[17]
JERKBAITS
Jerkbaits
have been growing in popularity in this country
since early 1993 or thereabouts. I'm well aware
that some anglers had used them long before
that, but it is only recently that any number
of anglers have realised that they do catch
pike. In common with a lot of anglers, when
I saw my first jerkbaits, in the mid eighties,
I looked at them and thought they must be rubbish
because they had no diving lips! However, as
soon as the first musky videos came into the
country I soon realised how effective they could
be. Like so many discoveries', jerkbaits started
to be used, independently, by a number of anglers
at the same time - those who had seen the videos.
At the time you had three choices. Buy a Suick
or two from Harris Angling who had begun to
list them in their catalogue, bring some jerkbaits
in from America, or make them yourself. Even
now there are not too many jerkbaits available
in the U.K. but they are at least good ones.
Luckily I knew Dave Scarff who had made his
own lures for many years. Dave soon had a number
of hand carved jerkbaits in operation. Initially
they were a little rough and ready, painted
up using just spray cans, but they caught fish.
Dave and I took what we wanted from the U.S.
videos and adapted it, sifting the wheat from
the chaff. In time Dave developed his own unique
baits - most notably the Pig which he even shipped,
like coals to Newcastle, to America where it
has caught some large muskies.
People
often ask why jerkbaits work, and I am certain
that it is the erraticness of a jerkbait's action
that triggers pike to strike at them. There
is no mimicry to these lures, no imitation of
any natural food. Jerkbaits are not representations
of jack pike or anything else, they are quite
simply reaction lures. Pike don't think, they
react. And that's just what they do to jerkbaits.
Some of the takes I have had have been ferocious
and pike have come long distances at high speed
to hit them too. In clear water it is spectacular
stuff and makes you realise what superb predators
pike really are. There is no way they are primarily
intended to skulk around picking up dead fish
from the bottom! But for them to travel such
distances to hit a lure it must have triggered
some deep instinct in a big way. Of course there
are times when jerkbaits are ignored, and other
lures are more productive. When water temperature
drops and pike slow down other lures, like crankbaits,
might be a better option. However, there are
some jerkbaits that can be worked really slowly,
mostly neutrally buoyant ones.
A short rod is essential for successful jerkbait
fishing. Keep the rod tip as close to the
water as possible.
Don't
be misled into thinking that jerkbaits are only
useful in clear water conditions. I have mentioned
the value of lures that present large silhouettes,
even in murky water, and jerkbaits certainly
do that. Being, for the most part, fairly bulky
lures they displace quite a volume of water,
which must surely be detected by the pike from
a fair distance. This displacement will be in
the low frequency range of vibration and therefore
attractive to (or perhaps I should say noticeable
by) pike over quite a distance - no matter what
the water clarity.
Unlike
all the lure types I have covered so far in
this book, jerkbaits are next to useless when
cranked straight back to the angler. While all
lures benefit from a little angler input to
get the best out of them, most have some inbuilt
action of their own. Jerkbaits do not. Having
said this, many will come in with a very lazy
sway when retrieved steadily, and although I
have not yet caught doing this I have had a
fish come after a jerkbait I was ripping back
to re-cast to pike I had just seen roll. No,
as a rule, you will have to put all the action
into your jerkbaits and this requires specialised
tackle, and a new way of thinking if you are
going to have long term success.
Jerkbait
rods benefit from being short and stiff. They
need to be short because they are predominantly
used with a downward stroke. Sideways sweeps
can be used but do cause lures to run a little
shallower. Long rods not only make the correct
action more difficult to achieve, but they also
absorb a lot of the energy you are trying to
impart to the bait. The longer and softer a
rod is the more this is so. So a stiff, short
rod keeps you in more direct touch with your
lures. Depending on your stature a rod of 5½
to 6 feet is about right. I have used rods as
long a seven feet, but found it a struggle.
