Bank Bass Fishing with Jerkbaits from Mike McClelland

Hey, everyone, Mike McClelland, SPRO professional here with BassResource to talk jerkbait fishing from the bank. You know, one thing, I know growing up as a kid I spent a lot of time fishing off a riverbank, fishing off a boat dock. You know, things of that nature. And a lot of times people feel like they're really limited and really hindered by only being able to fish off the bank.

But one thing about it, when it comes to a bait, if there was any bait that I could choose, other than maybe just a straight-up top-water, a jerkbait would probably be my second choice of any kind of bait that I could fish from the bank. And the reason for that is just the fact that a jerkbait is not a bait that you're wanting to fish on the bottom. It's a bait that you're trying to catch fish that are suspended. So I don't care if you're fishing ponds, creeks, river channels, a jerkbait is definitely something that you wanna keep in mind.

I mean, one bait that I would always carry with me, if I'm fishing from the bank, would be the SPRO Zero Minnow. It's a top-water, wake-style bait. And it's a bait that, you know, if you got any surface activity, whether it be pond, river, creek, it's gonna be a great bait to fish. Another thing that you wanna keep in mind is a McStick 115 and the McStick 95 because of the fact that a lot of people like to fish, you know, smaller bodies of water, creeks, ponds, and the little 95 is one of those baits that works really well when you've got smaller forage and just places that have a lot of smaller fish in 'em. But the 115 is also good for the simple fact that it's gonna stay higher in the water column.

So you can actually walk down the bank and throw this thing parallel ahead of you and not worry about the fact that it's gonna get too deep. It's only gonna stay in the upper, you know, 3 or 4 feet of the water column.

Another key factor, if I was bank fishing a jerkbait much, is taking advantage of the topography of the lake. The biggest thing that you can do is any place that you've got deep water, you know, bluff lines, channel swings, those are gonna be really key places to try to fish from the bank because you can literally throw that bait down the bank parallel. And put yourself in a great position so if I was a bank fisherman and spent a lot of time fishing from a bank, I promise you I'm gonna have SPRO jerkbaits to my lineup.

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