Coach’s Angle of the Week…
As our favorite lakes open up from this record-setting winter, one of the first smallmouth methods we want to apply is “jerk-baiting”. You do not need a temperature gauge to know if the time is right. If your boat will float the temperature is right.
What is a jerk-bait? It is a “minnow” bait that is usually 4” to 7” long and usually slender in build. It is not fished with a steady retrieve but with an erratic jerk that may not be the same from day to day. Some are wood while others are plastic. Some famous names are Rapala, Smithwick Rogue, Cordell Redfin, Lucky Craft , Mega Bass and the Rebel. Some are floaters, some sink and some will suspend.
This method requires clear water for best results. We are blessed in this area to have some of the clearest water in the country. I spent many years in areas that had both clear water lakes and stained water lakes. We never knew until we arrived at a stained water lake if it might be clear enough for great jerk-baiting.
In our pristine lakes of NW Michigan, we know ahead of time that the jerk-bait will work. I learned to fish a jerk-bait on beautiful Bull Shoals Lake on the Arkansas/Missouri border. If you do not have jerk-baiting in your arsenal, Bull will be a tough lake.
My experience from the 1960s on Bull prepared me well for this very clear water area. What have I observed in my many hours of perfecting the jerk-bait? There are variables that might separate a bad day from a good day of this early spring method.
THE VARIABLES? Deep-diver or shallow-diver; floater or sinker; size of bait; color of bait; how long to pause between jerks; line diameter; and boat positioning are some of the factors that could separate catching from not catching!
I can give you examples of these variables at work but that can be at another time.