Switching back to the six-footer made life so
much easier. The rod must be matched to a baitcasting
reel, there is no way that a fixed-spool reel
will work for jerkbaiting. This is partly due
to the fact that strong, and therefore thick,
lines have to be used and fixed-spools can't
cope with them. But it is mainly down to the
way you hold the rod and work the reel. I built
a jerkbait rod for use with a fixed-spool reel
for one customer, against my advice, and had
to strip it down and rebuild it to suit a baitcaster
within a week! Baitcasting reels have shorter
handles which enable you to hold the rod closer
to your body which is far more comfortable when
using the down and across strokes of the jerkbaiting
retrieve. As well as fitting a counterbalanced
handle to the Abu 6501C3 that I use for jerkbaiting
(there is no other choice of reel for the method
in my opinion), I also fitted the right-hand
side plate from as 5501 as this has no clicker.
Other people have simply removed the switches
from their 6501s. The clicker is a real pain,
for ever getting pushed on accidentally as you
fish. A simpler solution is to wrap insulation
tape around the side-plate to hold the switch
in the off position. Trim the tape neatly with
a sharp knife to make it comfortable. Little
things like this can make a big difference to
your fishing. Without the clicker to worry about,
or get annoyed by, you can concentrate on the
fishing.
When
fishing jerkbaits, I find that my left arm tends
to stay tucked in to my side, using just the
wrist to turn the reel handle, while my right
arm keeps the rod working across the front of
my body. The aim is to keep the line tight to
the lure at all times. If you stop winding on
the up-stroke of the rod, which is the usual
trap beginners with the method fall into, the
lure will rise or stall. Once you have got the
knack of the retrieve you will start to keep
control over your jerkbaits. Then you can begin
to experiment with feeding slack at times, varying
the reel speed and other techniques that break
the action of the baits. This is when you will
really start to trigger strikes. With practice
various jerkbaits can be made to corkscrew,
jump out of the water, walk on the surface and
perform any number of tricks that can trigger
strikes. Explaining how to make these things
happen is all but impossible in writing. Timing
is the key. The precise point in a lure's glide
or dive when you jerk it again has a critical
effect on its action. It is a bit like a batsman
hitting a cricket ball. If he times it right
the ball goes for six, if not it just trickles
to a close fielder.
After coming up to, but not taking, Dave Scarff's
surface lure this pike took the author's shallow
gliding jerkbait.
Strong
lines are associated with jerkbait fishing
for one good reason. Lighter lines break,
as do light traces. It is not that this strength
is needed to play the fish, it is the repeated
casting and jerking of large, heavy and bulky
lures that puts the strain on the tackle.
Standard snaps deform and open out under prolonged
use with jerkbaits. Even thirty pound wire
soon succumbs to the stresses imposed on it
as does fifteen or twenty pound line. At least
one-hundred pound trace wire and hardware
is required, with my preference being for
multistrand wire. A few U.K. anglers are trying
the stiff wire leaders used by some musky
anglers. I can see how a one piece leader,
with the snap being formed from the leader
itself, works as an anti-tangle device. Some
jerkbaits come with a short stiff wire leader
already attached to the nose loop for this
very purpose. The length of these leaders
is around about the length of the bait, and
as such should be used with in conjunction
with a twelve inch multistrand leader to keep
the line away from a pike's teeth should it
roll up in the line. When a glider shoots
forward it will travel over a multistrand
leader and the hooks can tangle with it, but
a stiff leader hangs vertically, away from
the hooks. The idea behind stiff wire leaders
is that they can never get around the hooks
as they bear against the lure body. In theory
the stiff wire leader is perfect, but in practice
multistrand leaders don't tangle all that
frequently. Certainly not often enough to
cause me any worries. I noticed the other
day how a buoyant braided line was actually
holding the multistrand trace above the bait
as it dived, making tangles with the hooks
all but impossible. This aside, sleeving the
snap connection with shrink tube to keep it
in line with the wire helps reduce tangling
difficulties. I find that when my traces start
to tangle on a regular basis they are ready
for changing anyway.
As
far as lines go, thirty pound mono was just
about standard for my jerkbaiting. The repeated
casting and jerking of lures as heavy as four
ounces will soon take its toll on lighter lines.
