With the opening of bass season only days away on June 15 there are a lot of serious bass fishermen putting final touches on their tackleboxes making sure all the right lures are available. Truth is, a lot of serious bass fishermen have already been putting those lures to work during the off season when catch and immediate release must be practiced. Fortunately I think more and more bass fishermen are starting to practice catch and release all year long and that means more bass for more fishermen to enjoy catching.

Like a lot of other serious bass fishermen, I recently went through my lure collection taking out some lures that I hadn’t used in years and adding some of the new ones that looked promising. One particular type of lure however still occupies a distinctive, high ranking position in my lure selection even though I haven’t used it as much as in the past. The lure I’m referring to is the minnow type lure or today it’s often called a “jerkbait”. I suspect the name “jerkbait” came about due to the action conveyed to the lure while retrieving. While the lure comes in a variety of colors, the shape is generally that of a minnow or a slender fishlike appearance. The lure is equipped with a lip that can vary in size.

One of the most well known and most popular jerkbaits was probably the Rapala in either the silver and black or the gold and black. In my early days of bass fishing I had several Rapalas in different sizes and they got a steady workout on a number of lakes and streams. One of the largest bass I ever caught was while pitching a floating, silver and black Rapala near the stumps at Kyle Lake in western Pennsylvania. After I let the lure lay motionless for a brief time I gave it a slight jerk and the largemouth exploded on the lure.

I have had equal success with a jerkbait on rivers and streams as well. In my college days I often fished Driftwood Branch with a Rapala and large catches of smallmouth bass were fairly common; I even picked up trout on occasion. When I moved to this area, my jerkbaits got a frequent workout on the Susquehanna and often with good results.

Today’s jerkbaits are really quite versatile. A number of companies like Rebel, Rapala, Berkley and others have been producing a variety of jerkbaits in recent years and they have become reliable producers in a number of situations. Today’s jerkbaits, usually made of plastic, come in both floating and sinking versions making them applicable on or near the surface and deeper as well. Jiggled every few seconds, a floating jerkbait looks like a struggling minnow or the lure can be retrieved just a little beneath the surface in a variety of retrieves. I usually experiment to find which retrieve produces the most strikes. I usually start with a few short jerks followed by a pause then I retrieve a few feet; I keep repeating this maneuver until I’m ready for my next cast. With the weighted or sinking jerkbaits you can do much the same only at much deeper depths. About the only situation that doesn’t lend itself to jerkbaits is weedy water where the treble hooks can hang up.

We have such a huge variety of lures today and I’ve done my share of experimenting with them but every now and then I go back to my faithful Rapala or the like and I’m usually rewarded with some great action.