The most weedless jig you throw .

[scaleface]

So , there are these brush piles made from very small brush . Little spindly limbs , super thick , just a booger to fish . Every jig I have tried  gets wedged on most every cast . Texas rigs too . So what is the most snagless jig you throw ?

[roadwarrior]

I have never owned a "snagless" jig.  Substitute a GYCB Kreature for a very similar

presentation, but weedless.

[A-Jay]

This~

A-Jay 

[roadwarrior]

4 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

This~

A-Jay 

Oops!  A swim jig can always be weedless.

Good call, my bad.

[scaleface]

4 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

This~

A-Jay 

For some reason , that did not come to mind . I have made   weights that will accommodate a skirt [1/8 , 1/4 , 3/8 and 1/2 ] with my spinnerbait mold and it didnt ocuur to me to try one .

[Catt]

Getting snagged/hungup is part of fishing heavy cover!

 

Even @A-Jay Texas Rigged Jig will get hung up.

 

When fishing brush/timber I've went 3-4 trips without a hangup & the next trip lose 4-5 rigs.

 

I look at it this way, you can have lures in your tackle box or fish in the livewell...ya can't have both.

[scaleface]

Snags are inevitable . I want to  to minimize the jig getting wedged in "new" brushpiles . There are lots of jig head types . There are horizontal and vertical hook eyes .  I tried a round head and that didnt work at all . A triangular shaped head and Arkie did better . 

[Catt]

@scaleface You want something "bullet" shaped like Terry Oldham's EyeMax or Strike King's Hack Attack Fluorocarbon.

 

 

[BlakeMolone]

5 hours ago, A-Jay said:

This~

A-Jay 

This has been really interesting to me latley. I mean if I’m just flipping and not bottom bouncing this is the exact same presentation as a jig right? How often do you throw this setup? When do you throw it over a regular t rig or jig?

[A-Jay]

5 minutes ago, BlakeMolone said:

This has been really interesting to me latley. I mean if I’m just flipping and not bottom bouncing this is the exact same presentation as a jig right? How often do you throw this setup? When do you throw it over a regular t rig or jig?

This rig excells for me when I want to penetrate fairly dense medium to heavy hard & soft cover.  I will have one of these rigged and ready all season. 

It does take time to rig as compared to a traditional jig.

But I do hang up less and seem to get just as many bites.  I especially like it when probing new water.

Helps find fish holding cover with less worry about not getting it back.

Super versatile as the weight, skirt,  plastic and hook type / size can all be customized to meet virtually any situation.

A-Jay 

[Catt]

It started for me back in the 70s when I use to make lures, one night I decided to stuff a bullet weight into a rubber skirt. It was so difficult I gave up after only making a half a dozen. This little trick when paired with a craw worm won me many a tournament.

 

Scott's Marina on the Texas side of Toledo Bend is a one room building, a small wharf big enough for a couple jon boats, and a launch. Scott sold Community Coffee which is the #1 coffee of Cajuns and why I hung around. He had maybe a dozen packs of worms, 4-5 spinner baits & traps. On one particular morning I notice some new lures lying on the counter, I picked one up & the little card read "Big Red's Flying Jig". Inside was the lead head of a spinner bait, a skirt, & a 3/0 offset hook with a trailer hitch attached. I bought em all!

 

This was the perfect answer to

putting a skirt on a bullet weight!

 

Later I found Barlow's Tackle sold just the weights and then Cyclone Lures made a Slip-n-Jig.

For some anglers its how they can get a bullet weight through cover easier than a jig, a problem I don't have with jigs.

 

For me it's changing the profile of a t-rig, the added action of a skirt, & eliminates buying a skirt bead.

Like with a jig I use skirts with round strands, flat strands, fine cut strands, or wide cut strands.

 

I can't really explain its fish attracting abilities but what I do know is I've fished behind guys throwing t-rig & jigs and caught fish they missed.

 

Is it the bait? I don't know but it works which is all I care about!

[scaleface]

I have a banana head spinnerbait mold also . I wonder how sinkers made from it would go though brush?Might just pop right over it .

[Big Swimbait]

Trashmaster Jig - you rig any trailer Texas style.

 

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/search-tackle.html?from=BASRES&sort=no&start=0&count=30&searchtext=Trashmaster

 

 

[Bluebasser86]

The Trashmaster comes through any jungle I've put it in so far.

[txchaser]

x3 on the trashmaster or a slither rig (bullet with a skirk). IMO the presentations are a little different when it is on the bottom, because the trashmaster is more likely to stand up than just lay flat.

 

[Boomstick]

Smaller jigs like the Strike King Bitsy Bugs probably. The small size definitely picks up fewer weeds than your full sized jigs as it fits in gaps easier when fishing it in grass.

[the reel ess]

I just ordered some Trashmaster jigs. I'm very tired of approaching a perfect laydown and making the best pitch to it only to get hung on the first pitch and ruin that spot. Can't wait to give it a try.

[scaleface]

18 minutes ago, the reel ess said:

I just ordered some Trashmaster jigs. I'm very tired of approaching a perfect laydown and making the best pitch to it only to get hung on the first pitch and ruin that spot. Can't wait to give it a try.

