I want a jig that can be twitched back and forth like a jerk bait...what is it?  Does it exist?

Ball head jig (around 1/16-1/8 for best rate of fall without sinking to the bottom immediately) paired with a soft plastic jerkbait.

 

Fish it just like you would a jerkbait.

Yes.

It's called a tube.

Internal jigheads that feature a

60 degree vertical or horizontal line tie 

work well. They both will twist up a main line quickly when worked fast enough to get that erratic action. A quality ball bearing swivel rigged 18 inches or so in front of the bait is a solid plan.

A-Jay

 

 

 

Nope.  I'm looking for a skirted jig (not a soft plastic) that twitches left and right without line twist. 

3 hours ago, Bartableman7 said:

Nope.  I'm looking for a skirted jig (not a soft plastic) that twitches left and right without line twist. 

Only 4 things will do that. #1 jerkbaits, #2 certain glidebaits, #3 soft plastic jerkbaits/flukes, #4 walking top waters.

 

A jig itself will just come straight back, or go down and up if you yo yo them. Closest thing you will get is a swim jig paired with the right trailer, but that will a very different action than what you are looking for. You might be able to use a very light finesse jig (with a skirt) and try adding a fluke as a trailer, but even that will reduce its ability to twitch left and right.

 

A skirted jig no matter its design wont twitch left or right to that amount, even with the right trailer. Since the weight of it will again reduce most of its action if not all of it. Your best best if you really want something with a skirt that twitches left and right is to look at a skirted neko rig, its a nail weight with a skirt. Put that in the front of a fluke (which like it or not is the best twitching bait aside from a jerkbait for fishing underwater).

Try a skirt on a br head/br fish.....

 

scott

6 minutes ago, softwateronly said:

Try a skirt on a br head/br fish.....

 

scott

Had a similar thought but just use a stranding tool and add your skirt material to your favorite jighead minnow setup.

 

Also kind of sounds like the OP is describing a swimjig using an Alabama Shake technique.    That only generates vertical movement for the most part though, and it seems OP is looking for darting or horizontal movement.     

 

I think your idea of using the BR Fish is the best way to get a darting action.

 

 

1 hour ago, Bartableman7 said:

Nope.  I'm looking for a skirted jig (not a soft plastic) that twitches left and right without line twist. 

OK ~ 

Well a tube is a skirted jig.

Just has the skirt in the back.

But I get what you mean.

Good Luck.

A-Jay

 

 

Yeah agreeing with @A-Jayand @MediumMouthBass- that skirt is going to create a ton of drag and slow anything’s movement, much less erratic darting like a jerk bait. Your best bet is a skirt on some sort of narrow fish head-style jig head with a tall slender buoyant trailer on the back like a jerk shad. Still isn’t going to be perfect but it might work.

 

Now fishing a lightly-weighted tube like a jerk bait? That’s the money right there. 

That BR Head...I think that is it.  Thank you.  I'll try it.

31 minutes ago, Bartableman7 said:

That BR Head...I think that is it.  Thank you.  I'll try it.

 

scott

7 hours ago, A-Jay said:

OK ~ 

Well a tube is a skirted jig.

Just has the skirt in the back.

But I get what you mean.

Good Luck.

A-Jay

 

 

 Quite frankly it’s a perfect solution to this somewhat strange question by the OP. 
 

Tubes have crazy action in lots of ways.. perhaps the OP can experiment and create..as far as line twist and I can’t believe it has to be said is a ball bearing swivel or barrel swivel but yea, you said it earlier and I’m saying it again. The tube is a great solution imo. 

You need two rods tied to the same jig to get the perfect side to side action. You'll want to get two of those reels with a twitching bar and hold one in each hand. Be sure to use sharp hooks to get a good hookup ratio with one handed hooksets. 

1 hour ago, F14A-B said:

 Quite frankly it’s a perfect solution to this somewhat strange question by the OP. 
 

Tubes have crazy action in lots of ways.. perhaps the OP can experiment and create..as far as line twist and I can’t believe it has to be said is a ball bearing swivel or barrel swivel but yea, you said it earlier and I’m saying it again. The tube is a great solution imo. 

Unweighted Elaztech tubes make great ultralight surface lures.  The ones Strike King made were the best.

25 minutes ago, Tackleholic said:

Unweighted Elaztech tubes make great ultralight surface lures.  The ones Strike King made were the best.

I find myself using more & more elaztech .. I like it. 

You need a lip, or the right balance/shape on a plug to get that kind of walk the dog action under the surface.  There are things that are in the same ballpark with the closest being a bladed jig, if I understand you correctly anyway.  As mentioned a tube and Bayruf head are close as well.  If you insist on a skirt, you could add a spider grub skirt to a BR head, but the added drag of the skirt will almost certainly hurt the action of the bait.