Jerkbait bass fishing has to be the most intense way to fish for smallmouth and largemouth bass... Lake St. Clair largemouth are a bit sluggish compared to the way largemouth bass fight at Kent Lake, but it's still fun to catch them on X-Raps as I've shown...

But every now and then, you'll come into a scenario where you can't get a standard shallow lipped X-rap into tight locations like at Black Creek of Metropark where it's super shallow, where it's like 2 - 3 feet deep. Yeah you'll still get bass here and there on every 3rd or 4th cast after pulling weeds off on the 1st and 2nd cast off your standard lipped jerkbait, but what you can do is, either try the X-rap Twitchin Minnow or the X-rap Subwalk, both just stay below the surface and can be worked just like a standard lipped jerkbait, that way you increase your odds of catching bass without having as much weeds and muck on. The difference between these two jerkbaits, one is saltwater and one is freshwater. Since the Twitchin' Minnow comes equipped with single hooks which will result in a lot of hits and misses, take those single hooks off, and equip the lipless jerkbait with some Japanese Steel, such as the #6 Megabass Katsuage hooks. These hooks are specialty tuned for the Megabass Vision jerkbaits, but they'll work just as good on the X-Rap because they're super light weight and will allow the Twtichin Minnow to roam free and move more erratically. And if you want to go even more lightweight, pickup some Owner Hyperwire split rings... The Megabass Jatsuage hooks are also sharp and thin so they dig in deep, also feature outer barbs on their treble hooks so when the bass partially misses the bait, it still gets hooked, like this strike here!

In fact, after trying the Twitchin Minnow out down in Naples Florida, it was quite evident to me that you can actually get a lipless jerkbait to act more erratic than a standard lipped jerkbait, since there's less resistance of having any lip. Since jacks were quite erratic themselves, they just went crazy over the Twitchin' Minnow in the shallows of the Marina of Naples. What a blast that was!

So using a lipless jerkbait, in doing so, again you're not going to get as much weeds and muck, in return you're making every cast count, like I said increase you're odds of catching more bass. You're also going to be able to cast this lipless jerkbait closer to the reeds where bass might be bedded down in the spring time, kind of like what you can do with a topwater hard bait like the Zara Spook, but instead you'll be walking the dog just below the surface. It's really a win win of having at least a few of these subwalker jerkbaits in your tackle box! And anyone who knocks the Rapala X-Rap as a subpar jerkbait, look around, name another fishing company that has subwalking jerkbaits for this type of situation in the super shallows? Yeah even Megabass, KVD, and Lucky Craft do not have subwalkers in their popular version jerkbaits, making them less adaptable to all the different scenarios. Remind you, this is such early spring that frogs really aren't hopping around and bugs aren't in their air, so using topwater is kind of obsolete... Especially if the sun is out and there's no overcast, where the subwalker shines! A lot of these jerkbait fishing companies should have a subwalker jerkbait, but they don't, leave it up to the Finnish to stay right up on top of their game!

Recently, I went onto Bass Pro Shops and bought me a couple Megabass jerkbaits, Subwalks, and 1 more Twitching Minnow, since I still have the Twitchin Minnow I bought from Ace Hardware in Florida. Now I have megabass 110+1 and 110+2s, along with a deep diving glass ghost x-rap and shallow x-rap, and now a couple twitchin minnows and X-rap subwalks. You know how I always say it's good to try out a new fishing lure every year, I think it makes you a better fisherman and makes you think outside the box? Well it does, it makes you a lot more adaptable! More adaptable to different depths, different scenarios and ecosystems, which will overall make you a better fisherman. If you get set in your ways of using a chatterbait or spinnerbait all the time for all seasons, it doesn't make you an adaptable fisherman since the weights on those really can't be changed out and can't get you into shallow regions like at Black Creek, but honestly, that's why I like the beetle spin so much, you can unlatch the safety pin and install a new 1/8 ounce light weight jig head, maybe even lighter if you want to... Sure they do make lighter equipped spinnerbaits and chatterbaits, but I think jerkbaits still tend to catch more fish overall early spring occasions like this, especially with stubborn Largemouth in cold conditions!

And sometimes, even having a wide variety of sizes, as Randy Blaukat had suggested, like the Megabass Jr. or X 80, which might help give you that edge on landing more bass. Why? Well since it's smaller, the jerkbait will act a lot more erratic with just the slightest twitch unlike than the larger size. And just like he said, any time you want to keep some of these jerkbaits even deeper like the Xrap deep diver or the Megabass 110+2, buy some Storm Suspend Strips.

A jerkbait is just one of those lures, if you were ever stranded on an island, whether it's freshwater or saltwater, this is the lure you'd want to have! I swear, the Xrap glass ghost caught every type of species of saltwater fish off the surf and in the shallows. As I found out, it's the only thing I needed after trying flarehawk jigs, swimbaits, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits in saltwater early spring etc... The jerkbait basically made all those other lures obsolete, cheers to Rapala for expanding the range of the jerkbait, hopefully other lure companies eventually follow!

And by the way, why do we get the dulled down shitty colors, Europeans get all the sweet advanced colors!? ?