We might earn income from the merchandise accessible on this web page and take part in affiliate packages. Study Extra ›
Alabama native Justin Hamner received the 54th Bassmaster Traditional at Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees in Oklahoma primarily utilizing a jerkbait to catch bass round cowl he had situated with ahead dealing with sonar. The ways he employed point out the path that bass fishing has headed, and never only for event anglers.
Through the three day occasion (March twenty second by the twenty fourth), Hamner piled up a cumulative catch of 15 bass weighing 58 kilos, 3 ounces. This was sufficient to beat out the opposite 55 opponents and web him a $307,000 payday—in addition to a spot within the bass fishing historical past books.
An avid jerkbait fisherman in addition to an electronics aficionado, the 33-year-old Bassmaster Elite Collection Professional relied closely on his strengths to earn him the title. Hamner additionally credited his win to rising up in Alabama, since its there that he gained essential information and confidence whereas fishing for pre-spawn bass. Right here’s how he caught them, and how one can too.
Utilizing a Jerkbait to Goal Pre-Spawn Bass
A jerkbait has lengthy landed close to the highest of the record relating to pre-spawn baits. As bass and baitfish push shallow to spawn after the chilly winter months, a jerkbait’s profile paired with its stop-and-go motion creates the proper mixture for tempting massive bass into biting.
The water is usually nonetheless a bit of chilly this time of yr, because it was on Grand in the course of the Traditional, hovering close to or beneath the 60-degree mark. That is primetime for a jerkbait, as this chew is much less fickle in comparison with different strategies. A sudden spring chilly snap can wreck lots of patterns this time of yr, for instance shutting down any trace of a topwater chew. A chilly snap can even stall out the development of spawners.
By and enormous, the jerkbait is essentially the most dependable lure for this pre-spawn window, because the bass are positioned comparatively shallow, usually in lower than 10 toes of water. The flexibility to fluctuate the retrieve of a jerkbait can be a essential part of its effectiveness, permitting the angler to fish the bait quick or gradual relying on the temper of the fish, whereas additionally having the ability to let it droop proper within the fish’s face on the pause.
Pairing a Jerkbait with FFS
FFS has polarized the game of bass fishing the final two years. Adore it or hate it, having the ability to see a transparent, visible illustration of what’s underneath the water in entrance of you, and throughout you, has fully modified how efficient and environment friendly anglers could be.
Hamner, an outstanding jerkbait fisherman, can be intimately in tune along with his electronics. Utilizing the 2 collectively, Hamner was in a position to find giant bass in a wide range of areas round an assortment of various cowl sorts together with brush piles, shallow laydowns, and bluff partitions.
He used his Garmin LiveScope to find cowl, in addition to particular person bass at instances. As soon as he noticed the goal, his long-cultivated instincts took over and muscle reminiscence kicked in. Figuring out the best way to convert in his thoughts the blobs, marks, and features on his graph into real-world toes and inches allowed Hamner to make good casts, which was crucial to his success.
Hamner was additionally in a position to monitor the effectiveness of his forged by watching the bait and the bass on the display screen, usually utilizing irregular pauses and pumps of his lure to set off the dipping and darting bass into committing to his bait.
The way to Regulate with the Situations
Having the ability to catch bass utilizing a jerkbait in the course of the pre-spawn isn’t an ideal science or a easy job. Having the ability to take action over a number of days is way from assured. Nevertheless the Champ did this to perfection on Grand, as a number of different anglers who had been additionally fishing jerkbaits (and different lures) failed to take care of the tempo we noticed from Hamner.
Fluctuating situations contributed to some robust fishing at Grand. Having the ability to modify to altering water ranges on rivers and or different flood management fisheries is necessary within the spring. And rarely do two consecutive days see an identical cloud protection, wind path, wind pace, or precipitation.
