Jerkbaits belong to the family of lipped minnow lures. The original was the Rapala Floating Minnow, still made of buoyant wood. It became a sensation when introduced in North America over fifty years ago. It was a revolutionary fish-catcher and commanded a premium price at the time. Rapalas were selling for $5 apiece, and everything else, other lures sold for $1.25. So you see, even fifty years ago, there were high-priced, high end imported lures.
The Rebel Minnow, Cotton Cordell Red Fin and other minnows soon followed. These were injection-molded hard plastic minnows that could be mass-produced and sold for less.
Legendary lure designer Cotton Cordell recalls, “I didn’t have the money to buy Rapalas, so I built the Red Fin. I made the first Red Fin back when the government was busy impounding many new lakes. Ouachita and Sam Rayburn were two brand new lakes where I perfected the Red Fin, wiggling it through freshly-flooded treetops on these and other newly-made waters at that time. It proved deadly for largemouth.”
“The Red Fin became an immediate success,” says Cotton. “People who were the first to use Red Fins on different lakes, what happened for a time was if you used a Red Fin, you caught fish. If you didn’t have a Red Fin, you caught nothing.
The Pause That Pays
The Red Fin was (still is) a floating minnow, best used on the surface.
“The most reliable way to use the Red Fin back then was cast out, wait a spell, pop it 3 or 4 times, and pull it under to swim 3 or 4 yards. Let it pop up to the top again. Pop it 3-4 times. Wait a spell. Pull it under for 3-4 more yards. Just keep repeating those steps. For some reason, the fish like it on top. They rarely hit it during the time it is pulled under. They mostly hit in the intervals it is paused and popped on top.” Read on….