Hi All,

 

I'm looking for a faster sinking soft jerkbait that I can texas rig weedless and fish like an underwater spook.  I'm trying to do it without a weighted hook.  I like to fish them fairly fast and 1-2' under the water.  I have a couple random soft jerkbaits in my box but none are quite doing it for me.  I also don't know what half of them are since most are found snagged and some are 15 years old.

 

I can tell you a 4 1/2" baby sluggo doesn't sink fast enough, though with a 1/8 oz keel weighted hook it does (but loses action on the fall).  I might consider nail weights in the body if its a solid body. I have some that are the standard split tail bait (they are old) but the hook slot in the body is so deep that you can't get much of anything into the body without splitting it.  

 

I've got a BBB Jerk minnow and the zoom super fluke (and magnum fluke) in my cart right now to try based on reading here.  Any other faster sinkers I can try?

 

thanks,

rick

Strike King Caffeine Shad sinks faster than the Super Fluke. I also like the 6th Sense Flush. 

reaction innovation,  skinny dipper.  i rig it with weighted 5/0 screwlock. very weedless and i can yank that thing to and fro like a madman.  

 

i have not tried it with LMB, but the Striper found it titillating.  

 

unweighted screwlock it will sink to your desired depth.

Try a Gambler Flapp'n Shad. I rig it with a screw lock hook.  Works on top when fished as a buzz bait too.

1 hour ago, Darth-Baiter said:

reaction innovation,  skinny dipper.  i rig it with weighted 5/0 screwlock. very weedless and i can yank that thing to and fro like a madman.  

 

i have not tried it with LMB, but the Striper found it titillating.  

 

unweighted screwlock it will sink to your desired depth.

OP is asking about jerkbaits. Skinny dipper is a Swimbait. 
 

AFAIK the Strike King Caffeine Shad and Yamamoto D-Shad are the heaviest, saltiest soft jerkbaits. 

Have always added nail weights to the nose of flukes, assassins and caffeine shad when I wanted them to run deeper.

38 minutes ago, paulmandude said:

OP is asking about jerkbaits. Skinny dipper is a Swimbait. 
 

AFAIK the Strike King Caffeine Shad and Yamamoto D-Shad are the heaviest, saltiest soft jerkbaits. 

I swim it like a jerk.  I’m dancing right outside the box. Call me crazy:D

Yamamoto DShads are made with the same formula as Senkos and are generally heavier than most other fluke style baits.  I have drug them on the bottom in 9 foot of water drift fishing on St Clair.  Not to get too technical but I made a lengthy post on how to rig a DShad to get it to dive, stay horizontal, swing left or swing right or stay on top. Bottom line, I’ve never had the need to weight them in any way. 
 

If you've never fished a soft jerk on a mojo rig you should try it. With a weight 12-15" up the line you can make that thing dance at any depth and speed with the appropriate weight, probably 1/8 or 3/16 would do the trick for 1-2' depth, or just throw a couple split shot on your line.

Thanks Team.

 

The D-shads were on the maybe list, but I've added them in.  @TOXIC I'll have a look for that post.  I know you're a fan and have seen some of your other posts on them.

 

The flappin shad was already in the cart, but to treat like a buzzbait or swimming worm and not a soft jerkbait.  I'll try it both ways.

 

thanks,

rick

 

I know you said you were looking for an unweighted hook but I have used these with zoom flukes, SK coffee shads & D Shads and they help supply a little extra weight for casting distance & help sink the bait in a neutral position although slowly. They are available in a 4/0 throuh 6/0 hook & only add 3/32 weight. Gary Yamamoto was instrumental in getting Owner to design a light weight hook for using with his baits. 

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Owner_Weighted_Twistlock_Light_3pk/descpage-OWTL.html

On 6/8/2023 at 11:32 AM, Dwight Hottle said:

I know you said you were looking for an unweighted hook but I have used these with zoom flukes, SK coffee shads & D Shads and they help supply a little extra weight for casting distance & help sink the bait in a neutral position although slowly. They are available in a 4/0 throuh 6/0 hook & only add 3/32 weight. Gary Yamamoto was instrumental in getting Owner to design a light weight hook for using with his baits. 