You don't see beach anglers casting five ounce
leads tied direct to fifteen pound line, they
use a shock leader of fifty or sixty pounds
test. Shock leaders are not practical for lure
fishing, certainly not for jerkbaiting when
there is stress imposed on the line during the
retrieve. So, in effect, we are forced to use
a shock leader that fills the reel spool. When
it comes to braids then fifty pounds is a good
starting point, make use of its finer diameter
to get heavier line on your reel. You can even
step up to eighty pound test without losing
too much line capacity on your reel or casting
distance, but 50lb is a good strength for a
braided jerkbaiting line. Dacron has been the
standard choice for musky anglers for decades,
because its low stretch makes it easier to drive
large hooks home and it puts the angler in more
direct touch with the lure - essential when
all its action comes from the angler. Superbraids
fulfil the same function but with reduced diameter
and improved abrasion resistance.
Although treated with scepticism when they
fist hit the headlines, jerkbaits are very
effective lures on their day.
Whether
you will want to go to the trouble of tackling
up for jerkbaits is up to you, but if you don't
there is no way you will be able to get the
most out of them. At best you will be restricted
to the smallest jerkbaits, at worst just the
seven inch Suicks. I still see people who have
gone some way in the stepping up process, to
maybe 20lb line. It is as if they can't face
using the heavy gear that really is needed.
So if the heavy gear puts you off, maybe because
you think it will take the fun out of the fishing,
then skip this chapter because there are no
half measures when it comes to jerkbaiting.
I always think that the biggest thrill of lure
fishing is the split second when that pike hits
your bait, and while the fight can be tremendous
fun it is often a bit of an anti-climax. It
is the take that really sets the adrenaline
flowing.
There
is no doubt at all that fishing jerkbaits is
more physically demanding on the angler than
any other form of lure fishing. Not only are
the lures heavier, commonly two ounces or more,
but the act of working them takes it out of
you too. However, they do seem to have an ability
to trigger strikes when other lures fail. And
as I find them far less boring to fish with
than many other lures I am prepared to put up
with the hardship. When I find myself starting
to wilt from the repeated hurling of hunks of
wood I switch to a more angler friendly lure
type for a while, a spinnerbait or maybe a minnow.
Either that or I sit down and take a rest. Be
warned though, jerkbaits are addictive. Ask
anyone who has used them.
The
lures themselves fall into two main groups,
although there are crossover and unique jerkbaits
too. The two most common types are the gliders
or swingbaits which follow a zigzag path, and
the diving or chopbaits which come back in an
almost straight line when viewed from above.
Gliders, like the Smity Jerks, are mostly the
traditional cigar-shaped lures, so if you see
a jerkbait that is round in cross-section and
essentially cigar shaped, but maybe a little
fatter at the front end, then odds on it will
be a glider. I think almost every glider is
weighted towards the front, which is what gives
them their swing, but this weighting also affects
their diving depth. Weight towards the front
of a bait will make it dive, while placing it
near the bait's tail gives it side-to-side action.
Combining the two in varying degrees gives each
bait its unique fishing action. Some baits are
weighted so much that they will either sink,
or suspend. These give you extra options of
presentation. Sinking jerkbaits can be worked
deep and slow, even hopping along the bottom,
or high and fast. Suspending baits can be worked
very slowly, with jerks or twitches that are
a long time apart. Diving baits tend to be unweighted,
and as a result have very little swing to them
as standard. These jerkbaits are recognised
by looking rather like small planks of wood,
they have a much flatter, slimmer look to them
than gliders. Some are round in cross-section,
but these usually have a flattened face that
makes them dive. A few, like the Suick Thriller
and the Bobbie Bait, have metal tails that can
be bent to alter the diving depth of the lure.
Up for shallow, down for deeper. This tail can
also be used to tune the lure to track true
by bending one side up or down more than the
other.
Because
we all have our own preferences regarding how
lures should fish, there is a lot of tinkering
done to jerkbaits to get them working at the
depth or speed that the individual angler fancies.
