What is everyone opinion on putting a barrel swivel with safety snap connector on end of jerk baits before putting it on your line? More lure natural movement or no?

John, there are two types of jerkbaits: Floating with yellow eyes and Suspending with red eyes.

 

These jerkbaits are designed to float parallel to the surface when jerked.

 

If you add weight to the nose the baits will point downward, which may or may not look "natural" to the bass.

 

Tournament guys will use a snap to change baits quickly and most snaps do not infringe the movement of jerkbaits, depending on their size.  A swivel will add weight.

 

So, to answer your question: Experiment.  Fish with and without the swivel and snap and let us know what you find out.

 

Should be an interesting experiment and we all are interested in your findings. 

Op didn’t mention what kind of jerk bait soft plastic or hard bait ?

Weight is critical on a jerkbait and I find that I do a lot of tuning.  I use the owner snaps without swivels as they are very lite and after removing the split ring I end up a little liter.  If the bait now rises after removing the split ring I just add it back to the front hook.  The best movement comes from using a snap or tieing to the split ring.  I don't know that I would call it natural.  Some people like a loop knot but I change jerkbait's a lot looking for the best depth and action that will trigger the strike that day.  Soft jerks I tie direct to the hook every time.

3 hours ago, John Tom said:

What is everyone opinion on putting a barrel swivel with safety snap connector on end of jerk baits before putting it on your line? More lure natural movement or no?

What would be the reason for the barrel swivel?

1 hour ago, Scott F said:

What would be the reason for the barrel swivel?

No barrel swivel for The Reason...

No swivel but snaps are ok 

You'd probably get a bit more movement, but I never use a swivel, and only rarely use a snap.

There is nothing natural about a jerk bait movement. Rig it however you want and try it, bass fishing is about tinkering with lures. 

Has anyone noticed that some of the MLF pro's use a Front Runner about 1' in front of their jerk baits....

Tom

I always use a snap but never a swivel. That allows me to change baits quickly. Also transforms slow floating to suspending or at least very slow floating.

2 hours ago, WRB said:

Has anyone noticed that some of the MLF pro's use a Front Runner about 1' in front of their jerk baits.

I've seen Ott Defoe do this but didn't realize it was a jerkbait I thought it was a top water plug. Any idea what he's putting up front? Blade bait?

The MLF final event 3 of the 6 anglers were using Front Runners, originals were Norman and today War Eagle makes them. Front Runners work with a wide verity of lures from top water, jerk and crankbaits and over looked by recreational anglers.

Tom

Just wondering @WRB what is a front runner and when and why would you throw one?

I've tried various types of cranking baits with a small snap swivel that is both a snap and swivel (as the name would imply) and I haven't had any luck with catching anything with them, despite having tried many different types of retrieval methods. By the suggestion of others, I have since changed my set-ups as an experiment. Firstly, I removed the snap rings from the top cause I was running the cranks with them attached. Secondly, when I run the cranks next time, I will simply tie on a small crankbait snap that has the wide rounded end on it, and connect the cranks onto that directly. So basically, no swivel. I'll see if this helps me or not, but I figured it was worth a try since what I was doing before didn't seem to work well. What the best way is... no idea. That's why I'm experimenting.

19 minutes ago, Swbass15 said:

Just wondering @WRB what is a front runner and when and why would you throw one?

War Eagle Front Runner is basically a swim jig head with a treblehook off the back of it and sometimes added feathers or skirt type material. You tie it to your main line about 8 to 14 inches infront of your moving style lure and its supposed to search slightly higher in the water and help catch additional fish.

Use the snap, screw the swivel.

3 hours ago, Fishinthefish said:

War Eagle Front Runner is basically a swim jig head with a treblehook off the back of it and sometimes added feathers or skirt type material. You tie it to your main line about 8 to 14 inches infront of your moving style lure and its supposed to search slightly higher in the water and help catch additional fish.

Go online, it's a teaser that is more like a small lipless with a line tie on both ends and a belly treble hook with crystal flash. Bill Norman's Front Runner was popular in the early 90's and faded into the sunset and forgotten.

Tom