Snag proofing jig heads

[glend]

I'm sick of losing my soft plastics and jig heads through snags and have been researching snag-resistant or 'weedless' jig heads such as the "Nitro All-Terrain" jig heads or "Owner Weedless" jig heads. I have also seen American sites talking of the "Texas Rig" using a worm hook but it seems mainly for worm plastics. Does anyone use these or similar products? Any other tips to help me fish snag ridden places would be great?

[stewie]

Glend,

I have been applying a number of tips from this site. I use standard jig heads (and cheap ones as well). I fish fairly rocky country and find the jig goes over rocks most times if you flick the plastic up and down (with the rod). If I get a snag, I flick the rod a heap of times. If that fails I simply lean back and the barb ends up bending and it is released. I then simply replace the jig with a new one. I start with a long leader anyhow and gradually shorten it quickly to snags and fish abrasions. My view is that I need to lose a couple jigs to snags in oder to be where the fish are.

Stewie.

[Keen-as-fisho]

I have a Q to add to this. Would it work putting a dab of super glue between the head itself and the sp to stop the tail pickers pulling the plastic half of the jig?

[Travis]

Gotta be willing to loose tackle... what would you spend on a bag of bait for an outing?? $10 maybe $20 if you get a variety, then add hooks, swivels, leader and sinkers (expensive) now compare it to loosing a few jig heads and plastics.... i know what id rather loose.... Better sport and better fish usind sps and lures

[Travis]

Keen-as-fisho wrote:

I have a Q to add to this. Would it work putting a dab of super glue between the head itself and the sp to stop the tail pickers pulling the plastic half of the jig?

Ive seen it done with the squidgy boof frogs, i guess it would be the same....

[mick fillet]

if your snaging the bottom that often maybe you shouid use a lighter wieghted jig head.

mick

[glend]

Good point, I'll try lighter ones. However I am still keen to try the 'weedless' jig heads or hear if anyone else has tried them. I'm off shopping tomorrow to find some and hopefully use them in the next week. I'll update this thread with the details.

[stinkyibis]

mate I reckon definitely the lighter your presentation, the less snags youll get. Ive used the nitro all terrain jigheads a lot and i have them stocked in my tackle box in all the smaller sizes and i think theyre very good, you just need to rig your plastic well and know that not all plastics will really work with them. I also like to use gamakatsu and owner worm hooks and rig the texas weedless style or whatever u call it and sometimes cast these plastics unweighted or add split shot sinkers, its really pretty easy you just gotta rig it nicely it might take a bit of practice. Using these types of jigheads or hooks you can cast a whole day into snaggy water and not lose a head but youll get fewer solid hookups. good luck

[stinkyibis]

oh i forgot to add, when you do hook up with those hooks you will hook up hard and generally he wont let go. howie's jack he posted the other day was caught on one of them with an atomic prong through snagpiles, and they really did do the business, but we found it really difficult to remove the hook it was just into the jawbone so hard

[Davo_Dinkum]

i have lost some to some rocky spots i fished ,i found changing to a lighter jig head helped .

other this is some rocky spots if u are land based u can go back at low tide ,get the jigheads etc back .

[kakaryan]

Just go ahead and try it mate. I did have the problem too as my spots are quite snaggy, and I have used Nitro all terrain and worm hooks for few years. They still snag, but far much less, like you will only snag once in several sessions.

All terrain is nice, as you can put the plastic on it much easier than using worm hook (no need to pinch it through the head, then again in the body). Type A is good for slow current or still water, but often too light for our brissy river (1/40oz - 1/16oz or so), or too big (for bream) in heavier weight. Type B is the heavy model that has addition lead on the hook body, but I personally find this design put off bite and hit rate a bit. :S

I usually use worm hook, plus a spit shot, put it on the leader just 2-3 cm above the hook. The advantage is that you can combine the hook size and the weight yourself to suit the condition, and change the weight anytime without cutting the leader and tie the jighead again. And the plastic swims more freely as the spit shot is not attached to the hook. But u need to rig the plastic nice and straight, or it will easily keep rotating in water.

u can also use Texas rig, by changing the spit shot to a running sinker. I sometimes use it on my baitcast outfit as the heavier sinker helps casting a bit, but it keeps the plastic too close to the bottom, that means u would get bites from catfish more often. So I dont use it on my spinning outfit.

The only trade-off I found is that you will be sometimes difficult to set the hook on fish. It depends on the conditons. When active even breams still bite hard and get hooked easily. On the other hand they just touch the plastic and let go and you feel the bite but cant hook them. Sometimes I will pause and let it bite easily, and sometimes I will move a little bit to mimic the plastic wanna escape to lure them bite hard. Both strategies work and fail sometimes, so I cant say which is better to do, or at last you can change back to a normal jighead.

[hooked_on_trout]

[ol]assess the fishing area[/ol]

[ol]Tie on a nice suitable new leader[/ol]

[ol]Carefully choose a suitable jigghead[/ol]

[ol]choose a softplastic, nice new one[/ol]

[ol]all set to go[/ol]

[ol]first cast goes directly into snagg[/ol]

[ol]snapp yourself off[/ol]

[ol]repeat procedure until you catch a fish[/ol]

I don't know but I can bet I have seen the best landbased fishoes do this, and at times I have snagged myself 3-4 times in a session.

Land based fishing has this hazzzard because your next to the bank were the snaggs are and often the angle of retreival is lower.

I think there are some rigg options on the back of a Berkely packet,now you have mentioned it I might give them a try.

Keep us posted on results.

I also find the need to try different spots and weights can often end in a snagg when fishing unknown waters.

Cheers