A jighead seems like a simple thing, and it is. But what shape, style, and weight of jighead you pick can make all the difference when presenting lures or bait. Here’s a simple primer on the most common types of jigheads, and how I like use them for Bass and panfish.
The most basic jighead is the ballhead. This is the most popular and most used jighead for every type of fishing. From tiny 1/100-ounce trout mini-jigs to monsters in the half-pound range for catching deep saltwater fish, virtually every fisherman uses this type of jighead. There are many uses for a ballhead, models with a “keeper” barb molded into the head are intended as a delivery system for soft plastic baits like grubs or tubes. Models without a barb are more often intended for live bait fishing. A live night crawler on a simple 1/8- or ¼-ounce plain ball head is a Walleye fishing staple. Another use for the ballhead is the very popular “Shaky Head” technique for Bass. A finesse worm on a long shank ballhead jig rigged weedless is a simple but very effective Bass catcher any time, and also inexpensive, and that’s why the Shaky Head has caught on coast to coast.
The main thing to look for when using a ballhead jig is the angle of the eye of the hook that the jig is molded on. For example, a jighead with the 90-degree eye is preferred to use under a float, like the style that’s common with Crappie jigs. A jighead with a 60-degree eye is more for casting and pitching or swimming a lure back on a straight retrieve, and some Shaky Head jigs are made this way, too. If you try to use a jig that doesn’t have a 90-degree hook eye under a float it will hang down almost vertically. Usually a horizontal presentation, like you get with a 90-degree eye, is much better. Often the jigheads that have a more “pointy” nose feature a “cross eye” line tie, this feature helps keep the knot and line in a straight line instead of slipping around on the eye like a regular model can. Ball heads don’t come through heavy cover as easy as other models do, but are snag proof enough if equipped with a weed guard. I like a couple of different model for different type of fishing, but I always have a couple of ballhead styles in my stash no matter what kind of fishing I’m doing. In a post last year I outlined a simple way to add some versatility to your Smallmouth fishing, and one way was a simple ballhead jig, you can change what type of soft plastic you want to present in seconds. You can rig several lures different ways, I‘ve written about this before here: A Simple System A picture of soft plastic rigging here: E. C. Jigs
Always try to use the lightest jighead you can and still “feel” the lure. In current or wind you will have to go to a bigger size.
There are several interesting shaped jigheads that have came along due to the Shaky Head craze, most notably the “Spot Remover”, a jighead that has accounted for most of the Co-Angler wins for the FLW Tour fishermen on Beaver Lake over the past few years.
I’ve tried them, but most models are expensive, and I haven’t seen that I catch more fish on them. When you fish a jighead on the bottom in our Ozark Reservoirs you will lose lots of them, and the more economical models fit the budget better. I use an inexpensive Luck ‘E’ Strike ballhead that uses a Gamakatsu fine wire hook.
Getting away from the “do-it-all” ball head jig, you will find a vast array of tube insert jigheads. There are so many that I won’t even try to list them all. I usually use solid head tubes that don’t require a special jighead, so I’m back to the general purpose ball head again, or I use an offset wide-gape hook with an insert weight, not a specialized jighead. As you could guess, I don’t use tubes as much as some others, and when I do they usually aren’t used to drag bottom like most people use them. I mainly use them for a jerk bait, or for dock skipping.
Darter or more pointed nose shapes aren’t as versatile as the ball head, and are used more for swimming. There are plenty of jigheads that fit this category. If the line tie comes straight out of the nose, like a Brewer “Slider” jig, you can swim these jigs through the toughest cover without hanging up if the trailer is rigged right. These are my favorite for Crappie and other panfish around brush and timber. The offset hook makes them more fussy than a model with a weed guard, but when rigged right will both come through cover easily and hook fish well.
This style in bigger sizes like the Slider “Pro” series is great for Bass when you are swimming a 4- or 5-inch grub through timber. It also makes for a handy head to present finesse worms in both river and lake. A 1/8-ounce Brewer jighead with a 4-inch finesse worm has accounted for so many fish for me that it’s scary. Smallmouth, Spots, Largemouth, and Rock Bass cannot resist this setup.
The more specialized jig shapes are for more specialized uses. The “horse head” type jighead with a small spinner attached is typified by the “Road Runner” panfish jig series. There larger models of these for Bass and saltwater species, too. The main thing to remember is be careful what kind of trailer you use on this style head so the spinner blades still spin freely, and not get tangled in some wiggly plastic appendage. This is a great “search lure” for cover large amounts of water when trying to locate more active fish.
Another specialized shape is the football jig. Shaped like a football at a 90-degree angle to the line tie, these jigheads are meant for one use: Bottom crawling. When slowly drug along the bottom this shape allows it to flip upwards when contacting rougher patches of bottom. Kind helps whatever trailer you have on it look like a crawfish in it’s claws up defensive position. You can use many different types of soft plastic lures on this style jighead, but the “Hula Grub” is the standard. I use a football jig in heavier weights (½-ounce or more) to probe large areas of mixed rock, like a main-lake point at Beaver or Table Rock.
There are so many choices in jigheads that this is not intended to be a comprehensive look at every conceivable choice out there, just several of my choices for the way I fish.
As always, email me with any questions or comments.
