Light weight jerkbait rod

[CDN-N-GA]

Guys, fishing a jerkbait is one of if not my favorite technique and definitely one of my strengths. Problem is, after several years I have developed carpal tunnel syndrome in my left wrist and after a day of fishing, or especially several days (just got home from a long trip inshore fishing), my hand will go to sleep at night and keeps me up, very painful to deal with. I currently fish jerkbaits on a St Croix Avid 7' Med or a St Croix Mojo Bass 7' Med, both casting rods. I will occasionally switch to a spinning rod to give my left wrist a break, but I would love to find the perfect, lightweight rod specifically for jerkbaits that might help the tension on the wrist. Does anyone have suggestions or perhaps has had this issue and found a good rod/reel combo to combat this? Thanks in advance for your input.

[caskey_b]

No rod/reel combo will fix your issue. Trust me.

dealt with this in 2018 when I was 34-35 years of age.

tried different combos, to none avail

double carpal tunnel surgery November of 18 with roughly 3-5 week down time and was like new next fishing season

stop putting off the inevitable, you need to surgery before you get better

[RFSims]

I have arthritis in my hands and wrist. I also have a Mojo 7' MF that I use for jerkbaits. While I still occasionally use it for jerkbaits, I have gone to a Mojo 6'8" (Top Water) rod for the bulk of my jerkbait fishing. It is an excellent jerkbait rod (as is the 7'MF) and with the extra fast action I don't have to jerk as hard to impart action to my jerkbait. There is not a great weight difference between the 7' and 6'8" rod, however it seems (could be my imagination) the shorter rod has less leverage. and balance. I have ABU Garcia ALX reels on both rods that weigh in at 5.60z.
A sideways jerk rather than straight down is also easier on my hands and wrists. The St Croix Victory 6'8" MXF rod which is labeled 'Jerkbait' is a few tenths of an oz lighter than the Mojo.

Try a sub 6 oz reel and a sideways jerk action, that may help.

[CDN-N-GA]

No rod/reel combo will fix your issue. Trust me.

dealt with this in 2018 when I was 34-35 years of age.

tried different combos, to none avail

double carpal tunnel surgery November of 18 with roughly 3-5 week down time and was like new next fishing season

stop putting off the inevitable, you need to surgery before you get better

I am 51 and in great shape...except my left wrist. I feel like if I let them cut me, it is all down hill from there. But I appreciate the input, you are probably right.

[CDN-N-GA]

I have arthritis in my hands and wrist. I also have a Mojo 7' MF that I use for jerkbaits. While I still occasionally use it for jerkbaits, I have gone to a Mojo 6'8" (Top Water) rod for the bulk of my jerkbait fishing. It is an excellent jerkbait rod (as is the 7'MF) and with the extra fast action I don't have to jerk as hard to impart action to my jerkbait. There is not a great weight difference between the 7' and 6'8" rod, however it seems (could be my imagination) the shorter rod has less leverage. and balance. I have ABU Garcia ALX reels on both rods that weigh in at 5.60z.
A sideways jerk rather than straight down is also easier on my hands and wrists. The St Croix Victory 6'8" MXF rod which is labeled 'Jerkbait' is a few tenths of an oz lighter than the Mojo.

Try a sub 6 oz reel and a sideways jerk action, that may help.

Thanks for the input, I'll take a look at that. In fact, I had the thought of going to a 6-8 or 6-10 rod, so I'll check out the Victory!

[FryDog62]

I'm 61 and I've had both wrists carpal tunnel surgery - plus other surgeries on the SL ligament, pisiform bone removal, etc. Carpal tunnel surgery is a breeze and easy recovery, just takes a little time to recover. I am connected to my jerk bait rod all Spring long now thanks to good surgeries. No pain, all gain now. Go for it!

[DrewFlu33]

I don't necessarily have any rod suggestions. I use the cork handled Tatula Jerkbait rod and find it works really well. It's light, but I'm not sure it's any lighter than any other unless you've been using glass or composite rods for it which doesn't seem to be the case. Like mentioned above, I'm not sure that the rod is really going to help a ton. I dealt with something similar over the last couple year, though in my case it was in the elbow, both in the form of tennis elbow and cubital tunnel syndrome. There it was the repetitive motion much more than the torque that got it fired up. That said, the torque does matter and maybe easing up on that a bit is all you need to get it straightened out?

Like RFSims suggests, even if a shorter rod isn't lighter, less length will definitely mean less torque on your wrist.

