For those of you who fish with jig heads a lot, is there a certain size hook that you look for when purchasing jig heads? What are the most important aspects of a jig head you look for? I'm sure weight is one.

What is the most common size? Mine are mostly 1/8 oz, but I will use 1/4 oz if I need to get deeper or the wind is blowing and we are drifting. I will use 1/16 oz at times, but not too often.

I also prefer thinner wire, sharp, sticky hooks, more than the meatier ones.

Someone asked me about jig heads and I figured there are people on here that jig a lot more than me and know much better.

Thanks for any input!

I make my own jigs, because I like a little bit larger hook on mine. I use a 2/0 on an 1/8 oz jig head, and either a 2/0 or 3/0 on 1/4 oz. The best hooks I’ve found are the Matzuo sickle hooks, in red color. They are much sharper than the Eagle Claws that I first started using.

I carry 2 main styles that I either buy or pour. One is for plastics and has keeper on the shank and has longer hook shank for my usual 3-4" walleye plastics. Then I have a whole different set with hooks about half as long for live bait like jig and leech or minnow. I always felt like putting live bait on those other jigs just looked odd and never swam right when they had an inch of unused shank. Jig and a leech I want my jig head right by my leech which is right by my hook bend.

I use a 2/0 from 1/8 to 3/8oz. 3/0 for 1/2oz.
I use a Mustad Aberdeen hook. Forgot the # but it is an inbetween gauge. It bends some. My line breaks before I can straighten it out.

I will use 1/4 oz jigs the vast majority of the time. Once in a while, an 1/8 oz... once in a while, a 3/8 oz. Depends on the chop and wind.

Like some of the others above, I like bigger hooks on my jigs, too. I was thinking that I use 1/0 hooks, but maybe it's 2/0. Either way, a pretty good sized hook for our twister tails (in Quetico).

The most recent issue of In Fisherman had an excellent feature with Ned Kehde. I mention it here because Kehde generally fishes 2-10 feet deep with what is now known as "Ned rig'. The noteworthy part of this article is that rarely, if ever, do he and his friends use more than 1/16 oz jig heads. Often they'll go to 1/32 to get the gentle, gliding 'do-nothing' retrieve key to the Ned Rig. Great article.

I am going to try this for smallmouth on my next BWCA trip. Mainly for shoreline and shallow rock pile situations. I'll continue to use 1/4 oz for fishing deep reefs, however.

I might add that Kehde's approach of using a gentle glide/twitch seems to resemble the Quetico Mike Z-man fluke approach. Mike, does that ring true?

I don’t know any numbers but the bigger hook the better has always been my motto. Lindy jigs are good in this regard. The live bait versions have wide gaps with a short shank, deadly with a leech.

I rarely have to fish deeper than 20 feet so most of the time I’m using 1/8 or 1/16 oz. If a little deeper or windy I will bump up to 1/4 oz

barehook: "The most recent issue of In Fisherman had an excellent feature with Ned Kehde. I mention it here because Kehde generally fishes 2-10 feet deep with what is now known as "Ned rig'. The noteworthy part of this article is that rarely, if ever, do he and his friends use more than 1/16 oz jig heads. Often they'll go to 1/32 to get the gentle, gliding 'do-nothing' retrieve key to the Ned Rig. Great article.


I am going to try this for smallmouth on my next BWCA trip. Mainly for shoreline and shallow rock pile situations. I'll continue to use 1/4 oz for fishing deep reefs, however.


I might add that Kehde's approach of using a gentle glide/twitch seems to resemble the Quetico Mike Z-man fluke approach. Mike, does that ring true?"

Sounds right to me......

I caught brook trout hand over fist last September with my jig-which was a #10 hook with a small split shot right at the hook.

QueticoMike: "For those of you who fish with jig heads a lot, is there a certain size hook that you look for when purchasing jig heads? What are the most important aspects of a jig head you look for? I'm sure weight is one.

What is the most common size? Mine are mostly 1/8 oz, but I will use 1/4 oz if I need to get deeper or the wind is blowing and we are drifting. I will use 1/16 oz at times, but not too often.

I also prefer thinner wire, sharp, sticky hooks, more than the meatier ones.

Someone asked me about jig heads and I figured there are people on here that jig a lot more than me and know much better.

Thanks for any input!"

When and where do you intend to go? What species are you targeting? Live bait or artificial? All of those factors need to be considered. If you intend to focus on walleye when they are in deep water using minnows and drifting with the wind, your quarter ounce jigs aren't going to cut it. If you use artificials on top of a reef with calm wind and are targeting crappies, a 1/2 ounce jig is just plain wrong.

Hi Mike, last Sept Technoscout and I were on Birch, Carp, Knife Lake SAK, Spoon, and some others. Fishing in general was disappointing, small mouth were difficult but these lures were most productive particularly on Spoon Lake for Pike. I lost a large Pike on one of these because the hook bent. I don't see that Rapala offers a stronger hook
Big Eye Jigs with a Fat Albert Chartreuse Pearl twisty tail
Weight: 1/2oz
Color: Fire tiger, and white
Hook size: 2/0, 3/0

https://www.rapala.com/vmc/jigs/walleye-jigs/nme-neon-moon-eye-jig/NME12-FT.html
https://www.rapala.com/vmc/jigs/panfish-jigs/slj-sleek-jig/SLJ12-FT.html
https://zoombait.com/chunks-trailers-grubs/grubs/fat-albert/ chartreuse Pearl

RMinMN: "

QueticoMike: "For those of you who fish with jig heads a lot, is there a certain size hook that you look for when purchasing jig heads? What are the most important aspects of a jig head you look for? I'm sure weight is one.


What is the most common size? Mine are mostly 1/8 oz, but I will use 1/4 oz if I need to get deeper or the wind is blowing and we are drifting. I will use 1/16 oz at times, but not too often.


I also prefer thinner wire, sharp, sticky hooks, more than the meatier ones.

Someone asked me about jig heads and I figured there are people on here that jig a lot more than me and know much better.


Thanks for any input!"

When and where do you intend to go? What species are you targeting? Live bait or artificial? All of those factors need to be considered. If you intend to focus on walleye when they are in deep water using minnows and drifting with the wind, your quarter ounce jigs aren't going to cut it. If you use artificials on top of a reef with calm wind and are targeting crappies, a 1/2 ounce jig is just plain wrong."

I don't know when or where the guy intends to go. I don't know what species he is targeting. I would assume walleyes. Someone asked me about hook sizes on jigs, I told them I would post his question here for him since I don't know much about them. Maybe he will chime in? Maybe he is just lurker, I don't know, I didn't ask him if he had a user id. Just trying to help the guy. I'm sure he is reading this and if he has a user id maybe he will respond to your questions.

Indeed, Mike. Lurking!

So my initial question should have been more specific - apologies to all. And know that I am a novice, for sure, and have only caught a handful of walleye in my life...but I want to get better.

I will be targeting walleye, using jig heads and soft stuff like gulp leeches, etc.

When I look at buying jig heads they sometimes don't even mention hook size, but I am under the (possibly wrong) impression that live bait warrants smaller hook sizes, and artificials need a bigger hook. I think I understand that different weights will suit different conditions/seasons. But the hook size thing is a bit of a mystery to me.