I am not going to apologise anywhere in this article for naming one particular company, Fox, more than a few times. The reason being that they are about the only major British based company that not only manufactures a good range of jerk baits, replicants and other soft baits, they also make excellent rods to go with them. Other accessories and equipment essential for pike fishing, is made by Fox and frankly, it is amongst the best you can buy so no apologies.
*Update – Since this article was first published, Fox have now, sadly, stopped the manufacture of most of their hard jerkbaits.*
PART 5 – JERKBAITS AND BIG SOFTIES
If there are other manufacturers out there, they only dabble in this side of things and that’s often not good enough. You will find that some of them import certain items from other manufacturers from across the world, some good, some not so. They’re all welcome to try, but Fox covers such a vast range it would be impossible not to mention them anywhere and I don’t mind singing the praises of good quality products.
The Salmo Giant Chubby
You will have noted, hopefully, in part four of this series that I use the Fox (four mentions already) Special Lure rod. This is a 7 foot beast that says it can cast up to 110 grams, but frankly, it will cast a little heavier than that. A true jerkbait rod would be a little shorter, maybe even just 6 foot, and a little stronger casting perhaps 140-150 grams and more, but I’m happy sticking with my selection.
One very good reason for having a shorter rod is the method you use to retrieve the lures. Jerkbait rods are used with a multiplier, a good one at that, for casting and therefore held upside down or rings up. During the retrieve the rod is snapped in a downwards direction towards the water thereby causing the bait to jerk, where it gets it’s name from. With a really well balanced lure, this action causes the bait to move sideways rather than forwards as you might expect
If the lure ends up to the right then the next jerk should move it to the left and the vice versa. The lure should dance it’s way back to you in a side to side movement and this way your lure spends more time in the target area of your quarry. Not all the jerk baits will do this, but many do and because your rod is always pointing towards the water, that is the reason for the shorter rods.
A Savagear Deviator
JERK BAITS
For a start, please understand this. I am fairly new to this jerk bait style of fishing. I tried it first in the late 90s when a member of our club kindly gave us a demonstration and trial day once on the Thames. It was interesting and although we didn’t catch on the jerk baits that day, later that year he caught a pike he weighed at 36lbs from our carp lake. It was caught, unhooked, weighed, photographed, and released without ever touching land and that was on a jerk bait.
Salmo make some really nice lures like the Fatso, Giant Chubby, and Warrior amongst others. Do a Google search and see who stocks them or look up their UK web site www.salmolures.co.uk.
Salmo Slider
There’s also some new and very interesting ones from Svendsen Sports (www.svendsen-sports.co.uk/ecatalogue/savagegear) in their Savage Gear range and you’ll also find some vinyl soft baits in there too. Lures like the Freestyler and Deviator would be good, you don’t really want diving vanes on them for jerk bait fishing. What you will also see on their site are some interesting video captures of the lure’s actions.
No prizes for guessing the big player in Britain with a wide range of jerk baits, as well as Micro Jerks and Minuscules (the two latter ones can be fished on more normal short spinning and casting rods). Never before has some many different models, so many colours, and so many styles been offered by one company at very realistic prices. The good point about Fox’s jerks baits is they are all marked up with their model name and whether they are floaters or sinkers and the rate at which they sink!
I have a few of their jerk baits now and I’ll admit it costs a lot to stock up on many of them straight away so here’s what I suggest. Just buy two or three to begin with, making sure one is a floater and one a medium sinker or one a straightforward wooden plug and the other with a rubber tail, maybe? Don’t worry about whether or not they’re jointed, single bodied lures are sometimes easier to learn with so my recommendation are a Chomper to float and a Slim Dolphin to sink or how about a Big Rooter with the rubber tail?
Fox Jointed Dolphin
Choose your own colours of course, but they do work (see my picture with the Fox Jointed Dolphin) and then every time you have a trip, put money aside to buy another lure later on. Think of it like this, if you were fishing with normal baits, you’d be spending £ 5-10 on those each trip so why not just buy another lure. One day you might lose one, but chances are, with the strength of lines you’re using and weight of rods, that’s highly unlikely.
