I was selected to field test Berkley’s Havoc The Jerk 3 months ago, so I decided to put it through the ringer. The first thing I did when I got the package in the mail, I pulled one of them out and tested the elasticity of the plastic. It didn’t hold up very well under my elasticity test. That was a red flag for me already before I even put one on my line. The next thing I did was designate half of the bag to salt water fishing and the other half to fresh water.
Since I received them during the peak of the flounder run here on the Texas coast, I wanted to see just how well they would hold up under extreme conditions. The plastic did not hold up as I soon found out. If I was able to get The Jerk past the sand trout and pin fish, the flounder would destroy it. I would average one flounder per plastic.
When I was not able to get The Jerk past the sand trout and pin fish, the plastic didn’t come back in all that great of shape either. The pin fish would peck at the skinnier part of the tail and remover the paddle tail after a couple casts and the sand trout would short strike or give a few head shakes and snap the tail off.
So now that I knew how it would hold up to toothy critters it was time to see how well it would hold up in the body of water it was designed to fish. I went to a creek known for good jerk bait fishing during the fall. The Jerk held up like I figured it would, it held up poorly. I had the same issues on the creek as I did on the bay. I had big bull blue gills chipping away at the tail and removing the paddle tail.
When it came to catching bass, they would tear up the plastic quickly as well. I was lucky to catch two bass off of the same The Jerk before the bass made it impossible to rig. I tried many different styles of rigging The Jerk, from weightless to drop shot and by far the most effective way was throwing it weightless.
With that all being said I give this bait a grade of a D+. The reason it does not get a failing grade from me is the simple fact that the bait does do what it’s designed to do. It will catch you fish. The one thing that would need to be improved in order for me to give The Jerk a higher grade would be the elasticity. If the bait was a little more elastic, I think the bait would hold up better after a fish strikes it. The lure is great if you are sponsored by them and get them by the thousands, but when you are an angler like me who has to spend close to $4 for a pack of 10, you would prefer the plastic to last longer than 1 fish.
Since I received them during the peak of the flounder run here on the Texas coast, I wanted to see just how well they would hold up under extreme conditions. The plastic did not hold up as I soon found out. If I was able to get The Jerk past the sand trout and pin fish, the flounder would destroy it. I would average one flounder per plastic.
When I was not able to get The Jerk past the sand trout and pin fish, the plastic didn’t come back in all that great of shape either. The pin fish would peck at the skinnier part of the tail and remover the paddle tail after a couple casts and the sand trout would short strike or give a few head shakes and snap the tail off.
So now that I knew how it would hold up to toothy critters it was time to see how well it would hold up in the body of water it was designed to fish. I went to a creek known for good jerk bait fishing during the fall. The Jerk held up like I figured it would, it held up poorly. I had the same issues on the creek as I did on the bay. I had big bull blue gills chipping away at the tail and removing the paddle tail.
When it came to catching bass, they would tear up the plastic quickly as well. I was lucky to catch two bass off of the same The Jerk before the bass made it impossible to rig. I tried many different styles of rigging The Jerk, from weightless to drop shot and by far the most effective way was throwing it weightless.
With that all being said I give this bait a grade of a D+. The reason it does not get a failing grade from me is the simple fact that the bait does do what it’s designed to do. It will catch you fish. The one thing that would need to be improved in order for me to give The Jerk a higher grade would be the elasticity. If the bait was a little more elastic, I think the bait would hold up better after a fish strikes it. The lure is great if you are sponsored by them and get them by the thousands, but when you are an angler like me who has to spend close to $4 for a pack of 10, you would prefer the plastic to last longer than 1 fish.
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