Choose The Right Jighead For Your Swimbait

This customer of Capt. Dave Flanagan's (North Island Fly) had the right jighead & plastic combo for this hefty striper!

How many jig heads do you have in your tacklebox or surf bag? If you are like most saltwater anglers, there are probably quite a few, plus some more in the glove compartment of your car or truck, on the shelves in your garage and basement, or in the console and compartments of your boat.

We get it, we all love casting and jigging soft-plastic baits for everything from fluke and weakfish to stripers, false albacore and even tuna - not to mention southern favorites like the redfish, speckled sea trout and snook we hope to encounter on late-winter tropical  adventures. That’s why we carry a large variety of leadhead choices at the shop.

To be sure, it can be confusing at first to match up the right jighead with a selected swimbait, grub, jerkbait or finesse bait, but when you slow down and take a good look at some jigs laid out next to your favorite offerings, it doesn’t take long to figure out a great fit.

This big weakfish caught by Jeff Lomonaco fell for a classic 5-3/4" Fin-S Fish jigged near the bottom on a 3/8 oz. Z-Man HeadlockZ Jighead.

“We do carry a lot of jigheads, but each has a specific purpose at which it excels,” assures White Water Outfitters owner Bryce Poyer. “Take the traditional-looking Kalin’s jig heads, for example. Their Original Ultimate and Original Painted versions are great for use with slim-profile “finesse” style soft-plastics like Bass Assassin Saltwater Sea Shads and Shad Assassins. They’ll get you down to the bottom quickly in bay and shallow ocean waters and they feature a sharp, fully exposed hook point that rides above the lure’s body for improved hook-up ratios. They also have an integral double-barbed bait-keeper on the shank to keep the lure body from sliding down the shaft with every bounce on the bottom. We also love this style matched to smaller Berkley Gulp! Saltwater Jigging Grubs and Swimming Mullets.”

Kalin’s Ultimate Saltwater Swimbait Jighead, by comparison, has a larger, triangular head for more enticing swimming ability with larger swimbaits and grubs ranging up to six-inches long. It pairs especially well with mid-sized Slug-Gos and boot-tail swimbaits like an Al Gag’s Whip--It Fish.

Among some of our other jighead selections, MagicTail Kill Shot Jigheads have a bullet-shaped head and an extremely strong Mustad DuraTin hook. The collar on these heads hold “beefier” soft-plastics firmly in place making them ideal for targeting stripers, redfish, tarpon and snook. 

Many jigheads are interchangeable, of course, but some are really purpose-built for certain classic lures. For example, No Live Bait Needed (NLBN) heads perfectly fit their really fat soft—plastic offerings. Ron-Z heads are perfect to lock into the chambers on Ron-Z class jigs, and Lunker City puts out a Slug-Go Jighead designed to seamlessly match this popular lure’s peculiar profile. It’s built on a sharp, 3X strong Owner hook to handle big fish and comes  with the LunkerGrip cone securing system which holds your bait in place without tearing. Worth every penny when you get some big linesiders!

For those who would like to add a little more flash to their presentations, BKK Harpax Inshore and offshore Jigheads are worthy of consideration, too. They have a straight, strong point that sticks and stays put when you set the hook. A hook-keeper is located slightly down the shaft from the head, discouraging soft-plastic tears, and there is a second eyelet on the bottom of the jighead should you want to add a teaser, blade or stinger hook. This jighead has an exceptionally clean design and comes with corrosion-resistant Bright—Tin coating to stand-up to the beating inherent on the briny.

So, we hope this helps sort out your jighead choices to some degree. We certainly agree that the variety of jigheads we carry can be overwhelming – and we are proud to say we have plenty more. With that in mind, now is a great time to drop by the shop and get your jighead questions answered. During the winter months, the pace here slows down but we are still on call seven days a week. With a little extra time on our hands though, we’ll be glad to help you pick a few jig heads to perfectly match your favorite offerings. If all goes well, we may even have a little time left over to trade a fishing story or two.

The Lunker City Slug-Go on a jighead is a favorite of North Island Fly Capt. Dave Flanagan's for stripers feeding on spring sandeels. 

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