Justin Hamner Won the Bassmaster Classic with Forward-Facing Sonar and a Jerkbait

Alabama native Justin Hamner received the 54th Bassmaster Traditional at Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees in Oklahoma primarily utilizing a jerkbait to catch bass round cowl he had positioned with ahead dealing with sonar. The ways he employed point out the path that bass fishing has headed, and never only for match anglers.

In the course of the three day occasion (March twenty second by means of the twenty fourth), Hamner piled up a cumulative catch of 15 bass weighing 58 kilos, 3 ounces. This was sufficient to beat out the opposite 55 rivals and web him a $307,000 payday—in addition to a spot within the bass fishing historical past books. 

An avid jerkbait fisherman in addition to an electronics aficionado, the 33-year-old Bassmaster Elite Sequence Professional relied closely on his strengths to earn him the title. Hamner additionally credited his win to rising up in Alabama, since its there that he gained vital data and confidence whereas fishing for pre-spawn bass. Right here’s how he caught them, and how one can too.

 Utilizing a Jerkbait to Goal Pre-Spawn Bass 

A jerkbait has lengthy landed close to the highest of the listing in terms of pre-spawn baits. As bass and baitfish push shallow to spawn after the chilly winter months, a jerkbait’s profile paired with its stop-and-go motion creates the right mixture for tempting massive bass into biting. 

The water is often nonetheless just a little chilly this time of yr, because it was on Grand throughout the Traditional, hovering close to or under the 60-degree mark. That is primetime for a jerkbait, as this chew is much less fickle in comparison with different methods. A sudden spring chilly snap can wreck a whole lot of patterns this time of yr, for instance shutting down any trace of a topwater chew. A chilly snap can even stall out the development of spawners. 

By and huge, the jerkbait is essentially the most dependable lure for this pre-spawn window, because the bass are positioned comparatively shallow, typically in lower than 10 toes of water. The power to differ the retrieve of a jerkbait can also be a vital element of its effectiveness, permitting the angler to fish the bait quick or gradual relying on the temper of the fish, whereas additionally with the ability to let it droop proper within the fish’s face on the pause. 

Pairing a Jerkbait with FFS

FFS has polarized the sport of bass fishing the final two years. Adore it or hate it, with the ability to see a transparent, visible illustration of what’s below the water in entrance of you, and throughout you, has fully modified how efficient and environment friendly anglers will be. 

Hamner, an exceptional jerkbait fisherman, can also be intimately in tune along with his electronics. Utilizing the 2 collectively, Hamner was in a position to find massive bass in a wide range of places round an assortment of various cowl varieties together with brush piles, shallow laydowns, and bluff partitions. 

He used his Garmin LiveScope to find cowl, in addition to particular person bass at instances. As soon as he noticed the goal, his long-cultivated instincts took over and muscle reminiscence kicked in. Realizing the right way to convert in his thoughts the blobs, marks, and contours on his graph into real-world toes and inches allowed Hamner to make excellent casts, which was crucial to his success. 

Hamner was additionally in a position to monitor the effectiveness of his solid by watching the bait and the bass on the display, typically utilizing irregular pauses and pumps of his lure to set off the dipping and darting bass into committing to his bait. 

How you can Modify with the Circumstances

With the ability to catch bass utilizing a jerkbait throughout the pre-spawn isn’t an ideal science or a easy activity. Having the ability to take action over a number of days is way from assured. Nonetheless the Champ did this to perfection on Grand, as a number of different anglers who have been additionally fishing jerkbaits (and different lures) failed to take care of the tempo we noticed from Hamner. 

Fluctuating situations contributed to some powerful fishing at Grand. With the ability to modify to altering water ranges on rivers and or different flood management fisheries is essential within the spring. And rarely do two consecutive days see similar cloud protection, wind path, wind velocity, or precipitation. 

