Sharing a tip worth while.

[gstours]

Recently I had a conversation with a fishing person about the bad luck he had using a store bought lead head bottom fish jig.  The person got a good fish on using this color with a similar skirt and cut PCs of herring and lost every fish,  one day six fish would hit but never got one in the boat. 
  There might be some other reasons butt,  I saw his jig and instantly thought of Mr. Hardyboy, and what he told me about an inherited problem with these.   I gave up on this type for years.
  Here's the before pik.  Box stock.  Easy to make for joe public,  popular with the charters here.

[David Hall]

What's the mod Gary.  I have several of these and you're right, they get hit but don't stick?
Offset the tip?  Paint it green like an apple instead of yellow like a banana?

[gstours]

Using the same jig, the j hook can be heated and bent to form an eye as shown below.
 Then a single hook or a tandem can be attached using a loop and or a split ring.
     Now the hooks articulate and lesson the lead heads ability to drive the hooks out of the mouth with the shaking a halibut is famous for.  Plus you can change hooks as desired and skirts also.   A good tip.

[David Hall]

Well I'll be a monkeys second cousin twice removed.  Thanks Gary I'm gonna try this out.

[gstours]

Thanks Dave,  I will try to post pictures of the final product tomorrow.  As I'm actually doing this for the person in the post and a couple for my self.
  There's many ways to skin a cat 🐱.   Stay tuned.
Allowing the hooks to swing on a line seems to help prevent the fish from throwing it.

[gstours]

As the lead heads are quite available you can possibly get another/more if you make mistakes.
    I've learned to clip off most of the j part with a bolt cutter.  Then heat the hook shank from the lead back an inch in a half.  The colors need to be cherry red to bend slowly butt,  first heat the hook and then let it cool.  Worse brushing will remove the scale and then you can see the steel better
   Now reheat the shank and bend it to what you want,  remember go slow with the bending and keep the heat on.  From the length after the eye is 3/4 formed with a bolt cutter again.   File the end to remove burrs and 45 degree the end where it will mate to the shank.   Reheatand slowly complete the eye 👁.
    Some jig hooks are heat treated and seem to be brittle,  so use red heat color and go slow and pray.
It's worth doing as these fish waay better..   and you don't have to pour lead🐙🎣👍

[jurelometer]

If you are fishing skirts, this is a not a bad idea.  But if you are fishing paddletail swimbaits, the fixed hook  locks in the front third of the swimbait in the correct orientation, which will usually add a lot of vertical stability.  It also helps create some side to side swinging of the head when the head and plastic body are of compatible sizes.

The fixed hooks won't get a good hookset unless the entire jig gets well inside the mouth, but a trailer hook will stick smaller fish and big fish that bite short, and will tend to hook deeper.   I think that the hookset location and depth might be the biggest difference here in terms of the hook getting thrown. 

I like a fixed jig hook when fishing for big lings.  The smaller lings and rockfish will bite, but are less likely to stick.  Plus, if I take the barb off, I can often use a bit a slack and  shaking to release fish without taking them out of the water.   But it has been so long since I have fished for big lingcod,  I am not sure if I am remembering correctly

YMMV

-J.

[oc1]

When I stopped using those my thought was that the lead head can pry the hook loose.  Imagine the hook stuck in the lip, the fish shakes its head to get rid of the irritation, the lead jig head swings back and forth with some momentum, prying the hook loose.  Better to have everything loose and jointed so it cannot swing wildly back and forth when the fish shakes it's head.
-steve

[Rancanfish]

I see what Gary is doing and what for, (halibut), but I have never lost a ling to a head shake. Because they don't shake their head unless you lift it's head out of the water.  Which isn't done unless it's with a gaff.  

That being said, I use a different style anyway.  And 'J' is correct as far as using jigs for lings.  I'd fish with him. And barbless is perfect for dumping the little ones before they get up all the way.

[gstours]

Thanks for your replys.  Well said about the head shake problem,  I think for my fishery we could benefit from larger hook sizes in the skirts especially when using bait.   Everyone fishes a little different,  I can always learn something here.  Thanks.

[Wolli]

this my construction. Used with good results in Indonesia

[Rancanfish]

Thanks for your replys.  Well said about the head shake problem,  I think for my fishery we could benefit from larger hook sizes in the skirts especially when using bait.   Everyone fishes a little different,  I can always learn something here.  Thanks.

No, thank you Gary.  I'm just talking, you are doing.  I need to drain your brain and steal what you know.

Wolli, how do you get the second eye ring in your pour? Stop pouring before you reach the sprue opening, with the wire in the opening?  Gary would have to use much bigger weights, but that's a great idea for around my fishing grounds.

[Bryan Young]

Thank you Gary.  I've been thinking about this and modifying a jig head mold to just inset an eye or swivel on both ends of the jig instead of a hook.  I guess I'm not the only one that has considered this...I just haven't implemented it.

[Hardy Boy]

I have never had much luck with the solid jig hook holding so I have never fished them for years. Some guys do not seem to mind but I have not had good luck. We have been using jigs for years that have the hooks being able to move/ swivel. For years we made and used the pipe style which is great as you can use any weight (10, 12, 16, 24, 36 etc) of "pipe" you want and the two large singles hold fish very well and do not hang up on bottom as bad as trebles. Just put a chunk of salmon skin or octopus on the top hook and off you go. The "bullet" head I have been making and fishing for 10 years or so after trying a Braid jig a buddy gave me. The "assist" hooks really catch fish well but unfortunately also the bottom (we have hungry bottom in a lot of places, rocks and sea enenemies and tunicates to snag on); so we switched those to large singles. The large singles really hold fish well and they snag less as they are pointing up. The pipe and bullet head both work very well for halibut, lings and rockfish and I'm sure other warm water fish if guys give them a try.


Cheers:


Todd.

[jurelometer]

The fixed hook jigs can work as a lever when there is a fulcrum.  For example, if you get a roof of the mouth hookset, but then the fish swims away, and the head of the jig is outside of the mouth, with the corner of the jaw acting as a fulcrum, and possibly a bit a of mechanical advantage in favor of the fish.   The hook may also be receiving a bit more twisting force as well.  But fixed jig hooks are very large for the size of the lure, so this usually compensates.

As for the weight swinging around deal:  if the line is tight, fixed or ringed should not make much of a difference as long as the hook is at the far end of the jig.  The force on the line and water resistance is going to inhibit any acceleration.  But more importantly,  if the weight is inside  or nearly inside the fishes mouth, it cannot swing around much.

If you use a top (assist) hook, you are at the greatest disadvantage for head shakes swinging the weight around, as  the force on the line does not prevent  the jig from getting slung around slingshot style on the assist hook leader.   Fishing heavy jigs with front assist hooks on fish that do violent head shakes is a  disadvantage.  I have had dorado  shake the jig right off of the split ring during a jump more than once.  Never lost the dorado BTW.  Just ended up with a ring, hook and no lure.  Assist hooks with the right leader length tend to get pretty good hook sets.

But there are always tradeoffs.  If you need to fish tight to the bottom, a top assist hook is much less likely to snag bottom.  And a top hook assist hook will more easily hook a smaller fish on a big lure, which allows you to fish a bigger jig to attract jumbos, but still not lose out entirely on the small to medium fish.


Or you can not overthink it like me, and just lash an octopus skirt on a torpedo sinker and do pretty well.   

-J