I always ask myself this question when I am about to purchase a jerk bait. “Is this bait ready to use out of the box?” Meaning, could I use it if I went fishing right now? Could I get this bait’s desired action with just using a rod and reel? Generally that is the case. Some things to look for though that would be a tell about the questions above. By no means does this mean the bait is not any good, this is just personal preference.

Some examples of this are, is there a flexible metal tail that you can change the baits desired depth with? Can you put some type of sparkle tape on that tail? When you flip the bait over on its belly does it have inserts that accept large pieces of lead to make the bait sink or achieve near neutral buoyancy? Those all fall under mind games to me. Musky mind games. Although the bait is trying to show its versatility, which is great, it’s just not for me. For example, if I catch a fish with a green sticker on the flexible tail, with one ounce of weight on the bottom that I screwed in, does that lend to a pattern? I don’t know. It worked, however it starts to play with your mind that this is the way it’s supposed to be ran. Some people like options, and those options might be called versatility. However, I prefer to use the rod tip and the reel to achieve the versatility of the baits. There are already enough mind games in Musky fishing when it comes to baits. I prefer to have a plug and play mentality where I clip the bait on and I cast it out and retrieve it. In conclusion, I like to keep things simple when it comes to picking out my jerk baits. In that regard, I look no further than the ingenuity in our Fat AZ 6-10 inch Raptor jerk baits. 

Best of luck in the early season. 

Vance

Fat AZ Musky Products and Muddy Creek Fishing Guides