How to Fish Swing Head Jig Updated

How to Fish Swing Head Jig

Giving fish a different kind of look is what makes the swing head so popular.

Swing heads like the Zorro Whiplash fit well with a variety of plastic baits.

Anglers oftentimes fish swing heads in the same scenarios in which they'd employ a football game caput.

If you're looking for a little extra activity, the new swing-caput jigs are perfect. And these bass-line-fishing experts tell you everything you demand to know about how to apply them effectively.

In a lake, at that place is no takeout menu, no vending machines, no Amazon. If you're a bass, what you got is what you got.

Life is fine, as long as the crawfish and finfish remain in aplenty supply. Only suffice it to say that if something unlike comes strolling down the lane, the "Oh boy!" factor kicks in big fourth dimension.

For anglers seeking that elusive "something different," i of the more-contempo trends — the swing-head jig — offers a truly unique way of presenting a lot of the same plastics used on traditional flipping and football jigs, along with Texas and Carolina rigs.

Substantially a leadhead or tungsten head with a ring holding a free-moving claw, this blueprint enhances the inherent movement of wiggly baits and adds action to those with more than subtle designs.

Several brands offer swing heads, with the lineup including the VMC Swingin' Rugby Jig, Strike King Jointed Structure Caput, Cistron Larew Hardhead, Freedom Lures Rogue, Bombshell Jiggy Hooks and Zorro Booza Whiplash.

As Toledo Curve guide Stephen Johnston pointed out, the attraction comes by fashion of motion unleashed.

"If you throw a regular jig or you lot elevate a regular Texas rig, the bait is just trailing correct backside the weight," Johnston said. "When a swing head hits the bottom, the hook and whatsoever kind of bait y'all take on there is free to dance from side to side every bit that weight drags.

"It'due south almost like a ChatterBait action on the bottom."

Favoring the Hardhead, FLW Tour pro Andrew Upshaw said the swing-head design presents several singled-out advantages over traditional football jigs.

"For i matter, y'all can fish the Hardhead with merely nigh any soft-plastic offer by reeling or dragging the bait forth the bottom," he said. "Also, a regular football jig tends to hang up more considering the hook is nonetheless somewhat exposed due to having a weed guard. The Hardhead only doesn't hang upward.

"The Hardhead tin also be used as more of a natural, finesse presentation, and that tin can yield more bites than traditional jigs. Lastly, the Hardhead is more constructive on hookup-to-landing ratios because of the free-swinging claw."

Equally Johnston pointed out, the swing-head was designed for a steady, continuous elevate, every bit opposed to the drag-and-pause or stroking routines common to football heads.

This means that dangling caput allows him to comprehend more footing and locate active fish.

"Y'all tin probably get iii more casts in than you can with a football head," Johnston said.

And he said anywhere you would bandage a jig or fish a Texas rig is fair game for the swing-caput.

Even so, an open listen benefits the day'southward diversity.

"A lot of people have information technology in their heads that you have to throw information technology on rock, so riprap is a good option," he noted. "But it's as well expert on a slick mud or clay bottom.

"It's hard to bandage and wind it in the grass, but you lot can flip it into the hyacinths and peppergrass or even roseau cane and hop it. Yous're just giving the fish a different look with that bait being free and not connected similar a Texas-rigged Beaver, where the weight is pegged to the bait with no freedom."

Bassmaster Elite Series pro Dennis Tietje of Roanoke combines the wild wobbling of the Jointed Construction Head with the long, lanky profile of a 10-inch worm.

Line-fishing the rig fast — most like a crankbait — he covers lots of water and gives the fish a unique look that'll pique the interest of any fish with a rumble in its belly.

Johnston likewise likes a crash-land-and-get technique.

"You lot tin can pull it up onto a big rock or stump and interruption it," he said. "When information technology hits something and comes upwardly off the bottom, it has a dissimilar expect than annihilation those fish have always seen."

With football game heads not too far from his swing-heads, Johnston said the latter is just another tool for the chore. Sometimes, it's the primary choice — breaking downwardly vast h2o or coaxing finicky fish, for examples — while other scenarios observe it serving the clean-up role.

"It'south like crankbaits — you have a square-bill, which has a broad wobble, or a shallow-running Bandit that has a narrow wobble," he said. "The swing-head is just another weapon in your box.

"If you throw a football game caput on a point and you're catching them and catching them … but then they stop, y'all can throw that swing-caput and pick up a few more bites."

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