This is why you will often read about custom-weighting
jerkbaits. I won't go into this too much except
to say that I can't get along with the seven
inch Suick Thriller unless I weight it. As it
comes out of the packet I get no action at all
from pike, or haven't done so far. By wrapping
two layers of solder around the shank of the
front hook, and one around the rear hook I get
it to work a little deeper and slower. This
is successful for me. I also find that adding
a split ring to the nose loop gives it a little
more swing. The cut out 'mouth' of the Bobbie
Bait also demands the use of a split ring, or
you will have great difficulty fitting the snap
to the line tie.
Actions
of gliding and diving jerkbaits compared.
Having mentioned the Suick I might as well go
into a little more detail, because this is a
good lure to start with when it comes to fishing
jerkbaits. The Suick is easy to use and, in
the seven inch size, can be fished on traditional
spinning tackle or the outfit you use for twitching
minnows so there is no need to lay out on specialised
gear to kick off with. Suicks don't have a lot
of resistance as they come through the water,
so are easy to use without fatigue and are not
punishing on your tackle. They also catch a
lot of pike so give you confidence to try other
jerkbaits. Because they come back in a relatively
straight line Suicks are good for working along
the front of weed beds as gliders can shoot
into the weed if you are not careful. Using
short jerks or twitches keeps the bait coming
back in a straight line. The up-and-down action
of a diver is also useful for fishing in clear
patches amongst weed. Twitched slowly over the
top of the weed, jerked down harder in the pockets
and allowed to rise up the back of the next
patch of weed.
Starting
the retrieve is critical with all jerkbaits
and the Suick is no exception. If the tail is
at a shallow setting and you try jerking the
lure from stationary there is a good chance
that it will skitter across the surface. Far
better to crank it a couple of turns, which
should get it below the surface where it will
bite the water when jerked. The same goes for
most jerkbaits, gliders included, and further
cranking will help get the bait down deeper
too. This is worth remembering when you want
to achieve maximum depth. I have only recently
used a Bobbie for the first time and the eight
inch model is considerably more bulky than the
seven inch Suick. However, it is not much more
tiring to use and has a wobbling flutter to
its action, both when diving and when floating
back up. The Bobbie even has a little side to
side sway when cranked straight back.
Depending
on the lure in use, and how it is tuned, diving
baits can be got down ten feet or even more.
The key to fishing jerkbaits deep is to keep
on jerking, don't give the bait time to float
back up before you jerk it again. It is obvious
from this that neutrally buoyant baits will
get down deeper than unweighted ones. I feel
diving jerkbaits to be most useful in clear
water as I am sure they attract pike more from
the side rather than from below. I realise that
when fished with longer sweeps of the rod Suicks
develop a degree of swing, which will attract
pike from underneath, but this is nowhere near
as pronounced as it is with a true glider bait.
Many glider baits will only work in the top
three feet of the water column, although there
are some exceptions like the Fudally Reef Hawg
which has a 'mouth' cut into it that supposedly
helps to make it dive without losing the essential
swing. The flattened head of the Fish Eagle
Pig serves a similar purpose. Having rounded
front ends the majority of gliders have no flat
face to make them dive, so they swing out to
one side when pulled, then back again on the
next jerk. The length and speed of swing is
determined both by the angler and the lure's
design. Some baits have more inbuilt swing than
others. And what one lure does on a particular
retrieve might be completely different to what
another one does. Some are most successful on
a rapid twitching retrieve, darting quickly
from side to side covering a path a foot wide.
Others work best covering three feet or more
as they swing out and back from a steady sweeping
of the rod tip. By the same token two anglers
using the same bait might both catch plenty
of pike using dramatically different retrieves.
Why this should be is a complete mystery. Other
variations in action can be apparent between
two examples of the same lure. In part this
can be down to variations in the density of
the wood that they are made from, but also slight
differences in shape, weight and nose-loop positioning
can have a bearing.
Glider baits. Smity Small Jerkbait. Fudally
Reef Hawg, 8". Fish Eagle Pig. Fish Eagle
Mickie.
