The Floating Hard Jerkbait
by Massimo Zanetti
The overlooked lure. I believe that
the hard jerkbait is actually one of the hottest lures and
perhaps one of the best secrets of bass pros around the world. I
don't know why, but this lure is seldom mentioned in the bass
magazines. Even in Italy, in the high competitive ranks, I rarely
see a jerkbait tied on a bass rod. Considering this, it’s well
worth the time to gain some skill and knowledge of the lure, at
least to get one more edge up on the competition!
One of the big bass lures
that the "Bass Professor" Doug Hannon has relied on
most often to catch monster bass in clear spring waters in
Florida is the Rapala Original Floating 11 and 13 in Gold or
Silver colors. Hannon states that the Rapala, with its small
profile and slender shape, presents very few negative cues to the
eyes of a "smart" old big mouth and, a very interesting
point, it is one of the few minnow-type lures that swims
perfectly horizontally, just like a real fish does. If Hannon,
with his great track record of more than 500 10+ pounders caught
in the last 20 years, has some Rapalas in his tackle box, it
means this is a great lure. But Rapala accomplishes only one of
the several tasks a hard jerkbait has to accomplish. In fact, if
you go back to the paragraph above, Hannon uses the Rapala mainly
in clear waters.
I rely mostly on three jerkbait brands and
models, and I'll tell you why.
1) Rapala Original Floating Model 11. At
a little over 4", the Rapala is a light lure and I fish it
mostly in calm water (a smooth surface is better) and CLEAR
water. It is a lure which has few attracting qualities but high
triggering qualities. It produces very few vibrations or flash in
the water . It is a discrete lure that works the best in clear to
moderately stained waters. Silver w/black back for sunny days and
Gold w/black back for cloudy days or low light conditions.
Because of its very light weight, I fish it on a 6'3"
spinning outfit and 8 to 10 pound test clear mono.
2) Bomber Long A Model 14. .The second
lure I love to fish is also about 4" long but heavier than
the Rapala. It works very well in moderate windy conditions and
dives a little deeper than the Rapala. My favourite color is
Silver foil w/orange belly which produces a huge amount of flash
and more often than not, triggers vicious reaction strikes from
even the most finicky bass. I use this color mostly on bright
sunny days but I've caught bass on it even at dawn or dusk in
very poor light conditions. Other good colors I rely on for the
Bomber Silver flash/blue back (also for sunny days) and
chartruese flash/blue back/orange belly, excellent in stained
waters/cloudy days. I fish the Bombers with a 5'6" pistol
grip casting rod (with light tip but lots of backbone) and 12 lb.
test mono.
3) Smithwick Rattlin' Rogue. The third
lure you'll find in my jerkbait box is the 4-1/2" Rattlin'
Rogue. This lure dives down to 4'. I use this lure in poor light
conditions (e.g., dark water/cloudy skies) because of its bigger
size and - very important - built-in loud rattlers. As Jim Porter
has written in one of his articles: "I haven't seen a fish
yet that rattles." I agree with Jim on his statement
but bass seems to love those Rattlin' Rogues and really blast
them! As for the Rogue's colors, I use silver/black backs and
gold ones, for the identical reasons that I fish the Rapalas in
these colors (see above). I fish the Rogues on the same outfit
that I fish the Bomber 14A.
Techniques. Now
that I've told you about my favorite jerkbaits, let's look at my
best techniques.
In clear, cold water and with suspicious fish
I try to leave my jerkbait in a given spot the longest time I can
and move it with short twitches of the rod tip, this usually
aggravates the fish to strike.
When I don't know where the fish might be
positioned, I "run and gun" by casting my lure at the
most obvious and unobvious spots that I can. For this application
I don't use any one of the lures I've mentioned before but a big Rapala
Husky 13. I've caught tons of fish in the past retrieving
them quickly with the rod tip pointed at it, just like a
crankbait.
In every other condition, I usually cast the
jerkbait parallel to an obstacle or shallow structure and
retrieve it with sharp jerks of the rod. It’s very important
changing the angle of your cast at the same obstacle. Normally I
make a 6" jerk with the rod tip low on the water but
sometimes you need to get a long jerk to make fish strike your
jerkbait.
Modifications. A
few tips on how I modify my hard jerkbaits before tying them to
my line:
Hooks: First thing to do when you open
the package of whatever jerkbait you buy in the tackle shop is to
ALWAYS keep 'em sharp. Before casting a lure, I always check how
sharp is the hook. If the hook is not sharp enough, I'll hone it
with the sharpening stone I always keep in my tackle bag. Very
often, I also change to bigger treble hooks to try to overcome
the poor hooksetting ratios these lures normally have. Bigger and
stouter hooks surely help you to land a few more fish and in a
tournament situation one fish landed or lost often means the
difference between getting a check or not. Some lures
manufacturers say that putting a bigger set of treble hooks on
their lures will alter their balance and swimming motion, but I
have still to see this problem in actual use. Take care, of
course, not to put treble hooks that are TOO big, otherwise you’ll
often find them tangled together.
Split Rings: I often replace the split
rings with bigger ones, according to the treble hooks size and
put one on the front-eye of the lures like the Rapala Floating
model that comes without the ring. It adds a hell of lot more
action to the jerkbait!
Weight: I usually wrap the treble hooks
with some lead wire if I want to add weight to a floating
jerkbait to get more castability, to get a deeper depth and to
slow the rise (more suspending). It works like magic on finicky
bass! Consider that most of the hits on your jerkbait will come
when you make a pause between two jerks and you’ll realize how
important the speed of your lure is when it's rising to the
surface. Sometimes the bass hit with lot of delicacy and you
hardly feel the bite, just like the tick-tick on a plastic worm,
other times the mighty little green fish will almost pull the rod
out of your hands, talking about vicious strikes!
Well, that's it for now. No
more modifications are required with the hard jerkbait. All you
need to do is train your biceps with a jerk-pause,
jerk-jerk-pause or similar retrieve. At the end of the day,
you'll find your arm quite sore from fishing a jerkbait with
sharp jerks, especially if big bass are on the mood to blast the
minnow-shaped lures!
| Author Information.
 Massimo Zanetti is
33 years old, Italian by birth and bassman by choice! Massimo is
married to his wife Annalisa since 1992 and they have two
daughters, Paola and Chiara. Fishing since he was a kid, now
Massimo fishes almost exclusively for bass since 1988. He started
bass fishing competitively in late 1992. Massimo writes articles
for a few Italian fishing magazines, club newsletters, and
websites. Massimo has been a featured speaker at several
seminars.
Massimo considers himself a versatile bass
fisherman who always tries to adapt techniques and lures to
weather/water conditions and to the bass metabolism. He loves to
fish around shallow cover and visible targets, and he's mostly a
river fisherman. In his opinion, this is the way to go!
He is a field tester for Shimano Italia/Rapala
and he's sponsored by KeepAlive Oxygen Infusors, S.O.B. Fishing
Products, Snakebite Custom Fishing Tackle and Scientific Bass
Products. |
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