Weedless Jigs

Dear Mr. Johnson,

One of your authors mentioned in a previous article a comment about the best weedless jig he had found. The author said you could only obtain them online and that they were pricy. I have reviewed several previous magazine editions and cannot find the name of the jig or the website the author provided. Can you send me this information?

Regards,
Weems Turner

Dear Weems Turner,

Not sure which weedless jig you may be referring to but I can offer a few suggestion for rigging soft plastic baits in weedless fashion. Please remember that even though we toss the term "weedless" around rather loosely, anything you throw will catch a little bit of grass under severe floating grass conditions. Lucky for us, rigging soft plastics on quality worm hooks (also called swimbait hooks) helps us get bites when standard leadhead jigs will clog until they resemble cheap wigs.

Gamakatsu, Eagle Claw, and Mustad offer excellent weedless worm hooks in a range of hook sizes, weights and also weightless designs with bait keepers for holding the soft plastic bait in place. Personally, I much prefer the hooks with bait keepers over the standard old offset worm hook. A quick search on the internet will take you to each of these manufacturer's websites where you can view the products. There are many online tackle sources that carry them and given their popularity I believe you will find them in most any well-stocked tackle store.

I have used the Gamakatsu and Mustad versions in 3/0 and 4/0 hook size in 1/16 and 1/8-oz weight with good result when rigging with "slotted" soft plastics. If your favorite bait does not have a belly slot, no worries, use a razor blade to make one. I have not used the Eagle Claw version but in viewing it on their website I would call it a winner as well.

The Gamakatsu system includes a spring-style bait keeper while the Eagle Claw and Mustad bait keepers are spear-type with chevron ridges. Both systems work very well.

Regards and Good Fishing,
EJ