Thats the way it is with me . I know about a dozen fresh brushpiles , a jungle  of little limbs with notches that jigs get wedged in .   The jig fall will fall on the other side but it wont go over the limb . Just trying to find the best shape to pull or pop them over . I  bought some 3/8th ounce SK Baby Structure Jigs , they look like a good shape .

[ww2farmer]

Texas rigs in general are less prone to snagging than jigs. The smooth transition from line to the bullet shaped sinker just catches on less stuff.

 

With jigs it's all about line tie placement/angles, and head shape. But even the best jig designed for the cover types your fishing is going to be more apt to get hung

 

My preferences for jigs are as such:

 

Wood and docks: I want a flat eye, bullet shaped head, with a slight flat spot on the bottom of the head. And no more than a 30 degree angle, but no less than a 20 degree angle. A zero degree line tie on a wood/dock jig has the annoying habit of pulling right into little nooks and crannys and getting stuck.  When you contact a branch, log, root system, dock post, hoist cable, cross member support, or any other number of things, the flat eye will keep the hook/head upright and not roll it over into the obstruction, and the bullet head will allow it to slip through small openings much better than a broader head. Vertical eye jigs are way way my prone to "wedging" in this situation for me, and I avoid them if I can.

 

Grass: The is where I want the vertical line tie, and also with the least amount of angle to the hook shank as I can get. Less than 30 degrees is best, and 0 degrees is perfect. Bullet shaped is also king here, not only for it's ability to slip in and out of the grass better, but also for the ability to "shed" loose grass your line picks up and slides down to the head of your jig. Rounder heads, and flat eyes often go into grass OK, it's coming out that they can be problematic, and I like maximum efficiency  when fishing grass. The less farting around I have to do wiggling jigs in and out of the grass, and picking stuff off my jig, the more presentations I can make per day and the more fish I can potentially put my offering in front of.

 

Rock: Football, flat eye, 30-60 degree bend, end of story.  Everything else wedges...bullet, round, arkie, and any other kind of hybrid head is in my exp, a waste of time.

 

I have no use for ball heads, arkie heads, hybrid heads (like the SK structure jig), pan shaped dock skipping heads that have become popular lately...at least for bottom/cover contact jigs. I do like some other types of jig heads for things like swimbaits, grubs, etc...but that's a different subject.

 

Those are just my opinions, YMMV.

[Catt]

What I look for in a jig is a smooth transition from the line to the eye & around the belly, which requires the eye (either one) to be slightly rolled forward. The reasoning is I want my jig to follow the line up to the cover & then slide over or through the cover smoothly. I want a quality brush/weed guard & a quality hook, both are more important to me than head design.

 

If I'm working a shoreline or offshore structure I do not switch jigs just because the cover changed; I can cast, swim, flip, pitch, or punch any style jig!

 

I firmly believe a lot of hangups are Operator Error ?

 

Working any lure though brush, timber, or grass is an art that requires may hours of experience.

 

One also must except the fact that regardless of lure selection hangups are going to occur.

[ww2farmer]

18 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

 

If I'm working a shoreline or offshore structure I do not switch jigs just because the cover changed; I can cast, swim, flip, pitch, or punch any style jig!

 

 

 

 A lot of my jig catches through the year are on the "wrong" jigs . Especially if I'm in junk fishing mode trying to figure out what's going on

[the reel ess]

2 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

Texas rigs in general are less prone to snagging than jigs. The smooth transition from line to the bullet shaped sinker just catches on less stuff.

But a T rig is more difficult to skip. And I've caught a few big bass that were out of reach if you couldn't skip back there.

[whitwolf]

This thread represents why Bassresource is by far the best fishing forum around. 

 

The topic at hand; there are now a couple of rigs I'm going to try. The one jig I fish most and have relatively few problems is the Siebert brush jig. It's truly a workhorse. 

 

@ww2farmer it's good to see you posting more. Great primer on your jig selection and why.

 

@Catt and @A-Jay as always gentlemen, great information! y'all have posted those rigs before but today, for whatever reason, I'm going to try both and see how it goes. 

 

A-Jay, you mentioned having one tied on frequently, does this include colder water?

[A-Jay]

2 hours ago, whitwolf said:

This thread represents why Bassresource is by far the best fishing forum around. 

 

The topic at hand; there are now a couple of rigs I'm going to try. The one jig I fish most and have relatively few problems is the Siebert brush jig. It's truly a workhorse. 

 

@ww2farmer it's good to see you posting more. Great primer on your jig selection and why.

 

@Catt and @A-Jay as always gentlemen, great information! y'all have posted those rigs before but today, for whatever reason, I'm going to try both and see how it goes. 

 

A-Jay, you mentioned having one tied on frequently, does this include colder water?

Yes - as long as it doesn't bounce on the cast.

Skirt bulk, weight size and trailer type all usually become 'less' in the cooler deals.

A-Jay

[Catt]

12 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Yes - as long as it doesn't bounce on the cast.

Skirt bulk, weight size and trailer type all usually become 'less' in the cooler deals.

A-Jay

 

During winter Texas Rigged Jig with a 5" Gene Larew Salty Hawg Craw.