Fishing Articles

THE EMBEDDED JIG
By Capt. Chris Holleman

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Bass fisherman have the Texas rig, the Carolina rig and the wacky worm, just to name a few of the creative ways they employ a plastic worm.  It’s time saltwater professionals suped up their otherwise ordinary grubs.  The embedded jig is a start. It consists of a Mr. Wiffle soft plastic shad tail and a banana style Jaw Jacker Jig.


The first step is to make a small hole in the eyeball area of the Mr. Wiffle tail.  You’ll need to come up with your own tool for puncturing the plastic tail.  Find something that resembles a metal drinking straw, I use a broken radio antenna, with the three sections of antenna I can fashion holes in three different sizes.  Mr.  Wiffle’s already have eyes, you want to puncture them on top of the existing eye.  The jig-head is then skillfully placed inside the tail through the eye hole.  It’s just like rigging a D.O.A. Terror eyz.  You can make embedded jigs with 1/16, 1/8 and 3/8 oz. jig heads with either 4” Mr. Wiffles or the larger 6” Mr. Wiffle shad tails.
 

The embeded jig has several advantages over the conventional jig.  The hook is set back further in the bait which increases the chances for the fish to grab the hook, hence anglers have a better chance at less aggressive short striking fish.  With the embedded jig there’s no problem of the tail sliding off the hook when the fish grabs the lure like there is with the typical grub tail jig.  There’s also a more subtle presentation with the embedded jig, it doesn’t make an obtrusive splash when it hits the water, this is an attractive feature for sight fisherman that enjoy throwing artificial lures to redfish on the shallow mud flats.  The embedded jig also sinks slower than an ordinary grub & jig combination, spotted seatrout in particular covet slow falling lures.
 

You’ll find a lot of uses for the embedded jig here in northeast Florida.  The 1/16, 1/8 and 1/4 oz. jigs are spectacular in the ICW during the lower half of the tide, fish them close to oyster mounds for redfish and flounder.  The 1/4 oz. jig is perfect for flipping in the pilings around the docks and bridges for spotted seatrout and flounder, Dames Point  is a good place to experiment with this technique.  The 3/8 oz. jig paired with the big 6” Mr. Wiffle is impeccable for striped bass in the Orange Park, Ortega and Downtown sections of the St. Johns River, bridges in these areas are a good bet.  

 

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