I’ve been sold on the Bomber Jointed Wake Minnow since the first time I saw one perform its tantalizing dance. I was in a tidal creek near Jacksonville with Chris Holleman, and we really just wanted to see the lure in the water and to get footage of its swimming action. He was casting and retrieving, not aiming at any particular target or zone. I was watching though the camera. A nearby bluefish didn’t care what we were doing. It simply saw something irresistible and attacked.
The Jointed Wake Minnow is exactly what its name suggests: a jointed-bodied minnow lure that has been engineered to swim right at the surface so it pushes out a bulging wake. For years veteran anglers have forced shallow-running jointed minnows to wake with super slow retrieves and a high rod position and even by modifying bill angles or lightening hardware. This lure was designed for the task, so waking it is easy and works at a wide range of speeds.
At 5 3/8 inches in length, the Jointed Wake Minnow isn’t too big for bass, but it offers a large enough profile to suggest a gizzard shad, sucker or a small mullet and will call up everything from stripers to pike to redfish to tarpon. Plus, it comes equipped with stout hardware that can handle big predators. Weighing in a ¾ ounce, it’s also easy to cast long distances.
The classic presentation (and often the best) calls for nothing more than making a long cast and reeling the lure back at a moderate pace. That makes the Jointed Wake Minnow swim at the surface but not quite on it so it pushes up a bulge as it slithers and rolls. The wake spreads in a big V and draws fish from far away. The rolling action, combined with the 3D finish, emits an astounding amount of flash.
This lure isn’t limited to a straight wake, though.
By swimming it hard with your rod kept low, you can get this lure to about a foot deep, and sometimes that shallow slither will be the ticket. Alternatively you can work it with pulls and pauses so it dives barely beneath the surface and pops back up or with quick snaps that cause it to dance more erratically on top. Even staying mostly with the classic presentation, you can vary things quite a bit by simply mixing up speeds and occasionally adding pauses or snaps of the rod tip as strike-triggering mechanisms. It’s always worth experimenting, but more days than not, a fairly steady presentation will produce the most action.
Like with most traditional surface lures, some fish will hit and miss, sometimes with vicious strikes. Do your best to avoid setting the hook until you feel the fish. If you just keep working it, chances are good that the fish will come back and finish the job.
The Bomber Jointed Wake Minnow is available in 10 colors.
By Jeff Samsel