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By Scott Hammer
Mid-Atlantic Staff Writer

March 17, 2011

This article could've just as easily been titled, "What To Throw When Your Arm Falls Off After A Few Hours of Jerkbait Fishing" but the editor thought it was a bit wordy.

It’s spring which means it’s time to get the boat out of mothballs and go hunting for some pre-spawn bass. In Virginia most anglers break out their favorite jerkbaits and head to the mouths of creeks that are prime staging areas for pre-spawn bass and I’ll admit I’m right in there with them.

The key to a jerkbait is in the cadence. I have spent many hours trying to figure out the jerkbait puzzle:

Jerk, jerk, pause?

Jerk, pause, jerk?

Or maybe jerk, jerk, jerk, pause.

You get the idea. The more I’ve experimented with my cadence, the more I’ve come to realize the important thing is to determine how long to pause.  Sometimes you need to let the bait sit still in the water 30 seconds or more. After a day of jerkbait fishing, my left arm always feels about three inches longer than my right.

Then one day the light bulb went on. If the key is the pause, what other baits would be worth a try using this same technique? Pre-spawn bass normally hold in deeper water adjacent to flats, there is no structure and they do not always relate to baitfish that already may be in the shallows looking for warmer water. This reminded me of fishing the dog days of summer when the bass pull out to deeper water and come up into the shallows to feed.

Although the bass are not keying on baitfish, they will actively feed since they will not be feeding during the spawn. This is their last chance for a meal before that process begins. But the water is still cold and bass metabolism is slow. That is why the long pause is needed to entice a strike with a jerkbait. The jerking action gets their attention and the pause convinces them that it’s an easy meal. Two baits come to mind here: a shakeyhead and a dropshot which are both designed to keep the bait in the strike zone longer. A third offering would be a weightless fluke type bait. After a little trial and error, I came up with a system that has served me well.

When I get to a prime area, I stay well off the bank, creek channel, flat or whatever is drawing the pre-spawn bass in. The first bait out of the box is the dropshot. I select a medium action 7 foot rod with a fast tip, coupled with a spinning reel spooled with 8-10 pound fluorocarbon line, and a ¼ ounce dropshot weight with about 12 inches of tag line.  A #1 (not 1.0) Gamakatsu EWG is my hook of choice.  I Texas rig the bait which cuts down on snags, but a nose or wacky rig will also work well with this setup. My plastic will either be a Yamamoto Kut Tail worm or Pro Senko in lighter shad colors. I cast this outfit up onto the flat and slowly work it back to the boat.

Normally, I would cruise the flat with my electronics to locate fish but fish are skittish during pre-spawn and I do not want to risk scattering them. The dropshot is my first choice because it positions the bait off the bottom and gives the appearance of a seasonal shad die-off baitfish in the last throws of life.

My second go-to is the shakeyhead in ¼ ounce, thrown on a 6’6” worm rod and 15-pound fluorocarbon.  My favorite bait with this setup is a Yamamoto curly tail but I have been known to rig up a Senko as well.  I work it the same way as the dropshot, with long casts and a slow retrieve back to the boat. If I find that the fish have moved up closer and I don’t have to work deeper water my last option is a weightless fluke style bait on a 5.0 Gamakatsu EWG hook. I use a 6’9” medium action rod for this setup and 15-pound test fluorocarbon line.

So you see, even for a finesse fanatic like me, I can fish my strength during the pre-spawn and I can also throw the traditional suspending jerkbait until fatigue sets and I need a break from the “jerk, jerk and pause” routine of traditional springtime fishing.