Any and all of those variables can impact the pre-spawn chew, whether or not you’re throwing a jerkbait or the rest. However when speaking jerkbait fishing specifically, you’ll actually wish to pay shut consideration to any modifications within the water readability and the cloud protection, utilizing extra pure and translucent patterns in sunny and clear situations, and extra strong and shiny patterns in stained-to-muddy water or when heavy cloud cowl is current. 

Hamner adjusted because the situations required, alternating between completely different kinds and depths of jerkbaits relying on the kind of cowl he was fishing round and relying on the depth he wished to focus on. However he made even larger changes primarily based on the wind, vacating the realm the place he caught his 22-pound, 6-ounce bag on Day 1 and relocating to the place the wind wasn’t fairly as sturdy. The transfer resulted in two 5-pound bites and one other 20-pound restrict on Day 2. 

Learn Subsequent: These 3 Classic Jerkbaits Are Still the Best for Bass and Trout

Why Wind Issues 

Wind will be your pal within the spring, or it may possibly fully wreck an space. It may possibly push bait right into a spot, making a focus of forage for the bass to gang up on. However even this is usually a unhealthy factor, as we noticed in Hamner’s case. The wind blew immediately into his Day 1 spot on Day 2, and introduced with it loads of bait. However in line with the champ, that resulted within the bass fully ignoring his lure as they zeroed in on stay forage. 

Wind can even muddy up an space if it blows arduous in a sustained path. This may be unhealthy, however anglers can use it to their benefit by focusing on concentrated fish alongside a creating mud line. You possibly can also have a wind present created if there’s a slim hole between two factors. We noticed a couple of anglers make the most of this actual scenario on the Traditional. 

The extra trendy damaging results of wind are felt most by anglers who’re making an attempt to make use of (FFS) to focus on bass. No matter what has been noticed by means of the digicam lens, catching bass utilizing FFS isn’t almost as simple because it seems to be more often than not, and it’s made exponentially tougher because the wind blows the boat round and lifts the bow up and down. 

Combating a stiff and shifting wind with the trolling motor whereas making an attempt to maintain a transducer skilled on a bait and a bass at 60 toes is a tall activity. This will likely have had as a lot to do with Hamner’s lack of ability to successfully fish his beginning spot as on Day 2 as something. 

How you can Fish Like Hamner

In the event you’re wanting to focus on pre-spawn bass with a jerkbait the identical manner Hamner did on Grand, search for areas the place shallow water and deep zones are available in contact with each other. Just a few examples are bluff partitions, creek channel swings, and 45-degree banks. Discovering brush, laydowns, docks, and boulders in areas like this may assist you find the bass, which regularly prefer to place themselves close to cowl to ambush prey. 

A easy pump-pump-pause cadence with a standard-size jerkbait like a Megabass Ito Vision 110 is a superb place to start out. This bait is an effective illustration of a jerkbait and it’s one which has caught numerous fish for anglers everywhere in the world. This bait or one just like it would dive all the way down to 4-to-6 toes and droop on the pause. 

Select your colours primarily based on the situations, translucents being more practical in excessive visibility conditions and strong, brighter colours working higher when visibility is low, because of stain within the water or a scarcity of daylight. Pump the bait a pair instances after which let it sit for a second or two, lengthening the pause to five or 6 seconds if the water remains to be below 52 levels in your space. 

Twelve-pound-test fluorocarbon spooled on a 7:1 gear ratio reel and a sub-7-foot, medium-heavy jerkbait rod is an effective place to start out when selecting out the remainder of your gear. 

Learn Subsequent: Best Jerkbait Rods

And in the event you do use this bait in tandem with FFS as Hamner did, you’ll discover that over time it will get simpler and simpler to gauge the path and size of the solid wanted to get your bait to the neighborhood of the dot on the display. Relaxation simple in the event you’re not nice at this to start with; Hamner wasn’t both little question, not all that way back. However now he’s the 2024 Bassmaster Traditional Champ, due to this system and a willpower to excellent it.