The In-Fisherman Staff Looks At Jigs

Jig Worms

Many heavier standup heads have a flat, triangular design that thumps the bottom when lifted and dropped. A new rounder style allows the head and plastic lure to pivot back and forth a bit as it lands, an enticing action to bass. Current also rocks these jigs, but can’t tip them over. Owner’s new Ultrahead line includes nine jigworm styles equipped with light-wire hooks.

Football Jigs

The hottest style of jigs last year was the football head, and with many experienced anglers now trying this type of lure, I expect their use and success to rise further in 1998. Unlike the various styles of standard bass jigs and jigworms, which often take fish as they fall or work through cover, football heads are bottom jigs, imitating bottom-dwelling prey like crawfish, suckers, sculpins, and darters.

The football-shape head is located at the most forward position of the lure. This nose-heavy attitude makes the lure and its plastic trailer stumble and scuttle across the bottom, kicking up silt and banging over rocks. As the head rolls up on contact with bottom, the spider grub, plastic craw, or other bait rises in a natural manner.

Another advantage of the football head is that its action conveys to the sensitive angler much about the bottom contours it’s moving across. Jim Moynagh, among pro bass fishing’s top money winners last year, relied heavily on the Roll’r Jig, a football head made by Walker Fishing Systems. Last July, Moynagh won the Forrest L. Wood Tournament on Lake Minnetonka, pocketing $200,000, the largest payout in competitive fishing history.

Football heads also can be worked parallel to inside weedlines for largemouth bass and across gravel flats for smallmouths. The compact design in 3/8- to 3/4-ounce weights easily works into the 20-foot range and deeper. Combine football heads with skirted spider jigs for a compact package that resembles a crawfish or other bottom-dwelling edible.

One presentation key for fishing football heads is to make long casts or drift with a long line. The low angle of the line to the lure keeps the jig in full contact with the bottom, producing a bobbing, stumbling action that triggers strikes. For smallmouths on broad windblown structures, deploy a drift sock from a gunnel cleat to slow the boat, while maneuvering with a bowmount trolling motor.

Bottom contact conveys the nature of the substrate. Silt, for example, offers a steady drag, with a slight hanging action as the lure buries slightly. Sand produces a steady drag with no hanging, and gravel conveys a bumpy feel. After some practice, it’s possible even to judge the size of rocks by the time required for the jig to crawl over them.

Subtle variations exist among football heads, such as Yamamoto’s, Kalin’s, Tournament Lures, Lunker City’s, Jensen’s, Walker’s Roll’r Jigs, and others. Eye placement, hook shape and gauge, and the angle of the hook from the head determine how the lure passes through and over cover, and how actively it moves.

Lunker City’s Lunker Grip system uses a ridged collar to hold grubs securely to the football head. Several models also offer fiber weedguards for reservoir structure where brush and stick-ups remain.

While many basic jighead designs remain nearly unchanged, ultrasharp hooks make them even more effective when you’re fishing for supper behind enemy lines or battling the clock to fill a tournament limit.