Entry 135-4

Kevin VanDam - How I Make Bass Bite

Make the Bass Bite the Jerkbait

Editor's Note: Thirty-seven-year-old Kevin VanDam, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, was the 2001 BASS Master's Classic Champion and won the BASS Angler of the Year three times. VanDam's a student of what makes bass bite, and he will share the information he's learned with us this week.

Question: Kevin, what will you do to make bass bite your jerkbait when other anglers can't seem to get bites on their jerkbaits?

VanDam: The real keys that cause a bass to bite a jerkbait are you have to have water clear enough for the bass to see the jerkbait, and the bass must be holding in the water depth that's clear enough for him to see the jerkbait. For instance, if you're fishing Smith Lake in Alabama during July when the water is extremely clear, the water will be clear enough for the bass to see the jerkbait, even though the bass are holding at 35-feet deep. So, even though the water is clear enough for them to see the jerkbait, the bass aren't holding in the water depth where the jerkbait can be effective. In the spring of the year when the bass will often be holding in 15 feet of water, if the water is clear enough, the jerkbait can be deadly effective. Makesure if you're fishing a jerkbait that the water clarity is good, and that the bass holding in that clear water are at a place where the jerkbait can be effective.

Unlike other lures where a fisherman needs to keep in constant contact with his bait, when you are fishing the jerkbait, you need to snap and twitch the jerkbait with slack in your line. When you're moving a jerkbait, you have to start the movement with slack in your line and finish the move with slack in your line. The only time you ever pull the bait toward the boat is when you're using your rod tip, not your reel. All the reel does is to pick up the slack after the twitch. When I'm working a jerkbait, I pop the rod tip down and then point the rod tip back at the lure. This throws slack in the line and causes the jerkbait to glide off to the side like a walking bait glides on the surface.

When you're fishing a Zara Spook, you jerk the bait, then throw slack in the line tomake the bait fly. Then you jerk the bait again and throw slack in the line, and the bait flies off to the other side. When you're fishing a jerkbait, you want that jerkbait to have that same type of walking action under water as the Zara Spook has on top of the water.

The Wild Shiner was designed to be an underwater walking bait. I don't want the Wild Shiner to go to the same place twice or in the same direction twice. The bait, when you jerk, needs to jump to the right side and then glide. When you jerk it again, it needs to jump to the left side and glide. The sharp-edged bill causes the bait to cut through the water really well so that it doesn't go to the same place twice. The Wild Shiner shouldn't have a set rhythm to it as it moves through the water.

The real key to remember when you're fishing the jerkbait is to start the jerk with slack in your line, and finish the jerk with slack in your line. On any given day, you will have to change and vary your retrieve. Sometimes I will jerk the Wild Shiner hard and then give it two short twitches. Sometimes I'll try to jerk the bait 2 or 3 feet, let it sit absolutely still for 2 or 3 seconds and jerk it again. A rule of thumb that I always use is the colder the water is, the shorter I make my jerk and the longer I let the jerk bait sit before I jerk it again. But once the water starts to heat up, I'll speed up my retrieve, make more jerks and make the pauses between the jerks much shorter. The jerkbait is an all-season lure. The key ingredients to make the jerkbait work for you is anytime you find clear water and the bass holding in that clear water, you have to have those two ingredients. The jerkbait has to be able to move through the depth of water where the bass are holding, and the bass have to be able to see the lure.

Let me go back to the first scenario I gave you. If you're fishing at Smith Lake in Alabama, which is a deep, clear lake, and in July you know that the bass are going to be holding in that deeper water, but you see bass schooling on a point and attacking shad on the surface, then the jerkbait is the perfect lure situation. The bass have moved up out of that deep water, and now they're feeding in a depth where they can see thejerkbait. If you throw that jerkbait over to the schooling bass, they are going to eat it, because the bass are holding in the depth zone where they can see the Wild Shiner. Although most of the bass in the lake may be holding too deep to see the jerkbait, that school of bass that has come up to the surface are now in the zone where they can see the Wild Shiner, and the Wild Shiner will make them bite.

I've been mainly talking about southern fishing. But when you take the jerkbait north to Michigan where I live, you can fish the jerkbait all year long. Generally northern lakes stay much clearer than southern lakes, and the bass can stay in that 0- to 15-foot depth almost all year long. My rule of thumb is, anywhere I go fishing, if I see clear water, I'm going to have a jerkbait tied on one of my rods, because there will be an opportunity, sooner or later, that I'm going to find bass that can see the jerkbait. I know that there's no lure in my tackle box that can draw bass from a long distance more effectively than Strike King's Wild Shiner jerkbait. I know that with a jerkbait, I can get a bass more excited to strike than I can with anyother lure in my tackle box. I've seen the jerkbait cause an inactive bass to become very active and bite.

The way I choose the color of jerkbait I'm going to fish is according to water color and sky color. I want to pick the color that is the most visible with the water color and the sky conditions on the day I'm going to fish. If I fish in a lake where shad are the primary forage for the bass, and the sunny day where the water is clear, I'll be fishing a Wild Shiner that's either chrome with a blue back, or chrome with a black back. That chrome color flashes an awful lot on a sunny day. In clear water with a cloudy sky, I'll fish a painted colored Wild Shiner, like a white or green. If the water's slightly stained, and the day's cloudy, I'll fish with the fire tiger or the chartreuse-colored Wild Shiner. If thebass are feeding primarily on bluegill, I'll use a bluegill-colored bait. If the bass are feeding on trout, I'll use a trout-colored bait. In ultra-clear water on a bright sunny day, I'll use the translucent colors that don't have a lot of flash. Matching the water color with the sky conditions and baitfish that the bass are feeding on is the reason that Strike King has 24-different colors of the Wild Shiner. You can choose the color that matches the baitfish, sky conditions and water clarity on any given day with these 24-different colors. Choosing the right color for the condition and giving that jerkbait the right action on that day will cause the bass to attack the jerkbait.

Kevin VanDam - How I Make Bass Bite

Make the Bass Bite the Jerkbait

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