Zell Rowland
Montgomery, Texas |
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In the spring of the year, I cut my bait selection down to a minimum: flipping baits and just a few topwaters. Sometimes I'll use a Zara Spook, but not as much as I usually fish a jerkbait. That's because a jerkbait is one of those lures I can twitch real lightly and keep in a confined area.
The jerkbaits I use most are the Smithwick Rogue and the Bomber Long A. There's a lot of difference in the two. If I'm going to rip a bait or keep it underwater the whole time I'm working it, I use a Long A, because it's the heaviest one made. The Smithwick Rogue has more action than any other jerkbait; it swims better. The two basic colors that work well almost anywhere are chrome with a black back and an orange belly or a gold with a black back and an orange belly.
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A good way to fish a jerkbait this time of year is to throw it next to a log or a bush and twitch the lure, just letting it float. In other situations, I may jerk the lure under, jerk it two more times, hesitate it and let it start to float up, then jerk it again. You want the lure to have a quick and erratic motion in the water so its puts off a lot of flash.
Anytime I'm fishing in heavy cover, I use the strongest line I can get away with -- all the way up to 30-pound-test Excalibur line. If I'm not fishing extremely thick cover or I'm working a lure around the edge of the cover, I'll use anything from 10- to 14-pound line. The rule of thumb is, the lighter the line you use, the more action you'll receive from the lure. The heaver the line, the less action you'll get. A lot of times fish aren't as interested in the action of the lure so much as the sound it makes or the disturbance it creates. That's when you can get away with using 25-pound line.
Zell Rowland of Montgomery, Texas, is considered one of the best topwater anglers in professional fishing. He entered his first B.A.S.S. tournament on Missouri's Table Rock Lake at the age of 13.
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