We are blessed (or cursed) with clean water in the north. Nothing to see 10 feet and when its "gin" clear you can see upwards to 30 or 40 feet depending on the water.
There are places in Grand Traverse Bay that you can see the tops of rock formations that look like you can stand on em and not get your belt wet.....only to find out they are 20 feet below the surface
As for fishing a soft jerkbait....I use a system of weighting them as follows:
1. Use a bigger hook. But not too big to over power the bait.
2. Use a swivel. Start small and go bigger. On a 2 foot leader to the bait.
3. Nail weights
4. Weight the hook
5. Pinch on worm weight, start small. (awesome on bedding fish, the bait noses down on the bed)
6. any combination of above. I will start at the top of the list and add more as more weight is needed.
The goal is to keep as much "natural" action of the bait as possible while still making it completely weedless.
Also dont overlook these baits for fishing docks....if you intentionally rig two baits crooked (one to go left, one to go right) you can run them under docks...fish havent seen that too much.
There is a way to fish two (or more) soft jerkbaits to imitate schooling minnows. Tie a rig with a swivel on a 1 foot leader. Then run your main line through the open end of that swivel. Add another swivel and a 2 foot leader and a second hook (w/bait). The two baits will dance/glide/fall differently. HOLD ON!