Any and all of those variables can impact the pre-spawn chew, whether or not you’re throwing a jerkbait or the rest. However when speaking jerkbait fishing specifically, you’ll actually need to pay shut consideration to any adjustments within the water readability and the cloud protection, utilizing extra pure and translucent patterns in sunny and clear situations, and extra stable and vivid patterns in stained-to-muddy water or when heavy cloud cowl is current.
Hamner adjusted because the situations required, alternating between completely different types and depths of jerkbaits relying on the kind of cowl he was fishing round and relying on the depth he wished to focus on. However he made even larger changes based mostly on the wind, vacating the world the place he caught his 22-pound, 6-ounce bag on Day 1 and relocating to the place the wind wasn’t fairly as sturdy. The transfer resulted in two 5-pound bites and one other 20-pound restrict on Day 2.
Learn Subsequent: These 3 Traditional Jerkbaits Are Nonetheless the Greatest for Bass and Trout
Why Wind Issues
Wind could be your good friend within the spring, or it might probably fully wreck an space. It could push bait right into a spot, making a focus of forage for the bass to gang up on. However even this is usually a unhealthy factor, as we noticed in Hamner’s case. The wind blew immediately into his Day 1 spot on Day 2, and introduced with it loads of bait. However in accordance with the champ, that resulted within the bass fully ignoring his lure as they zeroed in on reside forage.
Wind can even muddy up an space if it blows onerous in a sustained path. This may be unhealthy, however anglers can use it to their benefit by focusing on concentrated fish alongside a creating mud line. You may also have a wind present created if there’s a slim hole between two factors. We noticed just a few anglers make the most of this actual state of affairs on the Traditional.
The extra fashionable damaging results of wind are felt most by anglers who’re attempting to make use of (FFS) to focus on bass. No matter what has been noticed by the digital camera lens, catching bass utilizing FFS isn’t practically as straightforward because it seems more often than not, and it’s made exponentially harder because the wind blows the boat round and lifts the bow up and down.
Preventing a stiff and shifting wind with the trolling motor whereas attempting to maintain a transducer educated on a bait and a bass at 60 toes is a tall job. This may increasingly have had as a lot to do with Hamner’s lack of ability to successfully fish his beginning spot as on Day 2 as something.
The way to Fish Like Hamner
Should you’re wanting to focus on pre-spawn bass with a jerkbait the identical method Hamner did on Grand, search for areas the place shallow water and deep zones are available in contact with each other. A number of examples are bluff partitions, creek channel swings, and 45-degree banks. Discovering brush, laydowns, docks, and boulders in areas like this may enable you to find the bass, which frequently wish to place themselves close to cowl to ambush prey.
A easy pump-pump-pause cadence with a standard-size jerkbait like a Megabass Ito Imaginative and prescient 110 is a good place to begin. This bait is an effective illustration of a jerkbait and it’s one which has caught numerous fish for anglers everywhere in the world. This bait or one much like it is going to dive right down to 4-to-6 toes and droop on the pause.
Select your colours based mostly on the situations, translucents being simpler in excessive visibility conditions and stable, brighter colours working higher when visibility is low, attributable to stain within the water or an absence of daylight. Pump the bait a pair instances after which let it sit for a second or two, lengthen the pause to five or 6 seconds if the water continues to be underneath 52 levels in your space.
Twelve-pound-test fluorocarbon spooled on a 7:1 gear ratio reel and a sub-7-foot, medium-heavy jerkbait rod is an effective place to begin when selecting out the remainder of your gear.
Learn Subsequent: Greatest Jerkbait Rods
And when you do use this bait in tandem with FFS as Hamner did, you’ll discover that over time it will get simpler and simpler to gauge the path and size of the forged wanted to get your bait to the neighborhood of the dot on the display screen. Relaxation straightforward when you’re not nice at this to start with; Hamner wasn’t both little doubt, not all that way back. However now he’s the 2024 Bassmaster Traditional Champ, due to this method and a dedication to good it.
