Foremost among walleye applications are the many forms of jigging with livebait, artificial dressings, and artificial-livebait combos. No other system is so eminently versatile—cast to the extreme shallows, drift across flats, probe cover, and vertically plumb extreme depths—all by simply matching jighead size (weight) and shape to conditions.

A jighead is, basically, a hunka-chunka lead (or environmentally friendly substitute) molded around a hook, with sufficient weight to sink its dressing somewhere from slow and subtle to an all-out crash dive into the abyss. “We caught ‘em on 3/8-ounce jigs and minnows!”—a common report—meaning a jig heavy enough to take the bait down and keep it down in the fish zone.

Beyond the basics, however, a range of subtleties involving head shape remain somewhat of a mystery to anglers. Think of it this way: Weight predominantly determines sink rate, but shape determines specific performance, as does placement of the hookeye and other design factors.

Don’t initially be fooled by a jighead’s glitter and glamour; elements like color pattern(s) and eyes are but frosting on the cake. The essential part of the recipe is selecting the basic package of size and shape to function properly in the prevailing situation. After that, fine-tune the fluff to improve its appeal to walleyes.

Head Shape vs. Function

Once predominantly pretied with feathers or hair, plain jigheads today are available in abundance, lending themselves to use in component systems when dressed with plastic tails, livebait, or both. Mix and match to enhance effectiveness, using the following guidelines.

Round—Roundhead jigs are arguably the most versatile head style. The hookeye exits the top of the head, in excellent position for vertical presentations, and the round shape minimizes water resistance in current or when trolling. Roundheads also work well on a cast and retrieve, although the head tends to hang up in weeds; errant strands of growth can become caught at the intersection of the hook eye and the top of head.

The classic roundhead has a short collar of lead surrounding the hook shank. Thread a plastic grub onto the hook shank and slide it onto the collar to help hold it in place; barbed collars offer an even firmer grip to plastic. A ball or livebait head (no collar) enables you to thread a minnow directly up against the head (tight, compact package), whereas a collar usually positions the minnow a bit farther behind the head (larger, floppier appearance).

Modified Round—altered versions of traditional roundheads often feature a barbed collar for use with a plastic dressing, although they also can be teamed with livebait. Gopher’s flat-backed Mushroom Jig tucks plastic tails tight to the jighead. Bait Rigs’ versatile “eyeless” Odd’Ball jig can be rigged normally (plastic tail threaded onto the hook), Texas-style (with plastic tucked into curvature in jighead), with livebait, or as a combo.

River/Aspirin—This traditional head style is relatively flat in a vertical plane, causing it to slice down into the water. It sinks quickly and is excellent in current. Hookeye on top for vertical presentations.

Minnow/Darter/Teardrop—These are pointier versions of the original perfection style, typically with a barbed collar or screwlock arrangement to be used with plastic grubs. Hookeye on top.

Jowl/Erie Standup—Jigs with widened bases have in recent years been nicknamed jowl jigs. Heavy jigs with extremely wide, relatively flat bases are called bigfoot or Erie standup heads. In both cases, they’re designed for vertically jigging in deep water or swift current, due to the combination of increased weight and hookeye atop the head.

Standup/Wedge—Focusing the weight at the base of the jighead creates the “standup” aspect—the ability to hold a plastic tail or bait off bottom, particularly with a little tension on the line. Position of the hookeye determines additional characteristics.

Pointy nosed standups with the hookeye forward, sticking out from the nose of the jig, tend to be more weedless-snagless; the line functions as a weedguard, with no place for weed fragments to become caught between the hookeye and the lead body. These jigs slip and slide through weeds and are great for casting in shallow water, but create additional water resistance when fished vertically in deep water.

Standups with the eye exiting the top of the jighead are better suited to vertical presentations. They tend to hang up a bit in weeds due to eye position, but they crawl over rocks.

Football—Broad-nosed semi-standups crawl over rocks and larger pieces of wood, and they hold plastic aloft under line tension. They generally have large hooks and are most popular among bass anglers fishing with plastic.

Banana/Striper—Curved or semi-standup heads with the hookeye positioned at the nose are geared to slip across bottom without snagging. Good for shallow to moderate depths and horizontal presentations; the hookeye position at the nose lifts the jig nose first, creating water resistance in the depths. A sufficiently heavy striper jig, however, is a popular choice in relatively deep water; caution—if the hook is too large (designed for stripers), small walleyes are tough to hook.

Weedless—Jigs featuring a wire or plastic weedguard are underused and often unappreciated by walleye fishermen. Those with the hookeye emerging from the nose are dynamic in weeds.

On weedless heads typically used by bass anglers, the hookeye is atop the head and fished with a grub threaded on the hook, or inserted into a tube (awkward rigging). Eye-up heads tend to be most effective when fished vertically in open water or timber.

Rigged Weedless—Pointy jigheads lacking weedguards, Texas-rigged with plastic, can be quite weedless-snagless in cover. Bait Rigs’ Slo-Poke is a versatile classic. It also can be rigged like a regular roundhead, for a slower-falling, fairly weed-resistant effect.

Swimming/Wobble—Jigheads that are wide in the horizontal plane tend to sail and swim when retrieved. This makes them excellent for scooting across shallow bottoms and for swimming retrieves, but difficult to fish vertically or in deep water. Pointy-nosed jigs are good for weeds and extreme shallows, while those with the hookeye extending out the top of the jig may tend to run a bit deeper.

