Finesse Football Jigs Vs. Standard Football Jigs

[JSchwartzy]

In my goal to make myself a well rounded angler I decided to pick up a lure that everyone raves about that I don't use very often, the jig.

 

Back last year I bought a few Strike King Finesse Football Jigs but didn't use them until very recently. I paired one with an Evolve Kompak craw and have been absolutely slaying bass. Now I only had one in the color summer craw and just yesterday lost it. Thankfully I work at Gander Mountain and ran and grabbed some regular SK Football jigs in the same color and the same weight but they were not the finesse version.

 

Now the question I have is what is the major difference between finesse and standard. From what I could tell the thickness (amount of skirting) and the collar coming past the head are the only differences I could find. For my own confidence I trimmed the skirting of the regular jig to make it a little thinner, is this necessary, anyone have any insight into which is more efficient in certain conditions.

 

Sorry for the long winded post. 

[sprint61]

The hook on the finesse model could possibly be a lighter wire hook then the standard. I don't know though I always use a regular football jig.

[Raul]

Finesse jigs weight less than 1/4 oz and have a much lighter wire hook.

[smalljaw67]

Football jigs have a few categories, one is the big 3/4oz to 1oz jig with light wire hook, these are typically fished on a 7' to 7'6" MH-F rod with 14lb to 17lb fluorocarbon line in 25' to 35' of water. The reason for light wire hooks in big football jigs is for easy penetration with lighter line fished on a MH rod, it makes for a sensitive set up but if you are encountering a lot of brush besides rock, that is when braid, heavy power rod, and a football head with a stout hook is needed. Finesse football jigs can be anywhere from 1/8oz to 3/8oz, Dave Wolak is one of the few pro anglers that uses finesse football heads and he defines them as any football jig that weighs less than 1/2oz. I make 1/8oz and 1/4oz football heads with both light wire and heavy hooks, the hook depends on the application. I'm going to use a 1/4oz finesse football jig on my next trip because I'm going to fish a lake with some hard bottom areas with some scattered chunk rock, fish that are done spawning will be in these areas which are less than 10' deep. A small football head with a rage chunk dragged across the bottom in those spots is a killer presentation that gets a lot of bites, if I find the fish are out in 12' to 15' or if the water is stained I'll opt for a 3/8oz model. To make it easy I'll give you the general differences of standard versus finesse football jigs in an outline format.

 

                                      

 

                  Standard                                                                 Finesse

 

Size -        1/2oz - 1oz+.                                                           Less than 1/2oz - typical sizes are 1/8oz and 1/4oz.

 

Skirt -         50 to 60 strands normal.                                        40 - 45 strands sometimes tied full or in crop top.

 

Application - Fished in water deeper than 10' mostly.              Fished in water less than 10' mostly.

 

Technique - Dragged over rocks, and stroking.                        Dragged over rocks - slow hopped.

 

Hook - Light wire and heavy wire.                                              Light wire mostly but can have heavy wire too.

[JSchwartzy]

Wow thank you so much, that was even more than I could have asked for. I'm starting to feel better about my decision to trim about 15 strands of the skirt. The SK jig itself is already light at 1/4 oz just been fishing around 10' and less and the finesse presentation has been tops. Really appreciate the help. Actually just went ahead and bought a bunch of jigs on TW...I didn't to I had to. 

[WRB]

The term finesse has become a marketing word like swimbait, no definition applies today.

Finesse at one time met precision presentation of the lure on line 8 lb test less.

The finesse football jig could be any weight, it was how the skirt was trimmed; lions mane or forward short skirt about 3/4" long and rear skirt cut off at the hook bend, the skirt material being living rubber, the trailer 2"-3" past the hook bend. Hooks are light to medium wire ( .040-.047D).

Tom