I saw another angler fishign a soft jerk
bait and he was able to fish it fast or slow, and it just came through the
water straight or with jerks and twitches as fished. I have tried to do
that, and it spins and twirls throught the water. What am I missing.

As everyone else has already stated, the slightest bend in the bait will cause
it to spin. The type of soft jerk bait you use and the type of hook will
affect how easy it is to rig properly. I recently tried some Zoom flukes and I
don't like them at all. Slug-o's are much easier to rig properly, for me any
way. Senko's will also make a pretty fail jerk bait too.

-Zimmy