Now that the water temperatures are cooling down, jerkbaits are coming into their own again. Jerkbaits are hard to beat in highland lakes or Tennessee River impoundments where there are a lot of gizzard shad. This time of year, when the water temperature is hitting the low 60s and even down into the 50s, you’ll see gizzard shad cruising along riprapped shorelines and rocky banks and feeding with a slow rolling motion on the algae that grows on the rocks. That’s also where you want to fish jerkbaits.

My all-around favorite is a Rapala X-Rap in any kind of shad pattern. I fish it 5- or 6-feet deep on 10-pound-test Gamma fluorocarbon line and give it a jerk-jerk-pause, jerk-jerk-jerk-pause cadence. A lot of times, the length of the pause makes all the difference. As a rule, the colder the weather, the longer the pause and shorter the jerks, and sometimes when it’s really cold you want to almost deadstick the bait, especially over brushpiles and stumps. You don’t want the bait to sink fast. It should be neutrally buoyant or nearly so. If you need to, either add weight like Storm SuspenDots, or use lighter or heavier fluorocarbon line to manipulate the rate of fall.

—- OFF! pro Terry Bolton, Paducah, Ky.