Weed guard that just may work better than others I've tried...

[Spoonminnow]

I've been experimenting with different styles of wire weed guards on my light jigs and thought they work part of the time, I'm not sure hooksets are being missed. So, instead of a wire loop spring that rests under the barb of the jighead, I cut the wire, bend it a bit and spread it to either side. A couple of days ago I used it and caught more fish than on the other weedless design and got snagged less often fishing submerged stumps.

Here's one caught on it:









Will have to put the wire on other jig hook sizes to see catch rate. Granted, I do have straighten the wires after a fish is caught, but it beats getting caught in branches and underwater stumps.

[river scum]

hey i do the same thing with a bait keeper as 1 arm!


hope you can see it. nothing wrong with some hillbilly ingenuity. lol

do you think you got more bites from the way you were able to penetrate the cover? did you find the bites were bigger deep in the cover?

[Spoonminnow]

Very interested in seeing better photos! I like innovation and I'm always open to it.

For certain, I now cast unto heavier cover and do catch more fish minding their own business just hanging out. Bet they're surprised with any intruder!
Under tree overhangs and gaps in heavy brush as well as close to stumps seen and unseen, generate more fish discovery and pattern making.

As far as depth, fish are where they are for that day or week - it's just a matter of testing the waters. Recently I caught multi-species adjacent to cat tails bordering water over 10' deep. Never found fish there before nor near a rock wall that dropped into the same depth. In both areas fish were only a few feet down - no where near bottom. The fish I found deep near bottom (in 10-14') wouldn't hit slow vertical jigging. Seems only shallow fish in an over different structure were the best bitters and that's with a water temp that's dropped down to 58 degrees.

[Spoonminnow]

Here's is what is needed for those interested:

Tools:
wire cutters or nail clippers(okay for fine wire)
30g wire
24g coated wire (optional as a grub grip); 30g for small jigheads (1/32 oz)
pliers
jigs (I prefer 1/32 and 1/16 unless fish big and active 1/8 oz)
pipe (optional)



(the orange tape is so I can find the pliers I usually misplace more often than not in all the clutter in my workshop...)



The weed guard takes less than 30 seconds to add to any size jig; the grub grip a bit longer but both well worth it!
Note: the stainless steel wire only has to be wrapped once around the hook shaft and brought back through the line tie, cut to length shown and then bent at the ends.



Note: sorry for the spelling the last post:
"Seems only shallow fish in an over different structure were the best bitters and that's with a water temp that's dropped down to 58 degrees." (and and biters)