What are your opinions on jigs like the  Strike King Jointed or the BiffleHead, do they really make a difference in the action of the trailer? Baitmonkey is telling me to buy some and I'm trying to resist.

The biffle head is great.  So good I actually stopped using them this year to force myself to get better with other plastic techniques.  

 

Biffle heads are good for dragging, pitching to cover, hopping, shaking, etc. they  really work well in a variety of situations.

I really like fishing the swing heads near bottom at a crankbait-like pace.  There's not a ton of hard cover to fish around here, but I'd think it would be great around laydowns.

The idea with a swing jig is to fish it like a crankbait. you use a weight that is heavy enough to keep contact with the bottom while reeling at a steady pace. The strikes often occur when using a stop and go retrieve or when the bait hangs on chunk rock for a split second and then surges forward when it breaks free. I pretty much thought that anything under 1/2oz wasn't good for anything but a friend showed me a different way to use the jig and it is perfect for lighter weights. I use 1/8oz and 1/4oz heads with 2/0 and 3/0 hooks and fish 3.5" and 4" swimbaits on them. The think is I don't fish them in the normal way of retrieving them across the bottom, instead I just swim it just like I do with a swimbait on a regular jig head. What you get is a swimbait with a little more action, the tail kick now makes the bait move out to the sides a bit and the body roll is a little more exaggerated. I've done well using light swing jigs like this and I'm convinced that the little bit of extra action is getting me more bites but even if it isn't I know it isn't hurting and I haven't lost any fish using it like that so I know that it works as well as if not better than a standard jig head at times.

Strike King Swinging Swim Jig

Rage Tail Lobster 

 

Slow dragged on deep water structure ?

 

 

One of my favorite ways to fish a plastic. I drag mine though, never have been able to make them work fishing them like a crankbait. Everything from tiny craws and worms to 15" worms and magnum creature baits. 

With a Rage bug or Craw trailer they work great bumping big rocks here in the ozarks.

On 7/14/2018 at 6:27 AM, smalljaw67 said:

I use 1/8oz and 1/4oz heads with 2/0 and 3/0 hooks and fish 3.5" and 4" swimbaits on them. The think is I don't fish them in the normal way of retrieving them across the bottom, instead I just swim it just like I do with a swimbait on a regular jig head. What you get is a swimbait with a little more action, the tail kick now makes the bait move out to the sides a bit and the body roll is a little more exaggerated. I've done well using light swing jigs like this and I'm convinced that the little bit of extra action is getting me more bites but even if it isn't I know it isn't hurting and I haven't lost any fish using it like that so I know that it works as well as if not better than a standard jig head at times.

This is interesting insight and I can confirm it likely works because I haven't had success using a 3.5-4" swimbait on a heavier(1/2oz) Freedom Tackle Hydra jig. The heavier head almost kills all the wide swinging thump from the paddletail. I've lost all confidence in that bait, I'm going to pick up and try the Strike King Jointed Structure Head in 1/4oz and see if it makes a difference.

I have Biffles, SK jointed structure, and Seiberts.  All work.

 

However, even though design differences may seem small, the Biffles come through nasty wood much better than the other two.  Not sure why -- for example the Seiberts look very similar side-by-side...though the SK's have much lower line tie and 'bullet-er' heads.  I haven't used the SK tour football version which looks more like the Biffles; they may hang less.