For
shallow fishing, glider baits are superb, working
no more than a couple of feet down. With a very
buoyant bait and a gentle stroking jerk the
bait can be walked slowly on the surface for
a few yards before using a longer strong sweep
to make it dive before commencing the sub-surface
retrieve. You can use this approach in shallow
water, or over deeper lying fish. The surface
disturbance wakes the pike up to the lure's
presence. I have had a pike shoot up the slope
of a dam wall to cartwheel out of the water
in an attempt to hit a jerkbait fished in this
way. Not once but twice in two casts! You can
also use gliders a little like surface poppers,
giving them a sharp jerk with a downward movement
of the rod to make a commotion. The Reef Hawg
dives quite steeply when you do this, looking
rather like a duck diving. As a rule gliders
get the most swing from a two to three foot
sweep of the rod, more of a smooth action than
a jerk. Short, hard jerks make the baits dart
more. You can, of course, combine the two techniques
in the same retrieve. Two or three rapid fire
twitches then a long swing, another long swing
and more rapid twitches. The permutations are
endless. Keep experimenting to find what works
on the day. I have one bait that has always
scored for me on long glides just below the
surface. The other day I had been fishing it
like this with nothing to show for my efforts.
As is so often the case I was getting a little
fed up with this and started to work it very
fast, with six inch twitches of the rod top.
This caused a jack to shoot out from the weed
to my left and nail the lure, even though it
had, apparently, ignored the same lure fished
in a more sedate way. Now I will be more willing
to fish this particular jerkbait quickly in
future.
A
continuously worked lure will catch well enough
most of the time, most notably for active fish
that are prepared to chase a bait. This is the
way to cover a lot of water fast and locate
pike in open water. As with all lures it is
usually a good idea to use a more considered
approach when fishing spots where pike might
be holding up. Pausing a lure next to a clump
of weed and then twitching it violently might
provoke a strike from a pike that would have
ignored a bait working steadily past its nose.
A common occurrence when fishing jerkbaits is
the take that comes when you start working the
lure after stopping it for some reason. Sometimes
these takes come after you have allowed the
lure to rise right back to the surface. I had
this happen to me when I had stopped to chat
to a mate. He was just saying how exciting it
must be to see a bait the size of my Pig taken
off the top when I jerked it down and a pike
of around seven pounds slashed at it. How long
had it been looking at the lure, I wonder?
Bobbie Bait, 8". Suick Thriller, 7" (with
lead wire wrapped around the hooks). Suick
Thriller, 9". Bagley's B-Flat, 8".
Letting
the bait rise a few inches or a foot, while
remaining below the surface, can also trigger
strikes on re-commencing the retrieve. This
can be used to your advantage when you see a
fish following your lure in. As so often it
is a change in the lure's behaviour that promotes
the strike.
Jerkbaits
are doing something different all the time,
and so provoke more hits than many other lures.
I could recall any number of occasions when
crankbaits had failed to produce any response,
but a jerkbait has been taken on the first cast.
The reverse can sometimes be the case, but not
so frequently. I have a preference for glider
baits, partly because they fit my belief that
lures should be fished over pikes' heads. Not
only that, but side to side movements seem to
me to trigger more strikes than anything else.
Pike will follow jerkbaits without taking them,
but far less frequently in my experience than
they do most other lures. As with minnows, jerkbaits
that roll, flashing their sides and belly, score
well. I think this goes some way to explaining
the success of Fire Tiger patterns with their
yellow sides and hot orange bellies. Indeed
any pattern that has a belly colour that contrasts
starkly with the rest of the lure will perform
well on a lure that has, or can be given, any
amount of roll to its action.
The
colour of jerkbaits, being mainly shallow working
lures, is probably not as important as we might
think because they will appear mainly in silhouette.
Having said that I have known trout to chase
two different jerkbaits, but only when they
were used in one particular pattern. So there's
no reason why pike shouldn't be so choosy too,
more so when baits are running three feet or
deeper. As jerkbaits are completely non-representational
in effect there I think there is little reason
for them to look exactly like a pike's natural
food. Rather like the majority of lures used
by trout anglers these days which look equally
unlike anything on earth. These too are reaction
lures that are designed to trigger fish into
grabbing hold of them. Bold fluorescent colours
are popular on jerkbaits, oranges, yellows and
greens in the main, and they are good pike catchers.
