Fishing a jerkbait is an extremely effective and fun technique to catch lots of bass and other species including walleye and pike. I’ll be detailing my personal setup for jerkbait fishing from rod, reel and line. In this setup, I’m aiming to have the combo as light as possible, so that I may comfortably fish a jerkbait all day if need be.
ROD: Shimano Expride – 6’6″Medium ($390)
The Shimano Expride offers a very parabolic, yet powerful enough action with High-Power X carbon taping to not pull treble hooks from a fishes mouth and still handle large and acrobatic bass.
Similar to this model, many anglers enjoy the 6’10” Medium version. Myself being shorter, I prefer the 6’6″ so that I can twitch the rod downward without hitting the boat gunwale or the water.
The medium power Expride fishes well for standard to mid diving jerkbaits such as the Megabass X-80 Trick Darter, Vision OneTen and OneTen+1. I find this model less ideal for larger and deeper diving jerkbaits such as the Megabass Ito Shiner or Vision OneTen+2.
REEL: Shimano Aldebaran MGL – HG ($600)
One of the lightest baitcast reels on the market at only 4.8 ounces, the Shimano Aldebaran almost feels like you’re holding air. It fits extremely well in your hands and does not wear on you to fish it. Coupled with how well this reel handles casting light line makes this reel worth every penny.
The HG model is a 7.4:1 gear ratio, retrieving 29″ of line per turn of the handle. At this speed I’m not moving the bait with the reel, only picking up slack in the line from the twitches of the rod. It’s also not too slow where I can’t keep up when the fish swim toward the boat or go airborne.
LINE: Seaguar InvisX Fluorocarbon – 12lb ($25)
Seaguar InvisX is a very supple fluorocarbon line with minimal memory, making it easy to cast and manage on your reel. It has slightly more stretch than other fluoro lines, but I find this actually helps for reaction and treble hook style baits. InvisX is thinner comparing equivalent pound tests to other brands on the market and in my experience, lasts longer than other lines I’ve fished.
I mostly fish 12lb. test so that I may get the bait in the deeper range of the lures advertised diving depth and for its ease of casting. I will bump my line up to 15lb. if I need the bait to run higher, or if I’m fishing my jerkbait around more structure compared to typical open water situations.
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Thanks for posting. Can you do a article on how to use spybaits! I don’t have a lot of luck with them but know they are effective when fished correctly.
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Will do! I’ve actually been working on some spybait content. Thank you for the support Dave!
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