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I really enjoy pursuing smallmouth
bass in creeks, rivers and lakes. They respond to various artificial
lure presentations throughout the year. Top-water presentations are
snagless unless they sink and are permitted to drag along the bottom.
Occasionally soft jerk-baits, spinner-baits, crankbaits and suspending
jerk-baits become hung on the bottom. The problems begin we you begin
presenting bottom bouncing, crawfish imitation type soft–baits, working them
across various rocky substrate bottom compositions.
I’ve always favored open-hooked,
football jig heads in weights of 1/16-1/4 oz. with my presentations that
imitate crawfish. They have central balance permitting the hook to
remain upright throughout most bottom presentations and providing
excellent, dependable hooking qualities on a consistent basis. The only
problem is they become snagged w/a vengeance when used around boulders
and ledges. At times, I’ve lost 8-almost 2 dozen jigs –especially during
the high, cold-water , winter bite period when re-tying becomes somewhat
of a task w/cold air temperatures in the 30’s and low 40 degree range.
The cold-water period can
produce some real pigs in lakes (left) . . . and some nice
smallmouths in rivers (right).
 
Shallow creeks offer their own
particular problems when jig fishing. A 1/8 oz. jig is often much to
heavy and using a 1/16 oz.
football jig heads does not alleviate the continuous snagging problems
associated w/current and slab rock .I have never liked ball jigs since
they lay on their side causing many missed fish as they roll over too
much for my preference. I was successful wrapping a 1” piece of 60/40
thin-wire, vise flattened solder around the base of a Gamakatsu EWG hook
but that became too labor intensive, presenting rigging/plastic bait
durability problems and was not heavy enough for certain holes
w/current.
I used to think weed guards on river
jigs were worthless and in some cases, they were depending upon make and
model. The problems of increased snags is compounded in rivers due to the
current in conjunction w/difficult rocky bottom compositions/ledges that
cause football jigs and tubes to become hopelessly snagged on a
repetitive basis. Many of my river fishing customers echoed the same
comments-
"Al-we love your jigs and soft-baits but
they get snagged too often."
Well, that did it and I finally decided to
develop a complete line of reduced snag jigs for shallow creek, river
and lake fishing. They had to remain upright w/durable, sharp hooks that
consistently hooked bass and be easy to rig. Throughout the year it
seems there were many times a 1/8oz.jig head was too light and even the
¼ oz. models needed to be heavier for those higher water holes that
required a quicker sink rate. I decided on two specific weights for my
line of reduced snagged jigs-3/16 and 5/16 oz. weights.
After hours of field testing
w/various hooks and input from experienced fishing associates, I decided
it was best to use the popular Mustad Ultra-point Swim-bait hook line-up
w/the Hitchhiker coil fasteners. The black-chrome hooks are ultra sharp
and allow for ease of changing baits w/out re-tying your line to the eye
of the hook. The special angle of the hook provides the angler w/good
weedless performance. They are powder painted for excellent
durability.
The wire weed-guard models have twin, plastic coated stainless
steel wire for durability and the personal adjustment feature that
permits the angler to adjust the angle and space between the wire
guards. They also feature double barbed collars to hold soft-baits
securely in place w/out the use of glue. The Mustad light wire, BLN
series of Ultra-point hooks speak for themselves w/positive hook
sets-fish after fish.
1-
Weighted swim-bait hooks-#WSBH /available in 3/16 & 5/16 oz.
weights
Mustad 28 degree, Black chrome-Ultra-point H.D.
Hooks w/coil fasteners
3/0- 4/0 -5/0
They perform best w/ our soft-bait models shown but
may be used successfully w/similar type soft-baits.
2- Bullet, Stand-up jigs
w/dual wire guards-#SBWG / available in 3/16 & 5/16 oz.
weights
Mustad 60 degree, Black chrome- Ultra-point -light
wire hooks
2/0-3/0-4/0
They perform well w/a variety of soft-baits from 3
- 4” in length
3- Stand-up
Football jigs w/wire guards-#SUWFJ / Available in 3/16 oz weight w/and
w/o wire guards. They have a 90 degree Mustad, light-wire, Ultra-point
hook in sizes 1/0 thru 3/0.
The stability of the angled football jig provides excellent stand-up
presentations w/ reduced snag performance in current and
rocks.
4- Weighted
Flutter Rigs-#WFR/ Available in 1/16,3/32 & 1/8 oz weights w/ Mustad
28 degree, Black chrome-Ultra-point H.D. Hooks w/coil fasteners . 1/0,
2/0 - 3/0
These babies are the hooks that excel in reduced
snag fishing in shallow, rocky creeks w/ many varieties of
soft-baits/worms from 3-7 “ in length. They also provide you with the
ability to present soft-baits through weed bed pockets and edges w/o the
frustration of “snagging-up” in the weeds.
These 4 types of reduced snag jigs will help the
creek and river smallmouth angler spend more time unhooking bass instead
of replacing and tying on hopelessly snagged baits. Experimentation on
your part will determine which jigs work best in your specific
situation. Yes, these jigs will become snagged and lost on occasion.
Field tests and reports
from customers prove these specialty jigs outperform open football
heads, open-hooked tube baits and
T rigged baits in
rocky ledge, boulder and
slab rock filled river bottoms.
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