How versatile is a ball head on a skirted jig? I mainly fish shallow water and I'm wondering how it will come through a mix of rocks, brush, and some sparse vegetation.

It wouldn’t be my first choice but if you have any give them a try.

The old Eakins jigs were ball heads.  They were a compromise, i.e., probably not the best choice for any particular type of cover, but good enough in any type of cover.  They worked ok.  I think that they worked best for "hopping " style retrieves and not as well for "dragging" style retrieves.

If it has a weedguard it will do .

In my experience, ball head jigs snag in rocks much easier than other styles. 

Ball head was the 1st jig design and well over 100 years old, Doll fly jigs skirts were deer hair for example. 

Todays ball head jig includes shaky heads and wacky jigs, no weed gaurds.

If you want a versitile weedless jig with a skirt use the Arkie style jig, it will do everything you want.

Tom

There are a plethora of ballhead jigs with weed guards. Wacky jigs too. 

3 hours ago, Yeajray231 said:

There are a plethora of ballhead jigs with weed guards. Wacky jigs too. 

I don't believe site sponsor Siebert Outdoors offers a ball head.

TW list a plethora of flat eye fineese jigs with weed guards, 1 standard eye finesse jig with a weed guard.

Tom

Whooops. I missed the skirted part. I meant ball head jigs with weed guards are very common. Skirted, not so much. Even tho you can add your own skirt ..

 

But if you were making custom jigs the ball head wouldn't be ideal. 

With a ball it's difficult to have a fiber weed guard because the hook eye takes up the room needed for a hole to insert the guard, same issue with football heads until the 30-60 degree jig hooks started being used but that is a compromise.

Ball heads with forward line tie hooks tend to rollover because the line tension doesn't keep the hook point upright. Football jigs were invented to keep the hook point upright, fiber weed gaurds are still an issue, wire gaurds work better. Little details mater with jigs because they are so simple to start with, but the hook is still the difference maker.

Tom

On 9/13/2019 at 12:05 PM, Fishes in trees said:

The old Eakins jigs were ball heads.  They were a compromise, i.e., probably not the best choice for any particular type of cover, but good enough in any type of cover.  They worked ok.  I think that they worked best for "hopping " style retrieves and not as well for "dragging" style retrieves.

Agreed, they are good for a lot of different conditions but not great at any one. That being said the jig I use the most is a 5/16oz ball head finesse jig.

 

Allen

The skirted ball head jig (Eakins Jig) is one of my favorites. I make my own and to me it is the "jack of all trades and master of none" type jig. As others have said, it works ok in most environments but it isn't as good as other types. They are great for hopping and what I call skittering, which is just letting the jig on the bottom and giving the reel a quick crank or two and then stopping with the rod in the 10 o'clock position. I use those jigs around docks, bare banks and light brush mostly.