You might also try braid to a leader on your jerkbait setup. That really cuts down on how hard you have to rip the bait to get it to act the way you want, and there are other benefits as well: It casts better, it's much more economical as you're only wearing out leaders vs the entire spool of line and can easily switch leaders if you need different line diameter, it's easier to pop slack with no stretch in the mainline which maximizes productivity on each cast, and so on. The trick is convincing yourself that you won't lose a bunch of fish with the braid and trebles. For me, that just required a day with big smallmouth in river current when they were really on the jerkbait. Problem solved! I do think that running a longer leader (~15 feet or so) is helpful for giving some shock absorption to keep the fish pinned. It still a bit of a mystery as I've never been able to get a similar setup to work with a crankbait. For whatever reason, jerkbaits work great with it!

One last idea: If you're not liking throwing them on spinning rods, you could try getting a left-handed casting reel so that you can work the bait with your right hand without fumbling with the egg beater.

[caskey_b]

I am 51 and in great shape...except my left wrist. I feel like if I let them cut me, it is all down hill from there. But I appreciate the input, you are probably right.

understand your concern. As was I when I had to have it done. Great shape (collegiate athlete and did weight lifting since I was a teen), I have since recovered 100%. Carpal tunnel surgery is a very low risk procedure

[Amistad Tackle]

Only tendonitis from fishing but have gone to lighter rods as I have aged.

I have one of the Abu Garcia Veracity rods Hank Cherry used to win his first classic. It is super light. It is this one. I like it. Perhaps a little stiffer than I would like but works well for 110's and similar size jerkbaits. I think he has come out with some other Abu Garcia rods since then just for jerkbait fishing. He is the jerkbait king and I know has had tendonitous and hand issues, so likely all his branded jerkbaits rods are super light.

IMG_1373.jpg

[bass-o-maticjm]

6'8" Falcon Expert jerkbait rod

6'5" Megabass Oneten Stick P5 Destroyer

[Capt.craig]

Kistler jerk bait rod
best jerk bait rod I’ve used

[CDN-N-GA]

6'8" Falcon Expert jerkbait rod

6'5" Megabass Oneten Stick P5 Destroyer

I have seen the Falcon rod you mentioned, it is nice! Thanks for the info.

[CDN-N-GA]

Kistler jerk bait rod
best jerk bait rod I’ve used

I have heard a lot of good things about Kistler, I will look at them, thanks

[CDN-N-GA]

understand your concern. As was I when I had to have it done. Great shape (collegiate athlete and did weight lifting since I was a teen), I have since recovered 100%. Carpal tunnel surgery is a very low risk procedure

Thanks for the input, I will look into it. I can't fish without a jerkbait, lol.

[CDN-N-GA]

I don't necessarily have any rod suggestions. I use the cork handled Tatula Jerkbait rod and find it works really well. It's light, but I'm not sure it's any lighter than any other unless you've been using glass or composite rods for it which doesn't seem to be the case. Like mentioned above, I'm not sure that the rod is really going to help a ton. I dealt with something similar over the last couple year, though in my case it was in the elbow, both in the form of tennis elbow and cubital tunnel syndrome. There it was the repetitive motion much more than the torque that got it fired up. That said, the torque does matter and maybe easing up on that a bit is all you need to get it straightened out?

Like RFSims suggests, even if a shorter rod isn't lighter, less length will definitely mean less torque on your wrist.

You might also try braid to a leader on your jerkbait setup. That really cuts down on how hard you have to rip the bait to get it to act the way you want, and there are other benefits as well: It casts better, it's much more economical as you're only wearing out leaders vs the entire spool of line and can easily switch leaders if you need different line diameter, it's easier to pop slack with no stretch in the mainline which maximizes productivity on each cast, and so on. The trick is convincing yourself that you won't lose a bunch of fish with the braid and trebles. For me, that just required a day with big smallmouth in river current when they were really on the jerkbait. Problem solved! I do think that running a longer leader (~15 feet or so) is helpful for giving some shock absorption to keep the fish pinned. It still a bit of a mystery as I've never been able to get a similar setup to work with a crankbait. For whatever reason, jerkbaits work great with it!

One last idea: If you're not liking throwing them on spinning rods, you could try getting a left-handed casting reel so that you can work the bait with your right hand without fumbling with the egg beater.

I appreciate the input. I currently do bounce around with lines, sometimes straight braid, sometimes straight flouro, sometimes flouro leader. Kind of depends on which jerkait I am throwing and conditions.

[Bassjam2000]

If you are that serious about a specific technique or requirements you owe it to yourself to look into a custom rod.