A jerk bait either appears as a wounded baitfish or a feeding fish to muskies. Of course, a wounded baitfish is an easy meal, so a muskie will pounce on it. "But a feeding fish is also an easy meal. It may be a perch darting through a school of minnows and not paying attention to what's going on around it. Again, the muskie sees an easy meal.

Jerk baits are usually very erratic. A muskie will follow one out of curiosity when suddenly it takes a turn the preditor didn't expect and he hits it out of reflex action. For these reasons, jerk baits are deadly for muskies in all types of waters-- clear or stained, deep or shallow. "I really don't know of a lake they won't work in," Dave said. "But there are lakes where they do work better than others. They work great in some dark water lakes and not so well in others, and the same thing in clear water. It just depends on the lake."

Dave feels that there is no single jerk bait or jerk bait type that is better than others as they vary by application. Of course, the Eddie is his favorite, but he admits to carrying Suicks and Bobbies in his tackle box. "If you want to fish over the tops of weeds or in pockets in the weeds, then a Suick or Bobbie is a great bait. And there are times when muskies simply prefer to hit a bait that stops and rises. I don't know why the are that way sometimes, but you'd be a fool not to throw a chopper when the muskies want them."