There are times when we all get in a hurry. We lose our focus and default to those baits that have become a staple in our arsenal or to a new comer that we can’t wait to try.
We have confidence in them so we will continue to throw them until our arms begin to ache from fatigue. It seems as though we must reach this point before we begin to think of alternatives.
Then in a moment of lucidity or desperation, we reach for a bait that we haven’t spent much time with, know little about its action or effectiveness and decide that we’re going to spend our remaining time on the water to test this one plug in the hopes of discovering a bait whose action is different enough to open the seemingly locked jaws of the bass that have ignored our offerings all day.
These are the forgotten baits. Relegated more often than not by chance to some inconspicuous corner of our tackle boxes, only to see the light of day in that brief encounter with providence.
The Jackall Jockie 120 Topwater Minnow is one such bait. Hidden in the recesses of our tackle box, a forgotten lure. But finding it once again several months ago, it has quickly earned a place as a valuable tool for a number of situations.
Up Close and Personal
The Jockie is 4-3/4 inches in length with a weight of 1/2 oz. The shape of the Minnow is simple but elegant as are the available color schemes. It’s only on close inspection that you begin to appreciate the engineering that has gone into producing this bait.
The smallish diamond shaped lip on the front of the bait encases the line tie and comes from the factory with an oval split ring that is sized for the tie.
The eyes are a 3-D round with an inscription in them. There are molded in gills and gill plates on the side of the head with four small dimples on the underside of what would be the jaw.
The Jockie has a three hook configuration with all of the hook hangers being underneath the belly including the rear hook. Usually this will be straight out the back of a bait but there is a method to this seeming madness.
There is also a cup under the head of the lure just aft of the bill that serves a specific purpose that we’ll talk about in a minute.
The rear weighting system pulls double duty as both a casting aide as well as a rattle. The interesting feature here is that due to its relatively small chamber, the noise is similar too a one-knocker.
Jackall designed the Jockie to have an erratic, rolling action on the retrieve. While it is reminiscent of a jerk bait, this plug has moves that no other bait can imitate. Every minute difference in your cadence, retrieve speed, strength or sharpness of your rod tip snap will result in the bait behaving differently.
Should you choose to kill it, the bait will hang almost vertically in the water with the head protruding above the surface and all hooks below.
The Magic
“Random chaos that just can’t be ignored and makes fish  commit.”
When you begin your retrieve, a sharp snap of the rod makes the bait slap the water with that cup under the head. This creates a unique sound that alerts bass to the presence of the bait.
During the retrieve, it will wander, dance, roll and dart just under the surface offering wary fish a tempting, dying shad action. Kill it and the bait will float quickly back up to the surface almost popping out of the water.
It’s difficult to accurately describe the action of the Jockie. It can have slow drifts, sharp darts, aimless wanderings, snap back and forth with military precision, up, down, sideways, front ways and back ways.
It is this random chaos that just can’t be ignored and makes fish commit.
The Jockie’s orientation at rest is a two way street. This bait is exceptional over submerged grass or other vegetation because the hooks are under the water even at rest. However, you need to have a few inches of clean water above the slop or you’ll be pulling weeds off of the hooks constantly.
The hooks are sticky sharp from the manufacturer but we have had some hooks points bend out a little after fighting some particularly ornery fish. It may be that we simply tried to horse the fish to quickly or some other form of operator error. Fortunately, we have been able to simply bend them back and none have broken as of this writing.
The finishes are typically Jackall in their quality and durability. They have withstood a number of hard fighting fish with the only visible sign being the teeth marks on the bait.
In the end …
The inevitable destiny of a forgotten bait tends to have only two alternatives. One, it never sees the light of day until you clean out your tackle box at which point it usually winds up being given away or, it becomes a staple that get used until the wheels fall off.
In the case of the Jockie, we’re looking forward to seeing just how long it’ll take for the latter to happen.
| Jackall Jockie 120 Top Water Minnow | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |   |
| Controlled chaos never looked better | |
See ya’ on the water …
