As the water continues to warm during pre-spawn what techniques do you guys use for jerkbaits? Do you twitch them more aggressively or put them away? Only asking because I caught my first JB fish of 2021 yesterday doing a agressive 3-1 twitch with 5 second pauses, the slow twitching I usually use wasn't working. 

As the water warms & fish get more active I speed up my jerk bait retrieve. Absolutely the fish will react to a faster retrieve as conditions change. I fish jerk baits all year long. When fish are super active I'll switch to slash baits working the bait as fast as I can. Slash baits examples would be rapala x-rap or Ima flit. Don't put them away just adapt your retrieve to what works. 

Don't listen to @Dwight Hottle.  He doesn't know a darn thing about jerkbaits.

 

?

I  certainly wouldn't lock them up, but I would get more aggressive in the retrieve. 

 

I'm also not convinced that you need clear water to fish a jerkbait.  But, if everyone else wants to continue to believe that I'm going to let them ?

I am no jerk bait guru by any means . One summer day I could not get bass to commit to crankbaits . I switched brands , colors... The bass were just bumping it and the ones I caught were barely hooked or snagged in the face . I tied on a suspending X-Rap and did quick jerks with short pauses and hammered them the rest of the day .

32 minutes ago, rtwvumtneer6 said:

I  certainly wouldn't lock them up, but I would get more aggressive in the retrieve. 

 

I'm also not convinced that you need clear water to fish a jerkbait.  But, if everyone else wants to continue to believe that I'm going to let them ?

My water is heavily stained and I got one yesterday on a yozuri 3DB in Table Rock Shad, that myth is busted and I don't understand how people continue to believe it. 

There are injured and dying baitfish all year long........

jerkbaits work all year long.  It's just that sometimes other baits get more bites.

3 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Slash baits examples would be rapala x-rap or Ima flit.

That's interesting - I've use both those baits with quite limited success with water temps in the 30s.  I might have to give them a try this summer.  You couldn't fill a thimble with what I know about jerkbaits.  

I used to only fish them in the spring on clear waters for smallmouth.

 

Then I tried one in July on a more stained water lake for largies and about 2 casts in a decent one smashed it. That was an eye opener for me.

 

My primary use is still in spring for smallmouth on clear water but if you give it some time, I think they can be effective in other situations all year round.

 

I’ve also caught walleyes and pike on them too, and I’m sure a muskie would hit it too.

Fish eat other fish. 
Jerkbaits look like fish.

 

There’s that part..

I use jerkbait’s all season long and they work.

I go either big or small for warm water jerkbaits (2 favorites are a Duo Rozante 77 and Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 127mr). I fish them very fast, barely any pause at all. They aren't as effective during the warmer months as they are in colder water, but there's days that they're still the best thing going.

I use jerkbaits all year long . When most are using finesse techniques during the hottest months I use jerks as I do in winter (slow retrieve - long pauses) but near cover and that saved me a lot of day. 

I agree that they are effective in murky water as well, just changing the profile and colour accordingly to the conditions.

Like everyone else in this thread, I pretty much use them all year long - you just need to alter your colors and retrieve speed. I'll alter the retrieve speed until the fish show me what they want.

quicker = summer months

typically as the water warms the less time you should leave in-between jerks. In the summer, I would leave 3 seconds in-between my sets of jerks. For my jerks, I do 3 to 1 to 2. 

19 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I go either big or small for warm water jerkbaits (2 favorites are a Duo Rozante 77 and Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 127mr). I fish them very fast, barely any pause at all. They aren't as effective during the warmer months as they are in colder water, but there's days that they're still the best thing going.

 I recently picked up a few of the Rozante 77's to try them out. They have great action to them, and should kill the smallies up here. I however was not prepared for the sound of the magnetic casting system in them on the first cast with one. I heard that snap and immediately thought I had snapped the tip off my rod lol. 

33 minutes ago, walleyecrazy said:

 I recently picked up a few of the Rozante 77's to try them out. They have great action to them, and should kill the smallies up here. I however was not prepared for the sound of the magnetic casting system in them on the first cast with one. I heard that snap and immediately thought I had snapped the tip off my rod lol. 

That's what I thought as well. I throw them on spinning tackle and really don't snap cast hard enough to move that weight very often. I really don't notice much loss of distance without the weight transferring. Might be more evident with baitcasting.

I suppose that Duo weight transfer system is similar to that one used by MB in some crank and jerk called LBO and first time I throw them I experienced the same "s#%!" I broke the tip!

If not engaged you'll see the bait spinning on the air during the cast losing accuracy more than distance 

 

8 hours ago, walleyecrazy said:

 I recently picked up a few of the Rozante 77's to try them out. They have great action to them, and should kill the smallies up here. I however was not prepared for the sound of the magnetic casting system in them on the first cast with one. I heard that snap and immediately thought I had snapped the tip off my rod lol. 

The Jackall Rerange does the same thing. I thought my line broke the first time I cast it but the Rozante I was sure my rod broke my first cast I made with it.

Now I have to get some Rozante 77’s.   I find the click of a Rerange very satisfying.  

On 3/28/2021 at 4:17 PM, gimruis said:

I used to only fish them in the spring on clear waters for smallmouth.

 

Then I tried one in July on a more stained water lake for largies and about 2 casts in a decent one smashed it. That was an eye opener for me.

 

My primary use is still in spring for smallmouth on clear water but if you give it some time, I think they can be effective in other situations all year round.

 

I’ve also caught walleyes and pike on them too, and I’m sure a muskie would hit it too.

Me too. In our river I've caught bass, walleye, pike and musky on them. In fact I kind of got away from using them because I lost so many to the pike. All too often, on the pause, you see the slightest twitch of the line (if it's calm and you're watching close) and the line is cut clean and another $10 is gone.

4 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

The Jackall Rerange does the same thing. I thought my line broke the first time I cast it but the Rozante I was sure my rod broke my first cast I made with it.

Same here. The first time I cast the Rerange 130, I was like "nooooo". I thought it was either the rod or the line.  ?

2 hours ago, MGF said:

All too often, on the pause, you see the slightest twitch of the line (if it's calm and you're watching close) and the line is cut clean and another $10 is gone.

 

I hear that!  Those pike love em.  They love spinnerbaits and chatterbaits too.

 

I refuse to use a megabass jerk bait in pike infested waters.  Losing a $10 or $12 lure causes me to swear, but if I lost a $25 megabass I'd probably cry.  Last year I lost a discontinued storm subwart to a sizable pike in a river and it felt like I was going to have a stroke.

On 3/28/2021 at 11:11 AM, Dwight Hottle said:

As the water warms & fish get more active I speed up my jerk bait retrieve. Absolutely the fish will react to a faster retrieve as conditions change. I fish jerk baits all year long. When fish are super active I'll switch to slash baits working the bait as fast as I can. Slash baits examples would be rapala x-rap or Ima flit. Don't put them away just adapt your retrieve to what works. 

 

Best advice on this thread. ?

On 3/28/2021 at 1:07 PM, TriStateBassin106 said:

My water is heavily stained and I got one yesterday on a yozuri 3DB in Table Rock Shad, that myth is busted and I don't understand how people continue to believe it. 

I think that it comes from the way and the times they are fished by folks who profess this. If you are fishing late winter in large reservoirs and are trying to draw fish up from a distance, yeah not so good in murky water. If you are fishing them in flats, or other shallow water this time a year, it's more of a reaction bite, so it works quite well. The Rapala HJ TN Shad is a good color for stained to murky water for me.