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Rubber jerkbaits by Tim Kelly
(Summer 2001 Edition)
You know what it’s like, you go to
the LAS conference, every stall has more and more obscure, unlikely lures
tempting you. Your eye is drawn to a box with a pile of odd rubber baits that
don’t even have curly tails! It’s too late, you’re in some kind of lure
buying frenzy and they’re yours. In the cold light of day you realise that it
was probably a purchase too far, but you feel obliged to carry them round
“just in case”.
We’ve all been there, my rash buy was a packet of 6” slug-go rubber
jerkbaits. I had occasionally put one on more in hope than expectation if I was
fishing a very weedy swim and dragged it through the weed. At least it didn’t
catch any weed! A few months ago I was getting a Bass Pro order together and had
all the bits I wanted but it didn’t add up to much money, so I was looking
around for other things to add to it to make it worthwhile. I saw a video called
“Fishing the Incredible Slug-go” so in for a penny, in for a pound.
When
the order eventually arrived I watched the video and was amazed at the action
the
presenter
gave to the lure. It kicked and flicked and looked very good to me. Also he
demonstrated how to hook it. A 5/0 offset worm hook is hooked “texposed”
style, which means having the point exposed. Previously I had rigged the lure
with the hook point hidden to make it weedless, it also rendered it fishless,
but that’s another story.
The video presenter worked the lure quite aggressively. The jerks and
twitches made the little rubber bait dart around very erratically. Inspired by
the good look of the lures on the film I went to the local canal to try them
out. The canal is, at times full of small pike, and not too difficult if you can
find them, an ideal place to go to get confidence in a bait.
The
outcome of the first session was very welcome, if a little unexpected. Although
I didn’t catch any pike I got a great perch of nearly 2lb. I went back again a
couple of days later (with some newly acquired different coloured slug-gos and
fin-s-fish baits) and struggled for an hour or so, then had an hour catching 6
perch between about 1.25lb and 2.5lb. All these fish were hooked in the top lip
exactly like the bass in the video. I have since bought some Yamamoto
“Senko” baits which were recommended to me. They are similar to the slug-gos
but heavier and work a little deeper. I have now had quite a few sessions with
these baits, they seem to get the larger perch every time. Plugs, spinnerbaits
and twistertail worms get attention from smaller perch but the biggies seem to
be especially attracted to these 5-6” jerkbaits.
I
still haven’t caught many pike on these baits, but the piking in the canal
seems to have gone off quite considerably anyway. It does interest me though
that perch, which are distantly related to bass react in the same way as the
largemouths on the video. Also that I haven’t missed a single perch due to it
not having the hook in it’s mouth. No small perch have nipped at the tail,
probably due to the erratic action, and all the fish have taken it across the
middle. My previous perch experience seems to be that they preferred a steady
retrieve and attacked from behind and you can often see them munching their way
up a rubber worm before they get to the hook. With plugs they either attack the
rear treble or the belly treble. I always assumed they were trying to nip at the
fins of the lure (fish) to disable it. Maybe a bit anthropomorphic, but that’s
how it appeared. These rubber jerkbaits seem to provoke a totally different way
of attacking the bait and is very selective for the larger perch.
I fish all these baits in a
“medium” powered baitcasting rod, 30lb braid and a small multiplier. The
baits are heavy enough to cast without any extra weight. The senkos probably
weigh nearly 1/2oz with the slug-gos and fin-s-fish a bit lighter. If you want
to see more about these types of bait have a look at these websites. They have
plenty of info on rigging the baits and how to fish them.
http://yamamoto.baits.com/
http://www.slug-go.com/