Jerkbait Bite

[Blazerman]

This is amazing underwater footage of bass attacking a jerkbait. The amazing part is how they can attack it and not end up hooked. Which makes me wonder how often they hit and you never know it. How they can almost inhale these things with all those hooks and not get hooked is a real eye opener.

 

 

[Ham]

I don't lose sleep over the hits that I get without hooking the fish; I lose sleep over all the fish that come over and look at the bait without me ever knowing how close they were to biting it.

 

[Blazerman]

If i can see a bass come towards the bait many times i can work the bait to try and get them to bite. That is how i caught the bass in my avatar.

But watching this makes me wonder when you do the jerk jerk thing and let the bait sit there, how often a bass eats it and doesn't get hooked and you never know because you don't feel a thing.

[Alex Heitman]

This is why I always fish a jerkbait fast with only maybe 1-2 sec pauses unless the water is under 47 degrees. I get more strikes and cover water faster by doing this. This past weekend I was letting the bait sit for 4-5 secs on Table Rock after not getting any bites for a while with the 1-2 sec pause. I got a few bites but not much. I then sped up the retrieve with hardly any pause and immediately started getting bit. Watch KVD that will tell you a lot. 

[fishinwrench]

When I let one soak I don't allow it to just sit there on a slack line, I keep the line taught by moving it forward verrrry slooooowly.    If the line is fairly tight they usually get stuck.  Or at the very least they'll knock slack in the line and you'll know you've been bit.

[Blazerman]

i was fishing some different jerkbaits Saturday and there was just enough of a breeze to put a bow in my line and make it very tough to keep contact with the bait. Plus i was throwing across the current and trying to let it get deep. Then I would twitch it and the current would keep it moving. So there was no real pause where it sitting still. i did manage to get one smallmouth but it was a tough day over all. After watching this video it makes me wonder if i could be getting bit and not know it

I started the day with the Mitch craw that i got at the meeting but could not get bit on it.

[MOPanfisher]

That was some pretty good video of how fast they can hit it and quit it.

[Al Agnew]

In that footage, the bass were pretty active; the water was probably fairly warm.  I've watched a lot of bass hit jerkbaits in cold, clear water, and much of the time they just mouth the bait, often somewhere in the middle.  The bass in the video were mostly hitting it aggressively, and when they do that they nearly always take it in head-first.  Unfortunately, there aren't any hooks in the head, so if they don't get it far enough into their mouth to reach the belly hook, they immediately feel how hard it is and spit it very quickly.  And picture this...even if they DO take it far enough in to get the belly hook into their mouth, the points of the hook will be pointing TOWARD THEIR GULLET.  So when they eject the bait, or you set the hook, the bend of the hook is being pulled or pushed back out of their mouth, so the points are not in good position to sink in.  Actually, I'm convinced that this happens a lot with any hard bait--which is a big part of how we end up missing hard strikes.

On the other hand, in cold water when they just mouth the bait, they don't even move it, so we don't feel it a lot of the time.  Even though it's a lot more trouble and danger, I've gotten to where I almost prefer three treble hook jerkbaits--I think three sticky sharp smaller trebles are a little better at hooking these fish than two treble models.  And I agree with Alex...I like to use pauses of only a couple seconds, so that if one takes the bait on the pause and I don't feel it, hopefully the hooks will stick long enough that I feel the fish, and even set the hook, with the next jerk.  If that ain't working to get strikes, I slow down more, but I do so knowing that I'm probably missing fish that take the bait.