Soft Jerkbaits for Smallmouths

When it comes to jerkbait fishing, smallmouth anglers should always bring a handful of soft bait minnows for the party. Equally effective for smallmouths, and sometimes even better depending on fish activity levels, soft jerkbaits in the fluke style can be fished with the same cadence as a hard jerkbait to draw strikes. It draws strikes from aggressive fish, but also triggers reluctant strikes from wary and conditioned fish your hard baits likely blew past fish moments ago.

I run into this predicament constantly, and on a year-round basis.

I carry a variety of soft jerks in my boat, in colors and brands of all kinds. Ranging from custom-colored concoctions to household names that includes Z-Man Scented Jerk ShadZ, Bass Assassin Straight Tail Shads, Zoom Flukes, Kalin’s Jerk Minnows and Jerk Minnow Jr’s, and Strike King Caffeine Shads.

Soft jerkbaits like these favorites of mine will produce when the hardbait won’t. It’s important to work a soft jerkbait just as you would a hard jerkbait. Rigged weightless with a 3/0 Eagle Claw Trokar MagWorm with plastic barb keeper, which gives it a slow sink like a glide bait, I make sure to pop the bait with a few upwards jerks and let it hang and glide slowly down a few feet in the water column. Additionally, you can also get away with working them on a light-weight jig head.

Most soft minnows share the same generic molds, and tend to be poured the same, containing durable yet stiff plastic formulas that impede and prevent the bait from achieving its action to entice a smallmouth’s interest. 

The two most unique and top fish-catching soft minnows in my boat are the Strike King Caffeine Shad, and Z-Man Scented Jerk Shadz. 

The Caffeine Shad breaks traditional jerk minnow boundaries with its soft and salty texture and elongated sickle tail that drives its action. This bait is far from durable with my rigging method (below), lasting only a few fish per bait, but it catches and hooks into the most fish compared to the typical injected plastics.

Meanwhile the 5-inch Scented Jerk Shadz is superior to all in its lifelike action, texture, and gummyness, emulating all types of erratic baitfish action thanks to its ElaZtech formulation. I rig my Jerk Shadz on Carolina Rigs, as well as on the same aforementioned weightless Texas Rig. Just beware when fishing it weightless: This bait floats. Ideally, you will want to fish it with a fluorocarbon line, and add a slight pinch of weight to make it glide and dance sub-surface.