Your Opinion Of Football Swing Jig

[Saugerman]

I have a bunch of do-it molds, and think they make a great product. But by nature I am a skeptic about what it takes to catch fish. When every one started the shaky head craze, I just couldn't believe that it would catch anymore fish than a texas rig pegged to the sinker. But after finally  trying  it, I must say it flat catches them. I can't  get in my head now any advantage to have the football head  to be loose instead of rigid.

 I just thought I would like to hear different ideas about this , and thought it might be fun to find out what other people have to say about this new bait.

I know Tommy Biffle has been doing this for a while, but would he still catch as many fish, with a conventional  football jig? who knows. I'm sure he will get some money for this design. Or Gene Larew .

Please if you have time let us hear your opinion.

 

Thanks

[gone2long]

In my opinion it allows the bait to move more natural not so rigid as it is with the old standby, after all crayfish don't always move in the defensive posture that the standup football jig provides. It also allows for more contact with the bottom.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Gon2long

[smalljaw]

I got the hard head from Larew when it came out, I watched the videos and listened and then I began to use it and I'll give you my take. The difference between a fixed football head and a free swinging one is pretty big, the hook is also different and so if the presentation, the bait is doing its onw thing while you move the head, a lot of possibilities. The first thing I did was fish it like Biffle says to fish it, and that is just like a crankbait and I can tell you, I know why he has the short 6'10" heavy powered rod, I got one just for this technique as a longer rod or a less powerfull rod will not work the same. What you do is cast it on rock flats and then you have your rod pointed down and you are reeling at an angle, not with the rod pointing at the bait. When you reel with the rod pointed down in that fashion you are keeping the bait down, a longer rod would hit the water unless you keep it angled up and then it is uncomfortable, I know this as I tried it. You reel and have the head bang against the bottom and rocks and other debris, if you hit a larger piece of chunk rock the bbait will swing wildly off to the side as the head gets deflected, this is the reason for the heavy rod, it is super stiff so it doesn't load up much when the bait hits larger objects. What happens with a medium heavy or a heavy power with a soft tip is the bait will stop as the rod loads up when it hits cover, it stops for a few seconds until the force of the rod pulls the bait over or around the object, the super stiff rod doesn't load up as much so you reel and the bait deflects quicker, not much stopping and the quick deflection is when you often get a strike, in fact most of my strikes come like that. Now, it isn't written in stone that you have to use it that way, my one friend uses a fluke on the back end and he doesn't reel the bait in, instead he uses a longer rod and uses the rod to drag the jig along the bottom with the fluke behind and he stops, reels in the slack and does another sweep, you'd be surprised at how well it works with a fluke. One other thing I do with it is a lift and drop with a beaver type bait, I use more of a short "pop" and let the bait fall rather than a steady lift but watching it in shallow clear water I can see what it does when I pop it and let it fall, it looks different than a jig trailer, when you pop it and let it fall the head hits bottom but the beaver is bobbing around and it doesn't quite settle and then you move it again, the same deal. I used both floating plastics and salted sinking plastics and both have a place and both make for different presentations but it is not the same as a football jig with a trailer, it is a very versatile way to present a soft plastic bait, and these are just what I have been doing with it, I'm sure there are a bunch of ways to fish this but that is my take.

[cadman]

Saugerman, I can't add any input as I've not fished it yet. But I do have the mold and will be trying it out next year.

 

Smalljaw,

          Thanks for the thorough review and explanation.

[mark poulson]

Smalljaw,

Great review!

Have you tried the Owner JigRig, with weight hanging below the free swinging hook?

[Saugerman]

Smalljaw, thanks for your reply. I was curious as to what was to be gained by having the head free swinging over stationary. But do see what your talking about the different look it gives a bait. Did you think it was a more apt to hang up, than a conventional football head? I was surprised to hear that Biffle fished it more like a crank bait, than a slow drag across the bottom.

 

Tight lines

[Darkman]

great review small jaw, thanks

[DaBehr]

I have been having outstanding success with this jig matched up with the Berry Bug from Do-it (formally Caney Creek).

 

I landed 22 bass on it Sunday and some them were real dandies (5lb to 5.25 lbs) for up here in the north country (Minnesota).

 

I was casting it into 12 to 22 feet of water, giving it some line so it would fall to the bottom where I cast it. Then I would drag it back very slowly bumping the bottom. As Smalljaw noted...I fished it kind of like a crank bait...a really slow crankbait! Our water temp is 41 degrees so slow was the key. Slow and constant. 