I have a feeling that these colours might work
because they make the lures more visible to
the pike. Whatever the true reason for their
success I find that a large amount of fluo yellow
on a jerkbait is not to be sniffed at. A combination
that has caught a lot of fish for me is a lure
with the top half fluo green and the underneath
yellow. Likewise fluo orange, and yellow make
a devastating combination. The orange on its
own is pretty useful too. The presence or absence
of contrasting stripes or scale effects is more
for the anglers benefit I think, but they might
give you confidence as they do me. Especially
with shallow running jerkbaits black, or other
dark colour schemes, can be very successful
at times. One interesting thing about the colour
black is that it is the only one that gets darker
as it recedes into the distance. All other colours
become paler, and therefore, to my way of thinking,
less obvious to the pike against the underwater
background. Perhaps this means that black lures
in general will be more obvious to pike from
a greater distance. Just a thought. Natural
patterns also work on jerkbaits as they do on
all lures, perch of course being everyone's
favourite.
For
some reason there are very few jerkbaits available
with chrome finishes, so to get any amount of
flash you have to go for baits with contrasting
side and belly colours. I have one jerkbait
at present in a few metallic finishes, the Bagley's
B-Flat, and find it every bit as successful
as silver minnows, maybe even more so. The B-Flat
is unusual in that it is a flat-sided glider.
To look at it, it resembles a stretched shad-shaped
crankbait, but without the lip. The swing that
this lure has is incredible, which would be
good enough on its own, but it also rolls over
- right onto its back! In clear water and bright
sun the flash from the chromed sides is amazing.
Not everyone rates silver or chrome lures under
these conditions, but provided there is a ripple
on the water they are my first choice. In dull
light I don't do half as well with them. Having
such a high degree of roll the B-Flat must not
only flash well, but when on its side must present
a big silhouette to the pike. Being only a very
shallow running lure the B-Flat is superb for
fishing over the tops of weed where this big-small-big-small
switch in apparent size, and flashing sides
works wonders. It can also be twitched from
the surface, and if cast close to a weedbed
and allowed to settle for a second, can draw
pike out to hit it as soon as it flips over.
Recently I have heard that this excellent lure
is yet another to get the chop from the manufacturer.
A great shame.
Sinking
jerkbaits are not all that common, this is probably
because most jerkbaits are designed for musky
fishing, and most musky fishing is concentrated
in the surface layers. There are a few though,
the Crazy Glider and Amma Bama are two that
I can think of, but neither of which I have
used. The main use for this type of jerkbait
is to fish close to the bottom, but you can
also use them to fish rapidly and shallow. Suspending
jerkbaits and slow sinkers can, naturally, be
worked slower without falling. One trait that
most heavily weighted jerkbaits share is that
they shoot a lot further forward on the jerk
than unweighted, or lightly weighted lures.
This feature makes them less tiring to work,
plus the fact that you don't have to work them
as hard to keep them low in the water. Very
buoyant baits require quite a bit of angler
effort to maintain their depth. I have very
little experience of sinking jerkbaits, but
mention them here because I know a number of
people who have caught a lot of pike on them.
One successful method has been hopping them
along the bottom, in as much as twenty feet
of water. I have even heard of one being picked
up while lying motionless on the bottom. Flat
sided sinkers wobble as they fall through the
water, which might just be enough to make a
pike hit them as they drop.
Like
a lot of lure anglers, I am convinced that jerkbaits
make pike attack them. Unfortunately for us,
pike don't have the best of guidance systems,
so when presented with an erratically moving
lure the pike gets its prediction almost right,
then the bait moves some way else. Had the lure
continued along a steady track the pike would
have hit it. Not having been pricked by the
hooks there's a good chance that it will come
back for more, even on the same retrieve or
maybe the next. Why pike should be more likely
to have a second or third go at jerkbaits than
other lures (with the notable exception of certain
surface lures) is a bit of an unknown. But this
does seem to be the case. There must be something
about the action of jerkbaits that works on
the deepest instincts of a pike.