Heavy weedless football jig

[TDawg]

Hey all, I was thinking about how in a few weeks the 4 time a year boaters are going to be off the lakes. While I love fall and winter fishing I hate waiting for my baits to hit the bottom in 40+ feet.

I was thinking about how it would be really cool to fish a jig that deep, but even a 1oz wold take a while to get down there. Would you consider throwing a larger weedless 1.5oz, 2oz, or even 3oz football jig that deep? Or is that just nuts!

Let me know what you all think!

Good fishing,

TDawg

[Dewayne]

A 3/4 or 1oz head gets down pretty quick. I fish a 3/4oz a lot down to 100+ feet. A weed guard is a bad idea for deep jigging. The long line length take away a lot of the power of the hookset and causes you to miss fish with the weed guard. Also the heavier the jig the heavier the weedguard need to be which becomes a problem. Your line selection will also impact how fast the jig sinks and how well you feel the bottom. I prefer 14# or 15# florocarbon.

In winter you need to get accustomed to slowing down anyways so just be patient.

[Oldschool]

3/4 oa football is as heavy as I will fish; generally 7/16 or 5/8 are standard for 1' to 60' depths, rarely with a weed guard.
Football head makes a horrible weed jig.
Tom

[Kevin Evans - Kap]

I myself like to use 3/4 oz when fishing 30 ft or deeper. I always cut off the weed guard as well so there is nothing to interfere w/ the hookset. But w/ that said I will still have some one ton jigs in the boat. Any heavier and I would think the fish would not hold on as long or eat is good... My 02 cents.

Kap

[Chris N]

what these guys said... 1 oz football head will hit 40' in next to no time even with a breeze- and no go on the weed guard. 3/4 is my choice and you can still work it pretty fast keeping it in the rocks. Either size is pretty easy to bounce out of a rocky snaggle...

[Andy Giannini]

I dig 3/4 and 1.

Most of my home poured footballs are those.

Might be tough to get anglers to go up more than that.

In retrospect, some years ago a 1 oz was considered nutty.

Yamamoto was fishing them, guys in the desert were.

Until Cooch caught that huge bag at Folsom and wrote about it.

Could have killed him, it was one of the few things I knew how to do at a lake!



Heavy jig sales took a big jump after that.

[corn griffin]

why not? if they eat a 1 oz, why not a 2oz? if ur impatient or wanna feel the bottom better go ahead, i dont see why they wouldnt eat it...

[Marty]

Would it be harder to feel the fish bite with a jig heaver then an oz?

[Andy Giannini]

The question is not, "Would a fish hit it?"

It is, "Would an angler buy it?

If you made them and they didn't go over real good, you could always sell them to the saltwater guys.

.02 A.G.

[Guest]

1oz football head jigs can be fished right in the middle of standing timber or willow trees and rock piles in deep water with the right wire loop guards added too them. Ive never had trouble pulling bass off or out of deep water structure using this setup.