For your bass jigs (football , pitching , flipping , & swimming) do you fan out the weed guard bristles  OR leave them alone in a single clump of bristles ?

Any advantages you find to fanning out the weed guard or leaving them alone in a single clump (i.e. stock)  ?

I like to fan my weed guards out when fishing deadfalls with a lot of thin limbs, for heavy cover I fan it a little bit. For me it is a confidence thing, in my mind I feel the weed guard will protect a larger area fanned out so that is why I do it, but there are times when I was in a hurry and tied on a new jig and left the weed guard alone and I was fine with it.

If you buy a quality jig you shouldn't have to touch the weed guard!

I leave my weed guards stock on all my jigs, can't say if its an advantage or a disadvantage but I haven't had any issues with them.

I separate them in half with my thumb then press down just enough to slightly spread them .If the bristles are unusually stiff , I bend them back and forth to weaken them.

I fish them how I build them.  I cant remember the last time I modified one of my jigs weed guard.

23 minutes ago, Siebert Outdoors said:

I fish them how I build them.  I cant remember the last time I modified one of my jigs weed guard.

No trimming at all...?

I usually trim mine when I get them, skirt also.Sorry Mike just personal preferance.

i leave mine stock never had any issues with hook ups plus i find it attracts the bigger girls if you leave a big hairy skirt

In the past I tried the fanning deal and the 50/50 spread / split deal but never really noticed that it made that much of a difference.

So now as long as the hook is sharp & straight, I fish it as is.

A-Jay

i was trimming the weedguards on mine for a while, but quit and have noticed absolutely no difference.  only thing i've done since is snip a few strands out of a few jigs that i wanted to be a bit more "finesse" in some clearer water.

1 hour ago, d**n Yankee said:

I usually trim mine when I get them, skirt also.Sorry Mike just personal preferance.

No reason to be sorry.  Fish them the way you prefer. 

Remove a few strands to preference. Trimming doesn't seem to do anything except stiffen the weedguard, which is good or bad depending on what you're doing.

Sometimes I bend them over so that they fan out, and other times I just leave them alone.  It depends on the jig.  Sometimes I trim the skirt to even it up, but again it depends on the jig.

Like nearly everything today we have choices regarding what we need and fiber weed guards come in several configurations. The original fiber bundle was 1/8 dia with .024 diameter fibers X 1  1/4" long, "standard" fiber weed guard used to make most off the self weedless jigs. Today there are; 1/16 dia with .018 or .021 dia X 7/8", 5/64, 1/8 dia and 5/32  dia with .018, .021 and .024 dia fiber X 1  1/4" long, the smaller dia fiber being softer, the larger harder or stiff. Choices...buy jigs that meet your needs.

Cutting a fiber weed guard shorter stiffens it.

Tom