Question about swim jig weed guards.

[Chaos10691]

I’ve had a few 6th sense swim jigs for awhile and just picked up a bunch of heads to make my own. One thing I noticed is the weed guards are much softer on all of them compared to my pitching and even some of my finesse jigs. Why is that? In my head it seems like you’d want them to be a bit stiffer if you’re throwing it around a bunch of cover.

[Team9nine]

Most swim jigs traditionally have a somewhat softer weedguard for better hookups since you are usually fishing/swimming them “around” cover and not flipping or pitching them right into the thick of it.

[Deleted account]

1 hour ago, Chaos10691 said:

In my head it seems like you’d want them to be a bit stiffer if you’re throwing it around a bunch of cover.

"Throwing them around a bunch of cover" jigs are marketed as flipping jigs (even though most folks pitch them).  Jigs designed for swimming on the other hand are marketed as swim jigs.

 

ps: There is no duck in duck sauce, nor lobster in lobster sauce...

[OkobojiEagle]

Even though the guards are often fewer and softer, I occasionally cut 1/3 of them off.  When fishing swim jigs over coverless structure I cut the guards completely off.

 

oe

[WRB]

Weed guards are fish guards. Try Steve Parks Trashmaster jig, no weed guard. The jig head has a eyelet for Hitchhike spring to hold soft plastic to cover the hook point. 

I have been doing this for 50 years on my jigs works great.

Tom

[Kenny Yi]

swim jigs are designed to come through grass and move fast, you dont need a stiff guard for grass, since grass is much softer, and a stiff weedguard could prevent a hookup at that speed

 

also, there is nothing wrong with pitching a flipping/finesse jig in heavy cover (tree roots, bushes) and swimming it out

[Chaos10691]

56 minutes ago, WRB said:

Weed guards are fish guards. Try Steve Parks Trashmaster jig, no weed guard. The jig head has a eyelet for Hitchhike spring to hold soft plastic to cover the hook point. 

I have been doing this for 50 years on my jigs works great.

Tom

I actually have a few of those still in the plastic. I’ll try them out