Quirky lure gets bass to bite

NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Jerk baits like the Smithwick Rogue, shown here, are a good choice for winter bass fishing.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Jerk baits like the Smithwick Rogue, shown here, are a good choice for winter bass fishing.

A lure with a funny name is a bait bass love to bite when the weather turns cold.

Jerk baits are the lure some anglers turn to when the water temperature dips below 50 degrees, as it is now at Beaver and other area lakes.

Lures like the Smithwick Rogue and Rapala Husky Jerk are easy to use. Their long, sleek shape imitates an injured minnow or shad as they do their wobbly dance. Jerk baits that suspend down deep are what most anglers use.

Cast the lure toward shore, crank it down with eight or 10 turns of the reel handle and let it sit, suspended five to 10 feet deep. Depth depends on if the jerk bait is a deep or shallow diver. Both kinds are on display at your local fishing store. Work the lure with sweeps or quick pops of the rod tip.

Bites can be few and far between, but when a bass bites there's a good chance it's big.

Jerk baits have a special place in my fishing heart because the first really big largemouth bass I ever wrangled from Beaver Lake bit a jerk bait.

This was many moons ago, and I was a novice, learning the ways of Beaver Lake bass.

I wasn't much of a cold-weather fisherman. Then one winter I kept hearing anglers talk about catching big bass on these things called jerk baits. Har-dee-har-har. Jerk baits. That's rich.

The Smithwick Rogue was the jerk bait fishermen talked about the most at the boat ramp. In those days, all Rogues were floating lures. They'd dive when you cranked the reel, then float toward the surface when you stopped.

Fishermen like to tinker, so some Beaver Lake anglers started weighting their Rogues in different ways so they'd suspend when you stopped reeling. That's when Mr. Big Bass would come calling, ready for a meal.

For a newspaper story back in the 1980s, Jim Wolfe of Rogers showed readers how to drill holes in the body of a jerk bait and add lead sinkers. Or, lead wire could be wrapped around the shanks of the treble hooks.

Nowadays, suspending jerk baits are top sellers for several lure companies. Most suspend right out of the box, but some tend to float slowly toward the surface.

The remedy is to stick a Suspend Strip or Suspend Dot on the belly of the lure. Tackle shops sell these strips of adhesive metal for adding weight to jerk baits and crank baits.

One cold 1980s February afternoon, I headed out to fish in the Cedar Creek arm of Beaver Lake, west of Rocky Branch park. I hadn't made five cast when kabam! A bass smacked my Rogue when it wiggled by some underwater timber.

I about fainted when I saw the fish underwater beside the boat. This was the biggest bass I'd hooked in my life. I vibrated with excitement and nerves, shaking as I slid a net under the fish and hoisted it aboard. I hyperventilated, seeing this giant bass flopping on the floor of my boat. It had to be 6 pounds easy.

So much for that fishing trip. I high-tailed it home to show the big bass to my neighbor, the late Jackie Rogers.

Jackie weighed the catches at all the Beaver Lake Supercasters bass tournaments. For years he weighed more bass than anyone on the planet. He could guess-timate a fish's weight to the ounce just by looking at it. Jackie said my fish was more like 4 pounds, not 6.

Still, it was a trophy in my limited bass-fishing universe. I'd kept the bass alive and slid it back into the lake after Jackie eye-balled it.

Now I'm a Rogue-aholic, a jerk-bait fanatic who uses the lure to a fault in winter when I ought to try something else.

Truth be told, results with the jerk bait this year have been sub par. I've caught one or two respectable bass, but nothing big yet.

At the Polar Bass bass tournament on New Year's Day, winners Drew Sagely and Will Lancett, both of Rogers, said they used jerk baits in the tournament but only caught one fish. Their winning catch came on a jig and craw combo, a jig in green pumpkin color with a red craw trailer. They fished 25 to 30 feet deep around brush piles.

I'll keep casting and reeling that jerk bait, hopefully landing it near the maw of a hungry lunker.

Flip Putthoff can be reached at [email protected]

Sports on 01/15/2019

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