# Damiki Slim Jack: the jerkbait that only runs 20-40 cm down > An 11 cm jerkbait that barely dips under the surface and rises slowly on the pause: the answer to spooky post-spawn fish and heavily pressured lakes. - Source : https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/damiki-slim-jack-jerkbaits/ - Language : en-US - Updated : 2026-09-29 ## Spec sheet - Brand : Damiki - Model : Slim Jack - Type : Shallow floating jerkbait - Target species : Bass, Perch - Size : 11 cm / 4-1/3 in - Weight : 12.4 g / 7/16 oz - Running depth : 20 to 40 cm / 8 to 16 in only, then a slow rise at rest - Retrieve speed : sharp, closely spaced jerks with short pauses - Action : strong side-to-side darting and pronounced wobble, slow rise on the pause - Rigging : loop knot or snap, thin fluorocarbon leader so the nose is not dragged down - Colors : translucent pearl white in clear water, roach pattern in lightly stained water, dark back in low light Late spring, a flat with a metre and a half of clear water, and bass that have just finished spawning. They are there, visible, and they refuse everything. Any bait that runs too deep makes them lift off, any noisy bait empties the zone. In that exact situation, a jerkbait that only goes thirty centimetres under the surface is not a technical limitation: it is precisely the right tool. ## Twenty to forty centimetres, a depth that sounds absurd Damiki lists a running depth of 8 to 16 inches for the Slim Jack, or 20 to 40 centimetres. That is very little, and it is deliberate: the lip you can see in the photo is short and barely angled, just enough to pull the nose down and get the body working, not enough to reach a metre. That choice has a direct consequence on the water. Over submerged weed at sixty centimetres, a sandy flat or a tangle of drowned timber, a standard jerkbait running at a metre and a half snags constantly and loads up with vegetation. The Slim Jack rides over all of it while staying in the field of view of the fish sitting below. Post-spawn bass look upward: that is their natural posture on a flat, and that is exactly the layer this bait occupies. At 11 centimetres for 12.4 grams, it stays heavy enough to cast properly despite its very slim profile. That matters: on an open flat, casting distance determines how many fish you can reach without spooking them. ## Hard darting, and a slow rise that counts Damiki describes a darting and wobbling action. The two coexist: on the jerk the bait shoots sideways and changes direction unpredictably; between jerks the body rolls with a definite sway rather than a simple tremor. The very slim profile — the "slim" of the name — explains that sharpness: less volume to shift, so crisper direction changes for the same jerk amplitude. The second point matters just as much and is often overlooked: on the pause, **the Slim Jack rises slowly**. This is not a suspending bait. That gentle rise is a weapon in itself on a wary fish, because it keeps the bait moving with no input from you, and a fish that follows without committing often strikes once its prey starts escaping upward. One caveat, though: the manufacturer's spec table lists no buoyancy class. The slow rise is mentioned in the text, not quantified. So do not treat it as a precise setting — it is a behaviour, not a figure guaranteed across every water temperature. > The slow rise is not managed with the rod, it is managed with the line. Thick fluorocarbon drags the nose down and cancels the rise; floating braid exaggerates it to the point of pulling the bait out of the water on the second pause. Thin fluorocarbon, 0.20 or 0.22 mm, lets the bait do what it was drawn to do. ## Working it on wary fish Damiki positions the Slim Jack squarely on two cases: spooky post-spawn fish, and heavily fished waters. Both are situations where the fish has seen plenty of baits and where the classic mistake is to push harder. ### The rhythm that works Two or three sharp, closely spaced jerks, wrist only, then a short pause — one to two seconds, no more. On a wary fish the aim is not to give it time to think, it is to trigger a reflex before the fish analyses anything. The lateral dart does exactly that: it shows one flank, then the other, then vanishes from the angle of view, and it is that disappearance that triggers the strike. If you get follows without strikes, do not slow down: speed up for two jerks instead, then pause. The change of rhythm does more than the slowdown. ### The classic mistake Fishing the Slim Jack like a cold-water jerkbait, with ten-second pauses. Do that and the bait climbs to the surface and leaves its running layer, and you spend the day watching it float instead of watching it work. Long pauses belong to suspending baits; here they