Entry 205-2
The Miraculous Recovery of Strike King Pro Mark Menendez
Day 2: The King of Jerkbait Fishing
Editor’s Note: Mark Menendez of Paducah, Kentucky, has made approximately $3/4 million as a tournament fisherman for the past decade. Although one of the newer Strike King pros, Menendez’s certainly not new to tournament bass fishing and has fished the Bassmasters Classic several times.
Question: Mark, how do you fish a jerkbait, probably the lure with which you’re the most identified?
Menendez: Strike King’s Wild Shiner is one of the most-deadly lures you can use in cold, clear water. You’ve got to have water clarity of at least 2-1/2-feet deep for this bait to reach its ultimate potential. Most people don’t realize how strong the magnetism is for Strike King’s Wild Shiner to draw a bass to it and make the fish eat it. The lure’s in the perfect shape of a minnow, it has the perfect injured bait action built into it, and you can cover miles and miles of water with this bait to try to find aggressive bass.
Question: What are your favorite colors of jerkbaits?
Menendez: Probably the clown color is my favorite color. I also like the Wild Shiner in the gizzard shad with white sides.
Question: What equipment do you use when you fish the Wild Shiner?
Menendez: I fish the Wild Shiner on 8-pound-test-monofilament line, not fluorocarbon, and I will fish it on 20-pound test monofilament. I like to fish the Wild Shiner on a medium-action All Star rod with a Pfleuger Presidential reel.
Question: Mark, what’s your standard retrieve with the Wild Shiner?
Menendez: I generally start off retrieving the Wild Shiner with a jerk-jerk-pause, jerk-jerk-pause type of cadence. Then I begin experimenting with how long I need to make the pause part of the cadence and how hard I need to make each jerk to learn what the bass want on that day.
Question: When you let a jerkbait sit still for 30 seconds, what are you doing?
Menendez: I’ll be drinking a soft drink or taking a bite out of my sandwich. I’m keeping my line semi-slack, so that if a bass does take the bait, I can see the line jump. I’ll be watching the line the entire time.
Question: Does this type of fishing not drive your fishing partner nuts?
Menendez: Yes, it does. My partners always want to move, they want to fish fast, and they’ll usually be in a panic mode when they fish with me. So, I’ll ask them to sit down. When you’re sitting in your chair on the boat, instead of leaning against a butt seat, you can sit still for much longer. I encourage my partner to fish slowly to give the bass a chance to bite. After I catch a bass or two, often my partners see that this technique can be effective.