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Owner_Weighted_Twistlock_Light_3pk/descpage-OWTL.html

 

Funny enough, I ordered a pack of them already.  I have a pack of gamakatsu keel weighted hooks here without a screwlock but they are the superline hooks and a pretty heavy wire.  I saw the owner light hooks and thought I'd throw a pack in for keitechs on lighter rods.

 

thanks

rick

If you play around with the way you insert the hook, you can force the head of the bait to point down a little. That will make it dive a little. Most soft jerkbaits are shaped so that they rise when jerked - they get uplift from the curve of the front of the belly. I've always wondered why someone doesn't make one with a slant on top, working on the same principle that forces a floating or suspending lipless crankbait to dive. You can also take a razor blade and slice a downward slant on the head.

7 hours ago, paulmandude said:

 

AFAIK the Strike King Caffeine Shad and Yamamoto D-Shad are the heaviest, saltiest soft jerkbaits. 

 

d shads are heavy. ive never liked weighted hooks but have used the core tackle hover jig this year with some wild results. you can google it but it basically makes a flat bait like that dart on the retrieve and hover and glide on the fall.

So this is something I stumbled into and have been playing around with.  So far it's been successful, but still limited time with it.  I have a 6/0 1/8oz gambler duz-it nickel blade and a 6.5" hogfarmer spunk shad.  I hit it like an alabama shake but with the rod tip to the side and either straight reel or chop it.  With a fast twitch/shake cadence the bait hangs about the depth I start the retrieve at and the head has a small walk the dog action while the tail quivers all while staying horizontal.  It also can horizontal slow sink in the holes.  It's been getting choked.  

 

scott

 

 

 

 

On 6/8/2023 at 1:59 PM, TOXIC said:

Yamamoto DShads are made with the same formula as Senkos and are generally heavier than most other fluke style baits.  I have drug them on the bottom in 9 foot of water drift fishing on St Clair.  Not to get too technical but I made a lengthy post on how to rig a DShad to get it to dive, stay horizontal, swing left or swing right or stay on top. Bottom line, I’ve never had the need to weight them in any way. 
 

I think this is going to be the answer I needed. The big bite baits jerk minnow might be what I had in mind a little more, but the d-shad is what I need. The jerk minnow sinks just a touch quicker (I think because of what I love on the d-shad) and it walks the dog under water like I was looking for really well. The d-shad though has this crazy shimmy as it falls.  The tail has the little flaps that give it a side to side shimmy as it slowly sinks down.  I was fishing all of them with the owner weighted hooks that Dwight linked above and keeping them in the 3-4’ deep range easily. When you let the dshad fall, the tail arches up just slightly and then it does the wiggle that makes it look like it’s swimming down. Didn’t catch any bass, but this big crappie liked it. 

 

 

On 6/8/2023 at 12:52 PM, Captain Phil said:

Try a Gambler Flapp'n Shad. I rig it with a screw lock hook.  Works on top when fished as a buzz bait too.

I spent a little time with the flappn shad too. I think it definitely is going to find a place, just not tonight. The flappn shad seemed to work better with slower longer pulls than twitches.  It walked with twitches, but the tail didn’t do much. On slower straight pulls the tail flapped like it was swimming. I could see this working really well rigged like I had it but slowly pulled through grass and vegetation. Work it through just under the surface and then let it drop down into a hole. I could also see one working really well on a Texas or Tokyo rig and swum across the bottom. 

 

On 6/8/2023 at 2:32 PM, Dwight Hottle said:

I know you said you were looking for an unweighted hook but I have used these with zoom flukes, SK coffee shads & D Shads and they help supply a little extra weight for casting distance & help sink the bait in a neutral position although slowly. They are available in a 4/0 throuh 6/0 hook & only add 3/32 weight. Gary Yamamoto was instrumental in getting Owner to design a light weight hook for using with his baits. 

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Owner_Weighted_Twistlock_Light_3pk/descpage-OWTL.html

 

I make my own that are a little less than 1/16oz but the Owner ones Dwight posted are readily available. You can sand them down if you need them lighter which is what I have been doing. 

 

Allen