Tony Roach is perhaps Mille Lacs Lake’s favorite son. For good reason too. With the big pond being one of Minnesota’s most traditionally successful walleye fisheries, it makes sense that guide Tony, nephew of Gary Roach, a.k.a. “Mr. Walleye,” would have some connection to this famous water-body. On a day this May however, Tony showed off some serious skill while chasing after another of Mille Lacs’ gems in the Smallmouth Bass. As a guide, Tony sees it all, from tough bites to incredible ones, which is why I took note earlier this winter when Tony and I were working a sportshow as he mentioned a jerkbait pattern out there that is in one word, “killer.” Again and again he described in detail a bite that pushes through from pre-spawn and into the summer, complete with air-guitar-like demos of everything from the t-bone style hits to the dramatic hooksets. The kind of stuff that really gets an ice-weary angler going, and makes the mercury rise if only a bit.
Fast forward to 70 degree highs in late May with a massive bug hatch happening on the north shore. “I don’t know if water temps will be warm enough,” says Tony as we trailer to the west side of the lake where the winds are a bit more diminished. “Usually we’re looking for mid-to-high 50’s, and those fish will be up on the rocks just waiting to put X-Raps in their faces.” We started out in 8-12 feet of water where it abruptly rose to some of the lakes many 4-6 foot rocky flats, pitching lipless crankbaits to willing fish. They were there, but a bit lethargic, inspiring even less confidence in the aggressive jerkbait bite we hoped to tap into. “It’ll go, just maybe later in the day after the sun has warmed the shallows a bit,” Roach says referring to the jerk-bite we planned to enact.
What happened next was some poking around. Looking, learning, and leaving whatever spot didn’t have exactly what we were searching for, namely large rock humps and flats adjacent to deeper water with fish. After checking a few spots, we started seeing fish. Good numbers of them shallow, spooking from the boat. As with the surge of zebra mussels in the lake so too has come an increase in water clarity, and a pretty drastic one at that. “It’s one of the things that makes this jerkbait bite so good,” says Tony, “you can bomb-cast a flat or hump without them seeing you as you’re tempted to try and do while sight-fishing for them.” Cover large amounts of water and cover it from the edges unseen, all while looking for active pods of fish to park on; at least so goes the plan. Meanwhile, Tony is dashing and slashing, ripping the rod downward in cadences and speed that seem aggressive for the water temps at hand until “BAM, fish-on” Tony proclaims while driving hooks home and putting a serious bend in the rod. Two fish from Tony later, and I’m tying into one of my own, realizing that there’s some method to the madness of this X-Rap technique.
“A shorter rod with a soft tip is key,” says Roach while reeling in another fish. Longer jigging rods will prevent you from the downward rod-motions you need to work the bait all day without fatigue, and a rod that’s too fast pulls hooks free from fish’s mouths, especially with the 832 braid and floro-leader combo we were fishing with that day. As the day wore on, each of these points proved to be paramount to our success, with warming shallows exciting the fish and their overall mood. By afternoon, “jerkin’” was by far the most productive pattern, with fish hitting our baits in all kinds of cover and types of retrieves. “You want to incorporate some pauses into your retrieve, especially when fish are trailing then peeling off boatside,” mentioned Roach. “Just like that,” as another tanker smallie slammed his bait not long after killing his rod tip and waiting for a fish just off the bow of the boat to strike. We had numerous fish that day trail to within visual distance, then strike mere feet from the boat. All of which was proof in my mind to the overall effectiveness of the technique. “They get in the zone with these baits, and there’s times where you’re burning your bait in for another cast and they’ll crush it. They can’t help themselves.” Fishing as late as our schedules would allow that day, and then at least another half an hour, we couldn’t help ourselves either.