FISHING
BASS SKILLS
JERKBAITS AFTER
THE PRESPAWN
5 WAYS TO USE SUSPENDING BAITS
DURING EVERY SEASON
By Matt Williams
j
erkbaits have developed a rich history of exploiting
staging bass in late winter and early spring, but some
pros have learned that prespawn isn’t the only time
when the rhythmic dance of a hard-body minnow can
help you add some big weight to the livewell.
here are five more situations in which the twitch-
twitch-pause of a jerkbait might bring out the mean streak
in headhunting largemouths:
1. blind-casting beds
once bass lock on beds, many anglers lay down the
hard baits and reach for a soft plastic or jig that can be
bumped slowly across bottom to light the defensive fuse of
territorial spawning fish. According to FLW tour pro Kurt
Dove of Del Rio, texas, a jerkbait can be equally effective on
bedding bass at times, but he’s not using it for sight-fishing.
“A jerkbait is a weapon that a lot of anglers don’t take
into consideration when bass are on beds, but it is actu-
ally a really good choice provided the water is fairly
clear,” Dove explains. “It isn’t your typical hard bait that
you just wind through an area. you can manipulate the
action of the jerkbait – specifically a suspending jerkbait –
to make it move fast or really slow. I’ll use it a lot when
blind-casting over flats or areas where I suspect there are
fish spawning that I can’t visually see.”
Rather than twitching the bait aggressively, Dove
employs two or three short twitches to emit a little life in
the lure before killing it for three to four seconds at a
time. he controls the diving depth with an upward or
downward angle of his rod tip.
“When you pause the jerkbait around a bed, the fish
will react to it the same way they do when they try to
chase a bream or other predator away from the area,” he
adds. “It’s big-profile bait that simulates a bluegill or
some other baitfish that the bass will see as a potential
threat. they’ll dart over and whack it.”
2. topwater time and shad spawns
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As water temperatures begin nudging the upper 60s
and low 70s in late spring and early summer, aggressive
postspawn bass are prone to launch into strong feeding
binges. the feeding sprees might center on early morning
shad spawns or roving pods of baitfish that gravitate to
points and other structure and cover once the sun gets up.
Dove says topwaters always get plenty of play in these
situations, but experience has taught him it’s always a
good idea to keep a jerkbait handy as well.
FlWFIshInG.com I summer 2019