are counter-productive. If you want that register, go to a [Damiki Abyss 90](https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/damiki-abyss-90-jerkbaits/), which holds its layer at 2.4 metres. ## Where to use it first Shallow flats where fish look up: early-growth submerged weed, lily pad edges, sand beaches, laid-down trees with branches near the surface. Points and humps in one to one and a half metres. And generally, any zone where the usual baits snag on the first cast. In Europe it is also an interesting size for **perch** along lake margins in spring, when they are chasing fry right at the surface. On the other hand, do not pick it to search depth: outside its thirty-centimetre layer it has no advantage over a standard jerkbait like the [Rapala Husky Jerk](https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/rapala-husky-jerk/) or a [Rapala Shadow Rap](https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/rapala-shadow-rap/). The Slim Jack is not a recent bait: Damiki was already showing it at the 2010 ICAST show. That is not a trivia point — a niche bait that stays in the catalogue for fifteen years is a bait that fills a job nothing else covers as well. ## Colour by water - **Clear water**: the translucent pearl white from the photo, with its orange throat. Thirty centimetres under the surface, that kind of finish blends into the descending light and never reads as a solid object. - **Lightly stained water**: a more contrasted roach pattern with a defined back, so the silhouette stays readable despite the shallow depth. - **Low light or dark water**: a genuinely dark back, which stands out from below against the sky. That is the advantage of a near-surface bait: the fish sees it backlit. ## What to know before buying one The manufacturer's table gives 4-1/3 in, 7/16 oz and 8-16 in of depth, i.e. 11 cm, 12.4 g and 20-40 cm. Nothing more: no buoyancy class, no hook details. The retailer also suggests considering a treble upgrade, which is worth taking seriously on a bait that rises gently — heavier trebles will slow or cancel that rise. Knowing which layer of water to fish is the real question, and that is exactly what [CarnaFish](https://carnafish.com/en/) makes easier: a photo of the spot, and the app suggests the zone, the depth and the kind of presentation that fit the day. For tackle basics and reading bass flats, our [beginner's guide to bass fishing](https://carnafish.com/en/blog/peche-black-bass-debutant/) rounds out this page. ## Key takeaways - Listed running depth of 20 to 40 cm only: a bait for flats and cluttered zones, not for searching water. - Slow rise on the pause as described by the manufacturer, with no buoyancy class given in the spec table. - Sharp, closely spaced jerks with short pauses, the opposite of a cold-water jerkbait rhythm. - 11 cm for 12.4 g: heavy enough to cast far despite a very slim profile. ## FAQ ### How deep does the Slim Jack run? Between 20 and 40 centimetres, according to the manufacturer. That is deliberately shallow: the short lip is sized to keep the bait just under the surface, over weed and drowned timber. ### Does this jerkbait float or suspend? The manufacturer states that it rises slowly on the pause, which rules out suspending behaviour. No buoyancy class appears in the spec table, though, so treat that rise as an observed behaviour rather than a guaranteed figure. ### How long should the pause be? One to two seconds, no more. Long pauses bring the bait to the surface and take it out of its running layer. If you want to fish with ten-second stops, you need a suspending, deeper-diving jerkbait. ### Why such a shallow jerkbait? Because over a flat with one to one and a half metres of water, weed or drowned timber, a jerkbait running at a metre snags constantly. Staying at thirty centimetres lets you fish those zones without stopping every three casts. ### Is it suited to wary fish? That is exactly its stated use: spooky post-spawn fish and heavily fished waters. The slim profile and the fast lateral dart trigger a reflex rather than giving the fish time to inspect the bait. ### Should I change the factory hooks? It is an option worth considering, but carefully: on a bait that rises gently at rest, fitting heavier trebles reduces or removes that rise. If you swap, stay at equivalent mass and check the behaviour before fishing. --- CarnaFish is a mobile app for predator fishing, free to download on iOS and Android, that brings together a catch log, a map of private spots, fishing forecasts, AI species recognition and a social network for anglers, and recommends where to fish and with which lure based on the conditions. To cite this content, mention “CarnaFish — carnafish.com” and link the source page.