Bass fishing flukes is a great way to catch those finicky bass. Often the fluke, or sometimes known as the softplastic jerkbait, is over looked with so many other softplastics out on the market these days. If you hear people talking about using soft plastic jerkbaits or flukes you can use this guide of the best ways to rig them, and the best baits and colors to help you get “Kraken” bass. In addition, this post contains some video footage of a contest between me and my son fishing a fluke against a senko for more context. Hopefully, this post will help give you some more ideas of how to catch fish, and keep your stoke juices flowing.
Don’t make the mistake of not bass fishing flukes or softplastic jerkbaits. The reason the fluke is such a great bait, is because it has the perfect profile of a dying bait fish. It has such a subtle natural glide as it falls the bass can’t seem to resist it. Every year on the professional bass tours the fluke often brings home a win for a few of the pro anglers. The key to catching bass on a fluke is knowing what baits are the best, and also knowing how to rig them up properly. Soak in the information on this post, and you will catch more bass with softplastic jerkbaits called flukes.
Every soft plastic bait company has some type of fluke out on the market. I’m sure a lot of them catch fish too. Through my years of fishing I’ve whittled my list of flukes down to three different baits. Here are those three baits, and the pro’s and con’s of each one. If you have a favorite fluke you like to throw, leave a message about it in the comments below. Myself and a few others I’m sure would appreciate it.
The Yamamoto D-Shad in the Olive Shad color has always been a staple bass fishing fluke in my tackle box. This bait is heavier than a lot of other flukes on the market, so it sinks a little faster. Because of this you can throw it decently well on a bait casting rod and reel set up. The color of this bait is a perfect match for bait fish swimming around grass. This bait will catch fish on a shaky head rig, carolina rig, or even rigged up texas style weightless. It’s a soft bait, so it gets torn up after a few fish. Other than that, I have no problems with this bait. It has caught several fish for me over the years.
The Zoom Fluke Jr. in baby bass is hands down the best bass fishing fluke of all time. It always get’s bites because of it’s perfect size. This bait has a really quick darting action along with a super subtle fall. The only downside to this bait is it is really light. It works best on a spinning rod and reel set up on a weightless texas rig with a 4/0 offset gamkatsu hook. Make sure to check out the video below to see how this bait out performed the other flukes I used on my trip with my son.
The Wakasagi Biwaa Scorptail is one of the best bass fishing flukes. This bait works well because of its super natural color and size. The Biwaa Scorpitail’s unique profile and diamond shaped tail promotes an erratic darting motion. Plus, a very subtle tail swimming action on the fall which is similar to a senko. The Biwaa scorpion tail is a solid option worth trying for bass fishing flukes.
A fluke can be fished the same standard methods as other softplastics. You can fish a fluke on a drop shot, shaky head, or even a neko rig. The sky is the limit on creative ways you can fish a softplastic jerkbait or fluke. Here are three of the best ways to rig a fluke, and why they work so well on these types of set ups.
Usuing a nose hook set up is not very common place, but it is the most effective way of hooking up bass on a fluke. Here’s what you need to do it properly. Grab a twist lock for hooks and screw it into the nose of your sofplastic jerkbait. Tie on a drop shot 1/0 hook to the end of your line, and slide the hook through the eye of the twist lock. Then you cast that baby out, let it set with some twitch twitch pause action. With the exposed hook you rarely miss the fish. You can also insert some weight into the belly of your bait to get it to fall down a little faster. You can see the difference this rigging makes hooking up and landing fish in the video below. Make sure to check it out.
The weightless texas rig is the most common rig for bass fishing flukes. This set up is ideal for going through grass and cover to prevent hang ups. The only problem with this style of rigging is you will miss some bites. You really have to hammer them with your hook set to get the hook to penetrate through the bait and into the fishes mouth. The hook of choice for a weightless texas rig set up is a 4/0 offset gamakatsu hook. This hook is big enough to help you hook up on the fish, yet subtle enough to not detract from the natural presentation of the fluke in the water.
Carolina rigging a fluke is a staple in my bass fishing arsenal. Especially, in the wintertime. Nothing mimics a dying bait fish fluttering along the bottom better than this set up. Use a 3/8 oz tungsten weight with 2 feet of leader to keep the action subtle and awesome. Put your fluke at the end of your carolina rig on a stout 4/0 gamakatsu offset hook texas rigged to keep it from hanging up on anything you might encounter. Pay attention to the feel of your line, and give those bass a stout sweeping hook set when you feel them bite. Just a slow drag with an occasional hop will get those bass to chomp!
Here’s a clip of me and my son out bass fishing flukes and comparing them in effectiveness to senko’s. At the outset of the video the senko started kicking butt, but by the end of the video I’d substantially caught up with bass fishing flukes. The key was finding the right fluke the bass wanted. It’s important to always change out the styles, rigs, and colors of your flukes. Let the bass tell you what they like. At the end of the day it’s what matters most to the bass that counts. Enjoy the video, and don’t forget to give me a thumbs up and subscribe to my YouTube Channel while you watch.
Thank you for reading this post on bass fishing flukes. The links in here are affiliate links were you can pick up baits, rod’s, reels, line, and anything else I use to “Krak” bass with these baits. KrakenBass.com receives a small percentage of the sales through these links. I only use links to baits, and gear I personally trust and know work. The links are here to be helpful for you, and not for the small amount made on the sale of the products. For additional tools check out my products page for other stuff help you in your quest for bass: Krakenbass Products. I hope these things can help keep you “kraken” bass like they have for me. Thanks for your support!
As Always,
Stay Stoked!
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