Soooo!! It's been months since I posted it been fishing.  Live in wester NY and don't do ice fishing.. hoping march brings some warmer weather and the ice thaws so I can start fishing again ! The fish withdrawal is real lol. On another note, this will be my first chance actuslly to fish pre spawn in Ny so I'm wondering what's the best jerk or rip bait to use for the colder slower waters.  

I like a lot of different jerkbaits, right after ice out I like the Pointer 78 but the last 2 season the Rapala Shadow Rap has be really good, not to be confused with the shadow rap shad. This will get some folks dander up but the smaller Luck-E-Strike RC STX jerkbait is very good at this time as well. When that water temp get above 45 then I go to Pointer 100s, Smithwick Elite 8 or regular suspending rogues and X-Raps, just about everyone will work and I don't think you need a really high end jerkbait to be successful but I do think a Pointer is 1 that suspends well in a wide range of temps and it what I consider a must have at some point.

@smalljaw67  last 2 season the Rapala Shadow Rap

 

Great smallmouth bait.

19 hours ago, Ksam1234 said:

 this will be my first chance actuslly to fish pre spawn in Ny so I'm wondering what's the best jerk or rip bait to use for the colder slower waters.  

 

Working the jerkbait much slower and with finesse movements may benefit your ice-out fishing more than different baits.  Replace snapping the bait with softer, shorter pulls and let the bait sit for longer periods of time than you would later in the season.

 

oe

1 minute ago, OkobojiEagle said:

 

Working the jerkbait much slower and with finesse movements may benefit your ice-out fishing more than different baits.  Replace snapping the bait with softer, shorter pulls and let the bait sit for longer periods of time than you would later in the season.

 

oe

Thank you for the tip.  I'm hoping march brings some warm weather so I can start fishing!

1 minute ago, Ksam1234 said:

Thank you for the tip.  I'm hoping march brings some warm weather so I can start fishing!

 

Waters differ and I haven't fished your's, but that early I try to fish jerkbaits that will run in the bottom 1/3rd of the water column I'm fishing.  If the water is too deep for me to reach that depth with a jerkbait I'll choose a different bait.

 

oe