With the water starting to warm, we wanted to spotlight one more jerkbait before we put them away in favor of other lures.
The new Livingston Lures School Master is one of the latest generation of baits from Livingston.
The School Master is a lipless, hard-bodied jerkbait that, like all the newest offerings from Livingston employs their EBS (Electronic Baitfish Sounds) Multi-Touch Technology. We reviewed a couple of this company’s first widely available baits a few years ago. Back then, they emitted one sound. Today, there are four different modes built into every bait that carries the EBSMT designation.
The sounds
They are EBS Original, EBS Craw, EBS Shad and EBS Silent Mode. To switch from one to another the directions on the back of the package are clear and easy to follow. Submerge the bait for 5 seconds to initiate the sound, then touch and hold the line tie and the hook hanger for the belly hook to cycle through the sounds. When you get to the one that you want, let go.
The lure will now use that sound until you decide to change it.
Is this the only thing that makes the School Master unique among jerkbaits? No, there are several other features that we’re going to discuss that make this bait more than just a cold water choice.
This lure is not your typical slim profile jerkbait. It is four full inches in length with a height of one full inch and a width of 1/2 inch. This makes the profile seem larger than some other lures that are longer than the School Master but decidedly slimmer. This profile is much more like a Blueback Herring in shape than a more traditional bait.
Packed into those four inches are 13/16 of an ounce. You’re thinking, “Man, this thing is heavy. How’s it gonna stay in the strike zone?”
The answer to that is – it will stay in the strike zone as long as you’re keeping it there by keeping it moving with some intermittent pauses. However, this bait is not designed to stop sinking at a specific depth in the water column and suspend.
You Can Go Deep
If it were, then it wouldn’t have the versatility that it does. The School Master will sink at a rate of less than a foot per second to depths unheard of in the usual parlance of jerkbaits. Livingston lists 30 feet on the package but that is not a depth that we have attempted as of this writing.
However, we have fished it in confirmed depths of approximately 22 feet and were indeed able to reach the bottom with the bait.
So why is this a big deal? Because the action of the lure is consistent no matter the depth in which it is fished. You get a jerkbait kind of walk the dog with the School Master anywhere in the water column.
The slashing erratic motion is not the only trigger that is built into this bait. On the fall, it descends horizontally all the while rocking side to side. Yup, even doing nothing this bait has action.
Like any good jerkbait the School Master can be worked aggressively or with more finesse. The harder the pops of your rod tip, the more the bait will dance and flail to the side. Use a gentler action and it will result in an action very similar to that of a walk the dog style bait. The choice is yours but it gives you the flexibility to experiment to see what the fish are wanting at any given time on any given day.
New Stuff All Over the Place
All of this is due in part to the weighting system engineered into the bait. There are three separate internal weights. Two, one near the tail—the other near the center, are fixed in their respective cavities. The third is in the head which has a small space in which it can travel but isn’t a rattle per se; its purpose is for balance and as an aid to the action of the School Master.
Not only has the technology taken giant strides forward, so have the finishes. These new generation baits are miles ahead of the original patterns both in texture as well as color schemes. The molded in detail that the EBSMT lures all have was non-existent when we first ran across Livingston Lures nor was the intricacy of the paint jobs that these new offerings come with.
The School Master comes with two standard round bend trebles which are sharp out of the package. There is no split ring on the nose of the bait to tie to so we felt perfectly at ease using a snap. This didn’t adversely effect the action in any way or hinder the performance of the bait.
The fact is that you can use this bait from the surface down to whatever is the maximum depth. On the retrieve, it is consistent no matter the depth, the action is that of a jerkbait without the depth constraints usually associated with this genre of lures.
This can be a double edged sword as the lack of a specific depth may not be the best alternative at times but the ability to cover any depth, any time is certainly an advantage as a search bait not to mention the fact that this lends itself to more than just cold water situations.
This is a jerkbait that can be used year-round to target not only lethargic fish in the winter months but also fish that are active during the warmer weather months.
We will not be putting this one away as we intend to fish it all year just to see how many situations it will be effective in.
| Livingston Lures School Master | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |   |
| A jerkbait for any depth | |
See ya’ on the water …
