the jerkbait has been producing for me lately with water temps 48-52 degrees. is it worth throwing a weightless fluke out there to get the same reaction bite on different sets of fish? i've seen a ton of information that a fluke is better post spawn and in the summer/fall. for being a soft plastic jerkbait with similiar action (other than the bait suspending), why does it seem to be reccomended in such different times of the year?

I think the reason for fluke mentioned as a summer fall bait is that most folks fish them faster. If you can let the fluke settle to the depth you want, and fish it slowly, I think it would work also. It would be very easy for people to overwork a weightless fluke, as opposed to a hard jerkbait. I would sure give it a try

My fishing buddy's a fluke fanatic. He always has a fluke tied on, and has a ton of different types. He's cleaned up all winter through this spring with them by playing with his retrieve and action until they tell him what they want. He does quite well in the summer with them too.

Fluke vs jerkbait. Both work really well, the thing I like about a fluke is, it has a completely different action  when  fished weightless. It also doesn't have treble hooks to contend with..lol The different ways you can fish a fluke just makes it so much more versatile. I always have bags upon bags of flukes from baby flukes up to the magnum flukes.

I have maybe 4 jerkbaits. Being in So. Cali, I throw them year round.  

I mainly use flukes after the water temp gets above 60 degrees. Until then the hard jerkbait is my choice.

Often times in colder water the bass will swipe at a bait. The 3 sets of treble hooks on a hard jerkbait will usually catch that fish. The one ewg on a fluke often times does not.

The issue with the fluke in colder water is depth control. Make a cast with the jerkbait and give it a few rips and it is at depth and then stop it and it stays there. The fluke is cast and then you have to let it sink to depth, give it a few rips and it is too high in the water column. Russ E also mentioned the other part, the treble hooks, and that is a big part. A lot of those jerkbait bites are just fish swiping at the bait, you won't hook them with a fluke very often. When fish are more active the fluke works well but there is a reason more will use a jerkbait in colder water instead of the fluke.

2 hours ago, smalljaw67 said:

The issue with the fluke in colder water is depth control. Make a cast with the jerkbait and give it a few rips and it is at depth and then stop it and it stays there. The fluke is cast and then you have to let it sink to depth, give it a few rips and it is too high in the water column. Russ E also mentioned the other part, the treble hooks, and that is a big part. A lot of those jerkbait bites are just fish swiping at the bait, you won't hook them with a fluke very often. When fish are more active the fluke works well but there is a reason more will use a jerkbait in colder water instead of the fluke.

Was going to respond with exactly this and then saw at the bottom of the thread. Any good suspending jerkbait will sit perfectly still when your retrieve pauses. Even a weightless fluke will still slowly sink when paused because of the weight of the hook. 

 

I'm not a huge jerkbait user (no real reason, I know people slay on them, just have never gotten into them) but I use weightless flukes all the time. Based on the suspending factor, I would say that a jerkbait is better in cold water. The other factor for using a weightless fluke is, of course, the unexposed hook. This is of course good if you need weedless, which is the primary reason I fish them so much, but not as good if you are dealing with tentative swiping fish rather than swallowers. 

 

Having said all of that, I feel like one of the benefits of the weightless fluke is the ability to vary the retrieve so much. I can span a wide range from super slow to pretty fast. But if it's cold cold water, I would not want the fluke sinking.