A Bigger Generic Jerk
The Generic is a very good size bait for much of the pike fishing here in the south of sweden at 16cm and 90-100g, but there are days when I need a bigger bait. During late summer and early fall season some bigger pike seem to specialize in feeding on ide that gather in the cover of vegetation. Bigger pike move in under the cover of darkness to feed, a bigger imitation bait presented at the edge of the vegetation belts can be very rewarding. This is where the big Generic project started.
More curves
In my first attempt I could not resist playing with the shape a bit, deviating from the simple drop form of the generic. As usual I made one ot of oak and one out of beech wood to compare wood choices. These turned out a bit fat and where heavy to fish but still rewarded the effort with a really nice belly flash. In terms of fishing these where a direct hit, the spring season best fish was caught on the second trip with one of these. Unfortunately they are a bit too heavy for my taste so the search went on.
A red ide
My next attempt was to simply scale up the Generic to a bigger version, I simply traced a Generic on paper and added a bit on all dimensions but width. I soon learned that does not work as I expected. The bait becomes quite much heavier to fish due to the added height which of course also adds weight. This bait swims wide with a lot of flash but is too heavy to fish all day.
Finding its shape
Having learned some basics about scaling up a bait I approached it different on my next attempt. This time I added length but no height. I alos shaved of a few mm of thickness to keep the weight down. It is a completely new shape compared to the Generic but it maintains the main features. This bait is now 19cm and weighs in at 110-115g which makes it still comfortable to fish with a Downsizer. It swims wider that the generic thanks to the added length and thinner profile but can still be fished without any rod action. This model turned out so well that I choose this model for my Karma15 bait.
