I’ll be totally honest—I didn’t like jerkbait fishing for the longest time. It simply never appealed to me until my late college years. The more I started to tinker with these lures, however, the wider my eyes opened to their sheer productivity. Over the last decade, jerkbaits have become a major part of my arsenal when the bite is tough; they just flat-out catch fish.
I’ve been fishing with the Lucky Craft Lightning Pointer XR for the last several months and part of me wanted to keep it somewhat quiet because it’s been such a big-time producer for me lately. If you like to fish jerkbaits in the wind, you’ll want to take a close look at this lure.
It’s tailor-made for windy conditions
Jerkbaits and wind are an ideal combination for bass anglers. You can catch some jerkbait bass without it, but the presence of even a slight breeze can create some of the most exciting and easy-to-pattern fishing of the entire year. Even when other anglers are belly-aching about the tough fishing, this is an excellent way to catch ’em.
The Lucky Craft Lightning Pointer XR has an internal weight transfer system that allows for incredible casting distance. Bass often face up-current in order to feed easier, so it’s important to cast your jerkbaits into a stiff wind so you can work them with the wind-generated current. I’ve tried this with a lot of other jerkbaits and have been left with some pretty nasty backlashes.
The internal weights shift to the back of this lure when you begin your back cast, which makes your rod load very well. This allows you to catapult the jerkbait into the wind with very little effort.
With the XR 98 (pictured) weighing 5/8-ounce, this is a pretty heavy jerkbait. I’ve found that this extra weight keeps the lure from helicoptering and spinning in mid-flight, with further increases casting distance.
The bill holds up well
I have a lot of issues with breaking the bills off of my jerkbaits. I fish a lot of shallow rock with these lures and I can’t begin to count the number of bills I’ve ruined by slamming them into big pieces of rock. Jerkbaits are all about getting a reaction, so they need to be able to withstand being fished aggressively.
At the time of this writing, I haven’t lost—or even cracked—a bill on the Lucky Craft Lightning Pointer XR yet. It remains firmly connected to the body of the lure and aside from your generic scratches, it looks as good as new.
It gets down quickly
The steep bill angle of the Lucky Craft Lightning Pointer XR allows it to reach its maximum operating depth quickly and efficiently. With a long cast, I’ve been able to hit bottom in roughly 7 feet of water within just a few jerks. I like this characteristic in a jerkbait because I’d rather not waste a quarter of my cast simply trying to get the lure down to the fish.
It also looks great in the water. Even with more subtle twitches, it darts and dashes very erratically and puts off a ton of flash in the process. I also like that it’s easy on your arms; you don’t have to jerk your arm out of socket to make it dance. It doesn’t have a bunch of resistance to it, so it’s easy to fish for long periods of time.
Good price
A lot of folks don’t know about this yet, but Lucky Craft has reduced the prices on many of their lures. Before looking at the price, I kind of expected the Lucky Craft Lightning Pointer XR to be about $15 or $20. But it’s only $8.99.
From what I can tell thus far, it doesn’t seem as if any corners have been cut in regards to overall quality. The stock hooks are sharp, the split rings are stout and the finish is holding up very well after considerable use.
Final impressions
This is an excellent jerkbait, especially when you’re fishing in windy conditions. It casts wonderfully, it holds up and most importantly, it catches ’em.
The Lucky Craft Lightning Pointer XR is available at TackleWarehouse.com.
