Building the Perfect Jig

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WB Staff
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Building the Perfect Jig

Post by WB Staff »

Building the Perfect Jig.jpg
Football head jigs have long been a part of Gary Dobyn's tournament winning arsenal. For years he was unable to find a jig that met his exacting standard, his solution, build his own. In response to the many requests from anglers and tackle dealers, Dobyns felt the time was right to create a signature line of structure style football jigs that paid homage to his past creations yet incorporated some new and innovative design elements. Recently the Inside Line caught up with the CEO of Dobyns Rods to talk about jig designs, trailers and of course jig sticks.

BUILDING THE PERFECT JIG
The perfect jig starts with the perfect hook and for Dobyns that hook is the Gamakatsu 604 Round Bend Hook. “For years I have had a love affair with that hook, it's the best jig hook that's ever been made bar none in my opinion,” said Dobyns. “It's strong and super sharp, once you stick 'em, the fish won't come off. We had a lot of requests from guys wanting a EWG style, so I made one version (jig) with a 5/0 that we call the Extreme and one (jig) with a 4/0 which we call the Extreme Spotted Bass Special.”

As for the head itself, it is a traditional rounded football shape with a recessed 90 degree line tie. Dobyns put a lot of thought into the design of the weedguard. “With a lot of jigs, if you mash the weedguard, it'll just fall out. That just drives me crazy,” he lamented. “So I made the cavity of the head deeper so the fibers would fit into it deeper and I put a couple of millimeter collar outside of the jighead to put even more bite into the weedguard.”

Even with his original jigs, Dobyns never found the ideal solution for keeping his Yamamoto Twin Tail Grub attached. “I was insistent on...

Read the rest, including matching trailers, jig sticks and more at the Inside LIne: http://www.insideline.net/features/2020 ... -jig-heads
rcjoutdoors
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Re: Building the Perfect Jig

Post by rcjoutdoors »

I love fishing football jigs, but unfortunately where I am, the lakes don't work well with them. I still buy them in hopes of finding that perfect lake, without muck or heavy grass.

The Xtasy DRX 754C will be a rod I try in the future.
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WRB
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Re: Building the Perfect Jig

Post by WRB »

Good looking jigs Gary!
While I have used Gamakasu 604's with my jigs when targeting areas with wood and a weed guard the 114's have worked better for me when making long cast over 100' fishing deeper water sparse cover areas with rock without a weed guard.
Good luck,
Tom
Last edited by WRB on Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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ash
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Re: Building the Perfect Jig

Post by ash »

rcjoutdoors wrote:I love fishing football jigs, but unfortunately where I am, the lakes don't work well with them. I still buy them in hopes of finding that perfect lake, without muck or heavy grass.

The Xtasy DRX 754C will be a rod I try in the future.
Sounds like an Arkie Jig would be great in these types of situations. There are plenty of good ones out there and it sounds like Dobyn's is working toward new baits and styles all the time.
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rcjoutdoors
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Re: Building the Perfect Jig

Post by rcjoutdoors »

ash wrote:
rcjoutdoors wrote:I love fishing football jigs, but unfortunately where I am, the lakes don't work well with them. I still buy them in hopes of finding that perfect lake, without muck or heavy grass.

The Xtasy DRX 754C will be a rod I try in the future.
Sounds like an Arkie Jig would be great in these types of situations. There are plenty of good ones out there and it sounds like Dobyn's is working toward new baits and styles all the time.
You are correct. I tend to have to use Arkie, flipping, grass or swim jigs. I have a megabass zero hurry jig that is pretty light and the rate of fall keeps it from getting too sloppy. If the jigs keep getting too filthy it'll be some sort of Texas or Tokyo rig.
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Gary Dobyns
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Re: Building the Perfect Jig

Post by Gary Dobyns »

I've always poured my own jigs for tournaments as I'm so picky about the hooks. The best round bend jig hook ever made is Gamakatsu's 604 Series. It's called a heavy wire but it's not heavy really. It's just stout enough when it hits bone it does not flex and spring like a light wire hook. A springy hook that does not penetrate is a lost fish. The 604 also has a very short "tie leg", the 90 degree leg you tie to. So you get a LOT of bite with the hook and you don't have excess "tie leg" hook sticking up past your mold. I'm convinced the long tie legs make it harder to get great hook ups. I also like the EWG Super Line jig hooks and I use a bunch of these as well. Some people swear by them and it's all they'll use, others don't like the look of them. They do work awesome!! When I get to create my own stuff, I try to fix all the wrongs I've seen with baits. The recessed eye is a given and so is a great durable epoxy paint. I set the bristle guard deep into the mold and then built a 3mm collar around it where it goes into the mold. You'll never push down on the guard and have it fall out. Next I put a 4 prong bait keeper on the shank so your plastic trailers stay in place. They not only don't slide back on the hook, they don't twist on the shank either. You'll use 75% less trailers in a day. As long as they don't pull the legs off the trailer, you'll not change it in most cases. This is feedback from a bunch of anglers. Lastly is the hand tied skirt. These skirts are all custom with several colors and a mix of small round rubber and silicon. I played with a ton of skirt materials including the old school flat rubber. These round rubber/silicon mix looked the best in the water. Each color has a place on the jig. Everyone is the exact same and lastly I have the skirt trimmed to proper length. We make these in single pack and a very popular 3 pack that saves money. Who really takes one jig fishing? We have 12 colors and many are made with Western lakes in mind. Bass will never quit eating crawdads and a jig is the all-time best crawdad imitator. I appreciate anyone that made it all the way down this post. I'm really proud of my jigs just in case you didn't realize it :) Beware and remove the small plastic tube guard on the hook point. It's made so you won't hook yourself but you won't hook a fish either until removed :) :) Unless your name is Rocky Ward but that's a story for another day. Sorry buddy :) :)
rcjoutdoors
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Re: Building the Perfect Jig

Post by rcjoutdoors »

Thanks for the insight Mr. Dobyns
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