 

Most of the time the fish hammered it pretty good...but every once in awhile I would notice the line move off to the side or the bait would "go light" so I would set the hook.

 

I used a 3/0 KVD Grip Pin Hook on the bait so it would hold the head of the plastic bait better. If you are making them for yourself it's worth the extra cost! I added the hook AFTER I cast and powder painted the jig by opening up the eye of the hook and putting it on the wire. I'm not too worried about the hook reopening since the force from the wire is straight onto the eye vs. to the side. Plus it takes a lot of effort to get that eye open! I used my split ring pliers to open the eye (that little split ring barb really helps).  When I heat treated them I put them into my jig holder (from TJ's) at a slant so the hook didn't hit the paint. Worked well.

[Felix77]

This setup is very much like a Jika Rig which I fish a lot.  The difference is that the hook is molded in by a keeper.  I like using the floating lures with this because when it's still the lure floats above the keeper OR stays in a very buoyant position if it's a little heavier than the hook.

 

Either way it works pretty well.

[Saugerman]

After reading all the different ways to fish it, and the success with the jig , I think I will have to add this mold to my collection. I sure appreciate all your posts on how this jig was supposed to be fished, and different ideas as to what could be fished on this jig, to catch bass on it.

Thanks to all for sharing your information.

[timbass]

For many years fishing the west coast with a football jig/hula grub combo, you know, the kind with a weedguard, I have found the value in slow rolling this rig along the bottom instead of hopping it.  I have tried everything from split rings to duolock snaps in order to get more action out of this presentation and to eliminate the rigidness that often makes snags unavoidable. The moment I saw the hard head, "eureka" someone had figured it out.  I am usually into experimenting, but I bought the hard head and bifflebug in Biffle's favorite color, smoke silver.  Looked a little goofy to me, but I wanted to give it an earnest chance.  Well, after 6 months, I have gone through 5 or 6 bags of bugs and have caught many nice fish.  This rig is a must.  It will put reaction fish in the box when other moving baits or even dead sticking will not.  It is not rocket science, but it is stupid effective and works shallow or deep.  Soft bottoms and weeds are about the only thing this bait struggles in.  Give the hard head a try before you invest in the mold just to get some results and make sure the technique suits your style.   

[big will's customs]

I get a lot more action out of my jika rigs I make and paint vs. the biffle head. even juat in the bait tank u can see the jika or jig rig has twice the movement and snags a lot less then the baffle head. god bless

[smalljaw]

I get a lot more action out of my jika rigs I make and paint vs. the biffle head. even juat in the bait tank u can see the jika or jig rig has twice the movement and snags a lot less then the baffle head. god bless

 

No offense but the jika rig and the hard head are 2 entirely different presentations. The jika rig allows the angler to present a texas rigged soft plastic to be fished horizontally like a drop shot only on the bottom, it makes for nice movement when you jig it or lift and drop but that isn't the same as the hard head. The hard head can be fished a lot of different ways like the jika rig but its intended use was to be worked as a soft plastic crankbait, the head bands along on the bottom while the trailing soft plastic bounces around erratically. You could do that with the jika rig but then you'll lose the movement as there is only what, a little more than 1/16" between the hook and split ring? So you pull on it with the line and the bait ends up moving right along with the weight itself instead of independently. I know as the first time I saw the baffle hard head I thought "jika rig does the same thing", and so I fished my jika rig and then got a hard head, it isn't even close to the same presentation but I agree, if you are fishing both like a jig, the jik will give you more movement in a smaller area but on the retrieve you can easily see the jika wasn't designed to be used like that, and that is why I say they are completely different.

[bass100]

I got my mold in and did some tank testing.  I tested the baits with a hook molded in and with the hook attached with 2 black split rings and there was no difference in action at all.  On the small baits the action was not pronounced enough for me but once I got to the big baits it really shinned.  The big baits I used were a 6" brush hog, 12" straight tail worm, and a 10" curl tail worm.  I did not get this mold for the action though, I got it to use in rocks where a bullet weight will snag to easily and I think it is going to work great.  I don't know how well it looks swiming and deflecting off of cover yet but I am anxious to find out.  I called my fishing partner over to look at them in the tank and he picked the one with the hook attached with split rings because he said it looked liked the bait was trying to eat the weight, so we will test both next year. 

 

As far as the mold goes, the only problem I had was with the 1/2 oz and 7/16 oz cavities flashing out of the bottom and onto the hook.

 

I love my Jika rig but I only use it with small baits.  If you guys add a second split ring to the rig you will get alot more action out of it.  It is always scary adding 2 split rings together but I haven't had a problem yet.