A lot of people think a suspending jerkbait is just an early spring, prespawn lure. Nowadays, especially with forward-facing sonar, it’s a year-round bait. Some of the best jerkbait days take place right now in December.
My favorite jerkbait is Booyah’s new Flash Point. What separates it from other jerkbaits is an integrated gold or silver reflector in the head of the lure.
The Flash Point’s reflector returns a strong sonar signal, which makes it easier to see on a forward-facing display. It also reflects light, which gives the bait a little different flash and flair.
It comes with premium hooks, so don’t you have to swap them out. And, it has a casting system that helps with distance and accuracy.
Jerkbaits shine for me in the wintertime because bass are in all stages. Here in Arkansas, the water is in the mid-50s. The bass can be shallow around docks and grass or suspended over 50 feet of water relating to schools of shad.
When the water is in the mid to upper 50s, I start shallow and work my way deeper.
The bass may not be deep when the water is in the high 40s to low 50s, but they’ll be suspended over deeper points, brushpiles and things of that nature.
Wintertime jerkbait retrieves
When the water is above 50 degrees, you can retrieve it with a quick twitching cadence and short pauses.
You need to slow down when the water drops below 50 degrees. The bass are not as lethargic as most people think in cold water. They can still move quickly, but the shad do slow down.
I slow my retrieve to mimic the natural sluggish motion of a shad in cold water. Instead of erratic twitches, I almost pull the bait and let it sit for two to three seconds or longer.
Bass in cold water swim toward your bait slowly. You can see that on Lowrance Active Target. It’s critical that you give them enough time to react to your jerkbait.
Getting deeper
The Flash Point gets down 6 to 8 feet on 12-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon. I can get it a foot deeper by dropping to 10-pound InvizX.
When the bass are 15 to 25 feet deep, you need to get the bait down 10 to 15 feet so they can see it.
I do that by taping lead strips in front of the forward hook hanger. Another option is wrapping lead wire around the hooks.
The Flash Point suspends perfectly out of the package. It doesn’t take much weight to make it sink slowly like a shad dying in winter.
If you overweight the bait, it sinks too fast to look natural. Too much weight also kills the bait’s left to right darting action.
Colors
I carry jerkbaits in a variety of colors. That lets me adjust to the weather, the water clarity and the mood of the bass.
Sometimes I find what the bass prefer by trial and error. They rarely want the same color pattern two days in a row.
In clear water on a bright, sunny day, I’ll start with a natural shad coloration. If the bass are 15 to 25 feet deep, I’ll opt for a bright white color.
In cloudy conditions, I like bright white and chartreuse colors. I also like white in dirty water. Shad turn more of a white, pale color in dirty water, no matter if it’s sunny or cloudy.
