The Jig Bite - What do you think?

[Bartableman7]

Would a bass hold onto a jig longer with a weedless brush guard for any reason? Compared to one without one.  I'm usually fishing open water football jigs near riprap from a boat.  I'm trying to decide on a reason why I would want a weed guard.  I have been just removing them from the jig head.  Or...should I just leave them alone?  I have always believed I stick more bass without a guard.

[casts_by_fly]

If you don’t have brush, grass, or dock cables then no need for a guard.

[GRiver]

I like fishing weedless wether it’s T-Rigged or having a weed guards, it lets me toss in places I would avoid otherwise. Gives me extra confidence when fishing. Does it make me miss strikes? It might, but I hate loosing gear, and retying a bunch of times a day because of getting hung up.

 

[PaulVE64]

Open hook until its choked with cabbage

[NavyVet1204]

1 hour ago, PaulVE64 said:

Open hook until its choked with cabbage

This is my approach as well. 

[rtwvumtneer6]

Not sure about how long they will hold it, but weed guard can help to keep the hook pinned once you stick em.  

 

[IneedAnewScreenName-844354]

I'm not too sure if the weed guards actually affect hookup ratio. There could be a 50/50 chance that, that is happening. But I think it has to do with how long you wait after they take the jig in their mouth to set the hook. I usually treat it as a frog, only difference is instead of counting to two I wait until my line starts moving then BOOM. A nice swift hook set, I've only ever missed them when I didn't give the bass time to fully eat the jig. But I agree with others if you're fishing a place with no snags and vegetation then there's no need for it. I fish red river which is full of snags and I HAVE to have a weed guard or I'll be losing jigs left and right.

[PhishLI]

I've caught plenty of small bass with fiber weed guards installed. I'm not worried about it. I'd rather be secure throwing it anywhere I felt like it.

[papajoe222]

I throw football jigs with weed guards over just about any clean bottom I've encountered with zero problems with hook-ups.  I can't say one way or another if the fish hold on to them longer than an exposed hook, but if your thinking is that it would feel more like a crawfish, you may be on to something. 

[softwateronly]

1 hour ago, rtwvumtneer6 said:

Not sure about how long they will hold it, but weed guard can help to keep the hook pinned once you stick em.  

 

 

 

I think you're absolutely correct and it's often overlooked.

 

scott

[WRB]

Weed guards are strike guards, use then only when needed to reduce loosing jigs in cover.

I rarely use a fiber weed guard where I fish jigs because deep rock structure lakes with sparse cover, mostly wood brush or stick ups. What I use is a Hitchhicker spring attached to the jig hook eye to hold a 2 1/2” piece of finesse worm to cover the jig hook point. I split the worm about 1” and insert the hook point into the split opening to cover the hook point.

Adds color, movement plus prevents snagging.

I creating strike detection and hook set high percentage to my success as a jig fisherman. 

Tom

PM your email and will send you a sketch.

[Deleted account]

7 hours ago, WRB said:

Weed guards are strike guards, use then only when needed to reduce loosing jigs in cover.

This^.

Anything that obstructs the hook point from the fish's mouth is going to lower hookup ratio, and/or require stouter tackle and more robust hookset to compensate. If you are going to fish mixed cover and open water, then a weed guard is the way to go, if you are fishing open water exclusively, than no weed guard makes more sense, but most folks don't fish that very often.

[WRB]

Skin hooked soft finesse worm plastic doesn’t impede hook sets, fiber weed guards do by rolling the jig sideways when a bass crunches down to kill the critter. The odds the bass hooks itself increases greatly without a weed guard, adding soft plastic reduces it slightly. 

The Hitchhiker spring technique allows you to clip on as needed or take it off.

I often hook set big bass over 100’ away, can’t do that with a fiber weed guard because strike detection is reduced radically, no mouth hook penetration to let you know a bass has the jig.

Tom

[BrianMDTX]

16 hours ago, WRB said:

Weed guards are strike guards, use then only when needed to reduce loosing jigs in cover.

I rarely use a fiber weed guard where I fish jigs because deep rock structure lakes with sparse cover, mostly wood brush or stick ups. What I use is a Hitchhicker spring attached to the jig hook eye to hold a 2 1/2” piece of finesse worm to cover the jig hook point. I split the worm about 1” and insert the hook point into the split opening to cover the hook point.

Adds color, movement plus prevents snagging.

I creating strike detection and hook set high percentage to my success as a jig fisherman. 

Tom

PM your email and will send you a sketch.

I have never heard of that. It’s an interesting concept. 

[Catt]

6 hours ago, WRB said:

fiber weed guards do by rolling the jig sideways when a bass crunches down to kill the critter.

 

Poor designed jig head causes this not the weed guard.

 

Hack Attack, 6th Sense & Oldham's jigs don't do that.

