Football Jigs

When a team desperately needs a touchdown, Coach tells the quarterback to throw deep. The same strategy works for bass anglers applying new tactics for fooling big bass in deep water.

Last winter, Bassmaster Elite Series pro Derek Remitz demonstrated the scoring power of a football jig when he racked up a 4-day tally of 20 bass weighing 111 pounds 7 ounces, to win the 2007 Battle on the Border on Lake Amistad in Texas. “Nearly every bass I caught bit the football jig,” he recalls.

Football jigs have produced top finishes in tournaments across the country, and touring pros are reaping the benefits of this bottom-bouncing bait that’s relatively easy to master. In the 2006 Bassmaster Elite Series event at Table Rock Lake, Kevin VanDam relied heavily on a football jig to finish 13th in a tough fall tournament, when he couldn’t get much going with spinnerbaits and cranks.

Dragging a new Jewel Bait football produced an easy win for Arkansas pro Mike McClelland at the 2006 Bassmaster Elite Series Sooner Run on Grand Lake in Oklahoma. And last summer, Tim Horton ran up the score at Lake Champlain in New York, besting the field by 13 pounds on the strength of a football jig backed by a YUM Craw Papi.

Anglers have embraced this hefty jig because it efficiently probes big bass lairs in deep water. VanDam believes the football jig’s bulky head imparts effectiveness by keeping contact with the bottom throughout the retrieve. “When you pull the jig up against objects, you can deliver more action than with a round or tapered head,” he says. “Due to the bulk of the head, the back of the jig and trailer is constantly tipping up and shaking. That action is about the best imitation of a crawdad I’ve seen.”

Originally designed for rolling over rocky substrates, football jigs have become versatile lures. While the NFL season runs from September into January, football jigs work 12 months a year. Early in his career, tournament veteran Jim Moynagh frequently fished football jigs among rocks and vegetation in clear northern lakes, but admits he mistakenly overlooked the lure when he started touring nationally.

“I had trouble figuring out where to apply it in southern reservoirs, and I finally came to appreciate its versatility a few years ago,” he admits. “For a while I neglected that presentation and I probably missed some high finishes as a result.”

Moving the Football

Dragging a football jig along the bottom is the traditional way to retrieve this bottom-hugging bait. Moynagh became a pioneer of the tactic known as “rolling” when he helped design the now-defunct Roller Jig. The Minnesota pro now uses two styles of football jigs from All Terrain Tackle. He opts for Jim Moynagh’s Football Head Jig for fishing manmade brushpiles, stumps, and boat docks, since the lure has a weedguard to minimize snags.

For fishing weed and rock transition areas in natural lakes, however, he opts for Jim Moynagh’s Rock Jig. This jig version lacks a guard and has a 90-degree angle on the jig eye that allows it to roll over rocks better.

Moynagh also selects from among four jig weights, depending on conditions. “You can fish football jigs from the bank on out as deep as you can find fish,” he says. For probing docks and other cover in water less than 8 feet deep or so, he favors a 3/8-ounce model. In conditions from 10 to 20 feet, he switches to a 1/2- or 3/4-ounce model and goes with a 1-ounce lure for even deeper fishing. Keeping his rod tip low, he drags the jig along the bottom with his rod tip. As it collides with rocks and sticks, the jig kicks up, causing the hook to roll upward and skip over an obstruction. He then reels in slack line and prepares to drag it farther.