Why Casting Distance Is Key When Fishing A Jerkbait

Jerkbaits are essential fishing lures. Their baitfish profile and erratic, evasive action makes these reaction lures very effective at both appealing to the temperament of active fish as well as triggering strikes from inactive ones.

Not all jerkbaits on the market are created equal, though, and when it comes to catching bass, walleye, northern pike, trout, crappie and more, ultra-long casting jerkbaits can outperform models with inferior casting properties. Here are 5 reasons why this is the case.

The extra distance covered every time you bomb out an ultra-long casting jerkbait like the Precision Xtreme (PXR) Mavrik 110 enables you to throughly fish an area faster, and with fewer casts, compared to a lure with a shorter casting range. Long casts also extend the retrieve. This prolongs the time a PXR Mavrik, or other ultra-long casting jerkbait, stays wet and where fish can eat it.

Short-casting jerkbaits, on the other hand, require more casts to cover the equivalent area. Each of these tosses decreases the presentation’s time in the strike zone, reducing angling efficiency.

Pro Tip: Applying Storm’s SuspendDots and SuspendStrips to the belly of a lure increases its weight and how far you can cast it. This simple modification is an easy way to turn your favourite long-casting Rapala jerkbait (e.g., Husky Jerk) into an ultra-long casting lure.

It doesn’t take much to prompt hits with a Rapala jerkbait when fish are aggressively feeding. A couple snaps and twitches, a pause, and the next thing you know your rod’s bucked over and dancing.

When fish are less active, though, it’s good for a lure to have a long runway, and the extended retrieve afforded by using a long-casting jerkbait provides more time and space for trying to make fish bite.

There’s also something to be said for keeping a fish captivated for an extended period. Predators are hard-wired to avoid calorie losses when pursuing prey, and a drawn-out retrieve with a jerkbait can stimulate this evolutionary characteristic and prompt a reaction.

Rapala’s internal long-cast system makes jerkbaits like the PXR Mavrik 110, PRX Deep Mavrik 110 (just released at ICAST 2024) and X-Rap cast like bullets. Equally noteworthy is the modern construction of the tungsten-weighted CountDown Elite, which slices through air to reach distances off limits to other balsa baits.

While beneficial during calm conditions, the above long-cast innovations are especially useful for increasing distance and accuracy when casting into the wind. This is vital, of course, given jerkbaits are outstanding at catching largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye, pike, trout and other predators in windy, wavy conditions.

Pinging sonar transducers, trolling motor sounds and other boat noises have long been known to put fish on the defensive. Using a ultra-long casting jerkbait puts more space between boat disturbances and the fish you’re trying to catch. After all, there’s a reason bass, walleye and pike often strike a jerkbait within seconds of its splashdown and the initial few meters of a retrieve.

The farther you can accurately cast a lure, the more distant fish you can target using forward-facing sonar. Interestingly, the baseline casting distance is increasing for many FFS fishing techniques. When forward sonar first arrived, catching bass and walleye 60 to 70 feet away was easy. Less so today on heavily pressured waterbodies, according to several Rapala VMC Canada pros. Extremely long casts are becoming the norm, which sheds light on why the PXR Mavrik 110, CountDown Elite and X-Rap are in such high demand throughout the open-water season.

Pro Tip: Learn more about the long-casting, tungsten-weighted CountDown Elite and more of the best lures for forward-facing sonar in this blog.

Whether you’re using cutting-edge forward-facing sonar or sticking with simple fish-finding tech, there’s no denying the benefits of ultra-long casting jerkbaits for bass, walleye, pike, trout and panfish. Be sure to keep your RapStack tackle trays well stocked with jerkbaits like the Precision Xtreme Mavrik 110 and Deep Mavrik 110, CountDown Elite and X-Rap, and you’ll never miss out on a hot jerkbait bite.