By “let down”, I’m not referring to something disappointing. It’s the opposite. It’s a tactic I use with suspending jerkbaits from November through March to catch big river smallmouth in current. Here’s how it works.
Suspending jerkbaits are the right tool for the job when the water has cooled to the point where the fish still want to chase, but their metabolism has slowed enough that they need a moment to catch up with a moving bait. In our local Mid Atlantic rivers, that means water temperature in the 40’s.
On certain days, you can catch fish by burning these baits all the way back to the kayak. More of those days are in October than November. Ripping and pausing the jerkbait is how most anglers fish suspending jerkbaits. How long of a pause is a function of not just the water temperature, but the water temperature trend.
For example, if the water temperature dropped from 54 degrees a week ago down to 48 today, I will likely have a 12 to 20 second pause. They haven’t quite acclimated to the new cooler water temperature, so you have to give them longer. Inversely, if today’s water temperature is 48, but it warmed up from 42 two days ago, that’s a significant warming trend. I might only need a 4 second pause. Play around with it each time out, actually counting seconds as your jerkbait drifts motionless so that you know exactly what works when you find it.
On the colder end of the spectrum, and even into the mid and upper 30’s, you will want a dead drift minutes long in duration. To do this effectively, you’ll need a suspending jerkbait that suspends true in the water temperature you are fishing. Most of the time, I am throwing a Lucky Craft Pointer 100. I fish with other anglers who are effective at this technique with Rapala X-Raps or other brands of suspending jerkbaits.
But even within the same brand and model, there will be some variation in suspend ability. Some come out of the package suspending perfectly in 45 degree water. Others float up. I won’t use these slow risers unless I weight it down with a sliver of an adhesive lead product called a Suspend Dot. The bottom line is that you need to put the bait into the water and watch it to know.
I’ll rig the bait on a moderate action rod, either spinning or baitcasting. The baitcasters lend themselves to the “let down” part of this technique. My favorite is a 7′ 10″ St. Croix Legend Tournament Magnum Cranker, but any moderate action rod will keep your treble hooks from tearing out of the mouths of the fish. I spool up with 15 pound bright yellow braid and a 10 pound fluorocarbon leader, about 8 feet in length. Fluorocarbon is a heavier leader option than monofilament, and will pull down the suspending jerkbait some. That’s OK, because it will counter the lift that the river’s current exerts on the sometimes 75 yards of line that you will have lowered downstream of your stationary position. Because the fish have a long time to inspect the bait at close range, I’ll slather on a paste based scent like MegaStrike. It also lubricates the hard bait, allowing for more effective hook sets in the tightly clenched jaw of a smallmouth
The right location to target smallmouth in a cold river is a question that goes beyond what this article can help you with. If you want to learn more on finding winter pools, watch the following video.
For the purposes of the article, I’ll tell you that the right location in the several productive winter pools I’ve honed in on over the years have three things in common: depth, lack of current and ledge structure. The lack of current is the most important factor, but all parts of a river have some current. Your goal is to match the dead drift of your suspending jerkbait through the pool to the exact speed of that current. This can be done by casting out perpendicular to the flow, ripping it down and drifting parallel to the bait. But that means that you’ll be paddling back to the top of the pool over and over again.
A more effective approach, especially if you have found a specific part of the pool that holds fish is to anchor up your kayak above that spot, and lower the bait down through the area. Cast out cross current, rip the bait down a few feet and focus on the taught line. If the line is not yet taught, adjust your rod angle upstream to gently take up slack. Be sure not to exert enough pressure that you are bringing the bait toward you. Don’t even exert enough pressure on the line that you hinder it’s downstream drift. Just keep a light tension on the line such that you can feel the soft crunch of a bass mouthing the hard bait.
You do this by slowly following the lure’s drift downstream with your rod tip. This is where the 7 foot or longer rods help out. Once the rod tip is close to pointed directly downstream, release line as you swing the rod tip to point all the way upstream. Try not to impart action to the bait as you do this. If done correctly with a 7 foot rod, you’ve just purchased another 14 feet of cold water smallmouth habitat to present your bait to. Repeat until you feel that there’s too much line out to detect the bite.
This technique is also very effective on wind blown points for reservoir smallmouth and largemouth. The wind generated current sweeping across a rock ledge point that drops off into deep water provides a perfect ambush point for still water bass.
On a river, I’ll anchor up in several locations across the top of a series of deep water ledges until I find the mother lode of smallmouth. Perfect this technique this late fall and you’ll feel anything but let down.