What you will need to make these jerk baits really work well is a solid wire trace. Flexible wire just never seems to work right and you will end up in the most horrendous tangles, I’ve tried it. Again, you can get a tube of Fox Solid Jerkbait Leaders and I’d recommend you go for the longer, stronger ones.
REPLICANTS
Before I start, let me say that the name ‘Replicant’ belongs to Fox and is the name used for their soft vinyl fish. Yes they look like fish from their heads to their paddle-like tails. Armed with a hook on top and a treble below they are a fearsome beast in the water and a really cracking fish catcher. Do not be surprised if even the largest of these lures, 10″, is completely devoured by a fairly small pike.
The only thing I would warn you about with these lures is that they are heavy, especially the two larger ones, and you will definitely need a proper jerk bait rod to cast these effectively. If you aren’t happy with their armament, you can remove the treble from underneath and replace it with a smaller one or none at all. It’s up to you, but without a bottom hook, you can safely let the bait down to the bed of the lake or river without much fear of getting snagged.
Storm Wildeye
OTHER SOFTIES
Similar to the Replicants in texture (i.e.: vinyl rubber or whatever they’re made from) are a vast range of odd looking creatures. Just staying with Fox (9 mentions now) for a while longer, they do the Creature Twin Tails, which I have to say are terrific catchers. I’ve had quite a number of pike already on these and I’d recommend them any day.
Fox also do Chubby Shads, a weighted hook with a shad type body slipped onto it. You can interchange these to some extent with the Creature Twin tails too. But if you think I’ve done enough promoting of Fox for now, let me mention a few others. There’s the Fox Chubby Twister and the Chubby Spin (don’t know about a Chubby Brown as that name is taken) and there is also their dawg, the Deviant. All of them super fish catchers that really do work.
A Daiwa soft lure refered to as a “dawg”
Daiwa make some Sonic Shads loaded with a single hook, take a look on the Harris Sportsmail site, they’re £ 2.99 per pack of 3 x 13cm lures (smaller sizes available). These are very similar to Storm Wild Eye Holographic Swim Shads, also a very proven fish catcher, that’s a Storm Swim Shad that caught the pike in the Fox net. All of these shad style baits are excellent and don’t be afraid to use the brightest colours. They’re also reasonably priced too!
Whilst you’re in Harris’ site, take a look a Daiwa’s Sonic Tails also. Another sure pike catcher and once again, almost bargain-basement prices. This type of lure are often referred to as ‘Dawgs’ by the Americans. So have a look around for that name as well, you may be surprised by a few bargains.
Wildeye Perch
There’s no question that these soft baits do work. I had on a 7″ Storm Perch one day and a 4lbs pike hit it and almost swallowed the entire bait. I haven’t got a picture because the treble was caught in amongst the gill rakers and I had to be very careful removing it. There was a little blood loss so I decided to get the fish back in the water as quickly as possible where it had the best chance of survival, providing an even bigger pike didn’t eat it.
These accidents can’t be avoided though, it will happen one day and for this reason I always crush the barbs on the hooks on ALL of my lures. Yes, I’ve heard about the chances of catching a monster and then maybe loosing it for the want of a fully barbed hook, but personally I’d sooner think about the many pike I can unhook much quicker and safer without the barb. I can’t see it would make much difference either if a big one got hooked with two or three points of the treble, but that’s just me.
There is one more soft bait I’d like to mention, I bought it from Harris, but then they discontinued it. If you find one like it, buy some and tell me please! I think it safe to say, I have caught as many pike on this one particular lure than on all of the other soft lures put together. Now it could be that after the first few pike I caught that it’s the one I reach for first now, but either way it does work.
At first, I was a little sceptical about soft lures, I’d tried them years ago, shads, where you had to mount your own hooks and there was no wire. You can now get the weighted hooks for them (Hmm! Guess who – Fox, [14 mentions]), but the Storm, Savage, and Daiwa ones work really well and I’m sure there’s others too. Give them a try, work them sink and draw, allow them to hit the bottom and even rest them a while, then move them. You’ll find they do work, really well.
Useful sites
* www.brundallangling.com
* www.tackleshop.co.uk
* www.harrissportsmail.com
* www.thefriendlyfisherman.co.uk
