Here are some tips:

1. Tie your jerkbait on with a loop knot....vary the size of the know to vary the action of the lure.

2. Vary the length of time you pause the jerkbait until the fish let you know how they want it that day...many of the days last year the fish wanted the pause to last at least 15 seconds.

3. Jerkbait fishing shines in early prespawn....late Feb and month of March...once the water temps hit 60 you can still catch fish on it...but a crankbait will produce better most days.

4. Watch your sonar...most of the time when fishing deep points and banks you can see the shad with the targets under them...this will help you decide if you need a deep or shallow running bait.

5. Test your lure to see if it is suspending in the water you are fishing...your lure is made to suspend at certain water temps...if the water you are fishing is colder than that or warmer than that...it is not going to suspend. Just because your lure suspended in your sink at home does not mean it will be suspending in the water where you are fishing that day. You do not want you lure to be rising...this can be adjusted by adding suspend dots. If the lure is falling...a slow fall is not really a bad factor...you want it to fall nose down if you can't make it suspend.

6. If the water is stained...go with clown pattern....if sun is really bright and water clear...think blue/chrome...most days shad patterns such as black/silver, table rock shad, green/pearl etc are best producers...remember...they are eating shad on this pattern.

I use a number of different makes and models...Rogues, Xraps, Husky Jerks, Pointers etc....most days they will all catch a fish if the jerk bait bite is on...but there is always one that will outperform the others...and normally one that will catch more fish than the others each season...you just have to figure out which one it is and then make sure you have plenty of them....last year on Ky/Barkley they were eating the Pearl Ayu suspending pointer like candy...year before it was the Aurora Black pointer...get my point?