Fishing with jerkbaits, also called jerking, has become increasingly popular in
Europe. And not without reason: it is great fun and very succesful. There's
hardly a lure fisherman who doesn't want to try it. It also seems to attract
some people with the elitist behaviour of puristic dry lfly only fisherman. A
jerkbait which wiggles however slightly on a straight retrieve will be treated
with contempt: "Yuk, a crankbait!" the nose will be turned up at it.
The same goes for all lures which sell for less than 30€
or don't weigh at least 100g.
But there is no reason to make jerkbait fishing into such an elitist discipline.
Jerking is really all about a special lure
presentation, an irregular and rather slow retrive technique. The best way
to learn this retrieve is really with a special
surface lure,
the popper. The important thing is to
give the lure enough slack line after each sharp jerk or twitch so it can unfold
its action. You really just do sharp pulls into the slightly slack line, the
cadence and amount of slack varies for different lures. Best thing is to try it
out before your feet because every lure is different and every fisherman has a
different idea of an enticing lure presentation.
The "classic" method for jerking a lure is to point the rod at it and operate
with downward movements from about hip height down to knee height, down to the
water surface or sideways ("pull"). I prefer to jerk my rod sideways
and I've been able to make every lure come alive that way. If you catch fish, it
can't be wrong. This lure presentation can also be used for normal plugs and
makes them perform interesting imitations of sick dying fish. Sometimes plugs
used for this are referred to as twitchbaits, but I think it's up to you what
you use youre lures for. Often you will hear that only plugs with rather small
diving lips can be twitched. That is plain nonsense, even a designated deep
diver like a shad rap can twitched
very nicely and successfully: just try it. But back to the "real" jerkbaits:
these are divided into two main categories: gliders, which can be made to do a
nice zigzag path (also called "walking the dog") and divers or pullbaits, which
go down on the retrieve and are often fished with longer pulls, but some of them
will also perform nicely if fished with sharp jerks. All the special tackle, the
short stout rod and the multiplier is
mainly needed for the bigger and heavier lures which are meant for pike and
muskie. It's much less about the lure presentation, than about the sheer
dimensions of these lures. The rods are well suited for fishing other monster
lures of mostly American origin: bucktails (big
spinners),
surface lures and plain old
plugs.
The reason a multiplier is (almost) a must is also mainly because of the high
lure weight. This means you can learn "jerkbait fishing" with your standard
spinning tackle and matching lures. My advice to every beginner in this field is
to present an appropriate plug (like the
husky
jerk!) with his normal tackle in the described fashion and then, if you
think thats fun and catch some fish with it you can think about buying new
tackle. A few words about the other tackle: use a braided line of at least 20Kg
breaking strength and a tough leader with good snaps and swivels: titan leaders
are best, they live longer and will make up for the higher price, at the latest
when you lose your first lure on a crimpled steel leader. A single wire leader
is classic, but not as flexible, some lures will run worse on it.
