Dan Mason

There is no question that Tube Jigs are the most predominate lure in the great lakes region for bass and majority of anglers will simply throw their tube out and drag the bottom waiting for a bite which is a lot of times very successful but you can also increase your catch rates as well start schools of bass in a feeding frenzy by snap-jigging......when smallmouth bass become in-active or in a neutral mode this will entice more strikes and bottom line put more fish in the boat. ....by snapping your rod from the 9 o'clock position to the 11 o'clock position you will/are going to get more reaction strikes. Using a heavier head in your tube can be very beneficial because of its fast fall....thus drawing even more reaction bites. Not every smallmouth bass will have his/her nose and eyes focused on bottom looking for an unsuspecting Goby or Crawdad some will be looking up for forage and not focused on the bottom where your dragging your jig, by snap jigging you will be put your bait closer to the strike zone which is critical if the bass are inactive. A friend of mine had the perfect analogy when he said “Smallies especially are like cats when resting - they can't help but take a swipe at something that jumps past them.”… 

Through my experience I found that smallmouth will get programmed into watching a tube jig dragging by and will a lot of times just follow watching ultimately loosing interest. So next time your out and all of a sudden you feel the bite “dieing off” start some erratic snap-jigging and you will be pleased with results I’m sure.

Jerkbaiting can be a very affective technique on catching lots of smallmouth bass and can help you cover water very quickly looking for fish. Even if you don't catch them it's still a very important tool on telling you what kind of fish are in the area, the size of the fish and the type of cadence there looking for.

Typically I find that when the water temp is ranging 50 degress to 68 degrees is when the best bite will occure. In low light/cloudy conditions a gold pattern or Chartruese pattern will work best and when its bright and sunny I like to throw natural perch patterns or chrome/blue patterns.

I group jerkbaits into two catagories....a soft jerkbait which would be your zoom-fluke type baits and hard jerkbaits like an X-Rap or SmithWick Rogue. Hard Jerkbaits like a Pointer 100(below) and SmithWicks Suspending Rogues are two entirley different baits...the Pointer 100 works best with a fast retrieve with short chopping jerks and the Rogue works best with long drawn out jerks and long pauses. Each has there own advantages depending on water temperature and season.

I like to throw all of these on a 7'0 MH All American Pro-Series Grandt Spinning rod with an oversized spinning reel. I like the over sized reel becuase of the speed which it retreives, a larger spool for longer casts and larger gears for a better drag system. I'll rig these rods up with 15 pound braid line which then is attached to a 15 pound pure florocarbon leader roughly 4' in length for those spooky clearwater smallies.

As mid-summer progresses I find that this pattern/technique can be very tough to catch quality fish on. Matching the hatch as far as size of your bait 3"(emerald shiner) to 7"(small perch) and color will dictate what kind of success you may have. Any river ledge or main lake contours are good places to start in spring,summer and fall. The depth ranges of 4'-8' is where I like to look and generally if I fish shallower than 4' is when I will throw a soft jerkbait like a fluke with 3/0 or 4/0 hook. Note: picture below

In my opinion there isn't a funner way to put fish in the boat then on a jerkbait, smallies are known to rip the rod right out of your hands on the strike. I've actually bruised my sides on more the one occasion from such strikes.

Hope u enjoyed the article and go rip a few on a jerkbait.

Dan Mason