 

 

[papajoe222]

7 hours ago, WRB said:

 

I often hook set big bass over 100’ away, can’t do that with a fiber weed guard because strike detection is reduced radically, no mouth hook penetration to let you know a bass has the jig.

Tom

Just wondering how strike detection is radically reduced using a jig with a fiber weed guard?  

[WRB]

The LMB strikes by engulfing the entire jig into it’s enormous mouth and closes it tight. If the bass thinks it’s prey it continues to kill it by squeezing hard between the tongue and crunchers on the back rough of the mouth. You usually detect the small line movement when the bass has decided to kill and eat it.

However many times the engulfs the jig and decides it’s not prey and rejects it. If the hook point doesn’t stick tissue keeping the jig inside the mouth it ‘s out of the mouth without you detecting the strike. Exposed hook point sticks tissue. Weed guards  protect the hook point from snagging everything including bass mouth tissue.

What we forget is the bass could be at any angle from the line pull direction.  If the bass is facing you the initial strike moves line away, when rejected to jig blows out forward creating the to jump slack. The bass be moving towards you or sideways or away or just doesn’t move. All we can hope for is the hook point sticks tissue before it’s rejected or the bass decides to kill and eat it moving the line so we detect the jig is in it’s mouth and perform a hook set.

It’s my experience we miss a high percentage of jig strikes from the biggest bass with enormous mouths.

Tom

 

[papajoe222]

So what you’re detecting then isn't the strike but the rejection of the jig when the exposed hook catches, if it does. I understand that. The actual strike is when the fish engulfs the jig and closes its mouth and the presence of a weed guard doesn’t interfere with the actual strike detection. Correct?

[Bankbeater]

I've heard this before, and it makes sense to me now when you think about how small a 1/4 ounce jig is compared to a 5 lb bass.

[WRB]

56 minutes ago, papajoe222 said:

So what you’re detecting then isn't the strike but the rejection of the jig when the exposed hook catches, if it does. I understand that. The actual strike is when the fish engulfs the jig and closes its mouth and the presence of a weed guard doesn’t interfere with the actual strike detection. Correct?

Correct

[Catt]

 

 

It's the head design not the weed guard

[LrgmouthShad]

[Derek1]

20 hours ago, Catt said:

 

 

It's the head design not the weed guard

I like hackney videos. It’s uncomplicated easy listening. Thanks for posting those. He seems like a good guy to have a beer and talk shop with. 

[Munkin]

Where I fish jigs I would lose them every cast without a weedguard. What helps my the most is watching the line and weighing the jig as the biggest fish you rarely feel the strike.

 

Allen

[Deleted account]

On 5/6/2022 at 5:56 PM, WRB said:

The LMB strikes by engulfing the entire jig into it’s enormous mouth and closes it tight. If the bass thinks it’s prey it continues to kill it by squeezing hard between the tongue and crunchers on the back rough of the mouth. You usually detect the small line movement when the bass has decided to kill and eat it.

However many times the engulfs the jig and decides it’s not prey and rejects it. If the hook point doesn’t stick tissue keeping the jig inside the mouth it ‘s out of the mouth without you detecting the strike. Exposed hook point sticks tissue. Weed guards  protect the hook point from snagging everything including bass mouth tissue.

What we forget is the bass could be at any angle from the line pull direction.  If the bass is facing you the initial strike moves line away, when rejected to jig blows out forward creating the to jump slack. The bass be moving towards you or sideways or away or just doesn’t move. All we can hope for is the hook point sticks tissue before it’s rejected or the bass decides to kill and eat it moving the line so we detect the jig is in it’s mouth and perform a hook set.

It’s my experience we miss a high percentage of jig strikes from the biggest bass with enormous mouths.

Tom

 

This^.

I have actually witnessed this first hand with striped bass, and it was an eye opener. Way before 9/11, you could just walk onto the ship piers in Norfolk and fish, and I was stationed there at the time. I would walk the piers at night and look for a spot where a light was shined onto the water, which concentrated bait, which concentrated the striped bass. Once the tide started moving, you could catch as many as you wanted, with pretty much anything that approached the size/ shape of the bait de jeur. I usually went with a white bucktail jig and a piece of plastic to match the hatch. The water was fairly clear and you could clearly see the fish from the surface down 3-10 feet most nights. Most of these fish ran 4-10 lbs most times. Surprisingly, when fishing is this easy, it gets a bit boring, so I'd start just doing different things trying to entertain myself, and started just watching the fish eat and spit the lure one night, and a couple of things became really apparent,

-A lot of fish inhale the bait, and nothing is felt.

-The "bite" that is felt is sometimes the fish spitting out the lure, after not feeling the take.

-The larger the fish to lure size ratio, the lighter the bite feels.

I've seen this same thing with most fish that feed by inhaling baits, like bass, and grouper as well.