-balancing weight on the outside, the rattles inside the hollow body chambers are optimized mainly to make fish-attracting noise. The rattles put out plenty of sound, and it is a proven fact that bass like and are attracted to the sounds of rattles hitting against the walls inside a crankbait's body.

Jackall TN70 ~ Lipless Crankbait ~ Tennessee Shad

Jackall TN70 - Lipless Crankbait ~ Chartreuse Shad