You probably guessed a long time ago that this time of year combined with bad conditions tends to get me thinking about this sort of stuff! I came across football-style jig heads many years ago, and because of their design I automatically used them for bumping soft plastics along the bottom, and especially in a good run of current at the mouth of an estuary. It all made sense, but to be honest I do like the convenience of the growing ranges of “jig head plus lure, designed to work together” sort of lures - Fiiish Black Minnow, Savage Gear Sandeel V2 Weedless and so on…………..
I am heading up to a hotel near The Big One Show in Farnborough this afternoon - the show is this weekend, hope to some of you there - and it reminded me of a lot of very nice looking gear that I saw up there last year. It’s where I first came across the incredible Favorite Black Swan lure rods, and thanks to the mighty Predator Tackle basically running the whole lure side of things at the show, I also stumbled across far too much interesting stuff within their extensive ranges. I came away with a few bits and pieces, including a couple of different sizes of the (weedless) OMTD Big Football Power Jig Heads - which to be honest I sort of forgot about until fairly recently when I went rooting around for various bottom fishing related bits of gear to rig with different creature baits. And for bumping different soft plastics along the bottom over gnarly reefs.
These OMTD Big Football Power Jig Heads are a nice design, and the hooks look more than strong enough for a big bass in current. You know I have a serious thing for the Savage Gear Slender Scoop Shad, so I went and rigged a couple of the 13cm versions on the 5/0 14g OMTD Big Football Power Jig Heads (I use a drop of the Loctite Super Glue Power Gel to help secure the front of the lure to the back of the jig head, if it’s any help this specific glue is the best for this that I have found so far). I can’t really see this setup on the bottom when I am bumping it around, but it all feels good and I know it’s going to work where I might also turn to say the Sandeel V2 Weedless.
What I am pretty sure I had never done though with a football-style jig head is to plain swim it. Whack it out and wind it in. When I found some clear water fairly recently, for some reason I started playing around with this OMTD Big Football Power Jig Head and Slender Scoop Shad combination on a simple straight retrieve. To be fair it’s a paddletail that rolls a good bit anyway, and especially when you weight the lure at the front - cheb, conventional jig head etc. - as opposed to a belly-weight weedless hook. I am perfectly happy with either approach I might add, but wow does the lure roll a good bit more when you use this OMTD Big Football Power Jig Head. I guess the way the jig head moves through the water with a touch more resistance is really forcing more roll into the whole lure.
I haven’t tried any other paddletails or indeed twitch-sticks on these specific jig heads yet, but I seriously like the look of the combination I am talking about here. I also like the fact that - like with the Savage Gear Savage Minnow, Savage Minnow Weedless, and Sandeel V2 Weedless - you’ve got that one jig head which works well for bumping stuff along the bottom AND then potentially for swimming at various depths depending on your retrieve speed and weight of head and so on. That my good people is where my head is at this morning! Thank you so much for so much feedback on the audio blog lost from the other day, I have got so many ideas on how to move things forward. You all have a good weekend and I hope to see some of you at The Big One Show. I think I am going to remove my bank card from Apple Pay for the weekend!!
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