Slip Bobber/Wide Bend/Ice— Jigs with wide bend or Kahle hooks are popular among ice anglers and slip-bobber fishermen. Subtle, vertical hooksets or a simple tightening of the line tends to work better than hard hooksets, since the head and hook must turn in the fish’s mouth for the hook to penetrate. Smaller sizes are most popular among bobber fishermen and ice anglers.

Fulcrum—A unique, horizontally flat head with a top eye position, designed to fall slowly, then angle downward in current, yet slide across shallow river bottoms without snagging.

Insertion—These long, thin heads typically are used with plastic baits (chiefly for tubes, but some for grubs). Weight distribution of the long body shape makes them tend to swim and glide despite the predominantly top hookeye position. Popular for subtle presentations in the shallows, or when fish are striking falling lures in deeper water.

Airplane/Flyer—Used predominantly by ice anglers seeking lake trout. When vertically jigging, then pausing, a wide-winged airplane jig swims in circles below the hole. Could be used when anchored (not in current).

Propeller—Adds flash and vibration to the jigging package, good for added visibility and attraction in dirty water, and to show the fish “something different” on heavily-fished waters.

Spinner—Same basic principle as propeller, except in a slightly different manner.

Rattle—Additional sound alerts fish to the lure’s presence and offers another triggering mechanism.

Popular Size (Weight) Ranges

Perhaps more 1/4- and 3/8-ounce jigs are sold and used for walleyes than all other sizes combined. Why? Because they suit average conditions, most of the time. Most folks fish a jig vertically in modest depths, which these jig weights match well.

When you move outside average conditions, however, selections change. Obviously, fishing in deep water requires additional weight to sink the package and hold it in place despite water resistance, current, and motion. Heavy—1/2, 5/8, even 3/4, and 1 ounce—round, perfection, Erie standup, striper, or other jigs may become necessary in these conditions.

Conversely, for extremely shallow presentations, slipfloats or other finesse presentations in calm or current-free situations, lightweight jigs are in order, certainly 1/8 ounce, sometimes 1/16, and perhaps as light as 1/32 ounce. Round, weedless, swimming, wobble, standup, bobber or other head styles may be applicable.

In most cases, you can get by with a plain round jighead, and in many instances, it will be among your best choices, but not always. Carry an assortment of sizes, shapes, and styles to match conditions, changing frustration and ineffectiveness into a productive combination.

Hook Sizes

Whichever jigheads you use, think about balanced or well-matched combos. That goes beyond head size (weight) and shape. Hook size must be effective as well. Jigs with hooks that are too small or too large cost fish. A big, heavy hook on a small jighead will look funny in a typical rigging, affect jig performance and action, and may not even fit inside a small walleye’s mouth. But it may be in order for catching big Great Lakes walleyes on a large jig.

Conversely, a tiny hook on a big heavy jig likely will fail to hold and present the bait properly and will straighten out when you’re fighting a walleye—if, in fact, it hooks the fish in the first place. A crappie jig may at first look like a good small walleye jig, but think again. Is the hook sufficiently large and strong enough to do the job?

Most walleye jig hooks used with livebait run from about a #4 up to about a 1/0, increasing in size from the smallest to the largest jigs. There must be sufficient hook gap to hold the bait and still hook the fish. When fishing with plastic grubs or tails, or large minnows, the hook size should probably be a bit larger to accommodate the bulk of the plastic, with a sufficient amount of the hook gap exposed to hook the fish. When tipping a jig with a leech, piece of crawler, or small minnow, however, a smaller hook better balances with the combo.

Color and Patterns

Jigs are available in a rainbow of colors and a wealth of color patterns. Everyone has his favorites—confidence colors. But here are a few general guidelines

By their basic eye structure, walleyes see orange-yellow-chartreuse best, perhaps accounting for the predominance of these colors among walleye jigs. It doesn’t mean they’re necessarily the best—just likely to be most visible. Also try phosphorescent glow heads for added visibility, especially in dirty water or at night.

In clear water, however, very visible may be too visible, alerting fish to something unnatural and costing you strikes. More subtle white, brown, yellow, black, or smoke may be more in order. Few jigs in the blue-purple end of the spectrum are available, at least for walleyes.

Multicolored and patterned heads abound. They offer a variety of triggers. You may like ‘em. You may prefer to match one color of jighead to one color of dressing or livebait. Jigs with eye patterns may provide you with additional confidence, feeling it helps fool walleyes and focus the strike at the head. Or you may catch fish on plain old unpainted jigheads. In essence, the choice is yours. Experiment for best results.

General Observations

Compared to bass fishermen, walleye anglers use fewer jigs with premium sharp (expensive) hooks (Gamakatsu, Owner, Mustad AccuPoint, Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp, VMC Barbarian, Daiichi Jig Hook), chiefly due to a combination of tradition and the predominance of snags in on-bottom presentations. Walleye anglers expect to get snagged often, and to be forced to break off. They’d rather lose 10 to 50 cents than a buck apiece in the process. Tournament fishermen, however, are more willing to bite the bullet and pay for added quality.

Most walleye anglers still resist fishing near wood cover (again a combination of tradition and fearing snags), and haven’t adopted weedless jigs to the same degree as bass fishermen. The growing acceptance of weed-walleye patterns, however, is causing savvy walleye anglers to carry jigheads to match all conditions. In most cases, however, hook sizes used for jigging walleyes tend to be smaller than those used for largemouth bass, although roughly the same as those applied to smallmouths.

Note that different heads have various combinations of characteristics. All are not equal, nor the best choice all the time. Carry an assortment and select and use heads that best match conditions. Heads up!