Session start and analysis
We arrive in the area at around 9:30 p.m., the sun having already set quite a while ago, but a few streetlamps light up the surface of the water. I start with a long jerkbait, the Daiwa Tournament Shiner in 17 cm and in a natural bluish color, the Laser Maiwashi. After just three casts, the first fish followed right up to my feet and turned back. The fish are there, but I'm going to have to get them to bite. So I drastically change my animation from linear to powerful jerks and fast retrieve.
Arriving in the lighted area, a nice fish pounces on my lure between two jerks and is quickly put out to dry. It's a fish of around 70 centimetres, which bodes well for the future. So it's pretty obvious that jerking triggers fish more easily than line fishing.
Fine-tune lures and animation to trigger attacks
With the little knowledge we've just acquired, we start to bring our jerks to life quickly and violently. However, the bites were still few and far between, although the fish continued to follow. My fishing partners change lures, switching between different sizes and colors in an attempt to find an effective pattern.
Rummaging through my boxes, I find another Tournament Shiner 17 cm, but this time in an all-black color with a green belly. I hand it to one of them, who catches his first fish instantly on the first cast. The hits kept coming for them, with 3 more fish coming out before they were put back in the water, but for me it was dead calm! Discussing our animations, we realize that jerking works very well, but that the hits often occur during pauses. So it's going to be essential to slow down the animation.
End on a high note with a pretty barracuda
We've already spent more than 3 hours on the water with 3 anglers and 5 fish have been put on the dry. It's already been a great evening, but we could do with a touch more. So I concentrate as much as possible on my animation, taking care to keep the line taut at the break to prevent the floating lure from rising too quickly. It was 4 or 5 meters from the bank that a beautiful fish hit my jerk very hard during a break.
A nice fight begins with some nice little rushes and this barracuda is without doubt the biggest we've seen so far. Fortunately, the barracuda's teeth don't manage to touch my leader, which holds firm and allows us to get the fish out easily. I finish on a high note with a very respectable fish for shore fishing, close to 80 cm, which will hopefully grow to a metre.
