Who is using an eakins style roundball finesse jig? When would you use this style over a finesse flip style? I have round ball finesse jigs and while they catch fish I honestly prefer a sniper finesse flip style

I make a few finesse jigs of my own and choose the round ball head.  I don't have a super sound reason for this but if I had to explain my choice I think I would go with that a round ball head is very universal, may not excel for any one type of cover but can generally be fished in them all.  I like it for sandy silty areas and for dragging and hopping in moderately rocky areas.  Almost forgot, baits that are intended to stand up also do very well on a ball head.

Man, talk about old school, not even Jewel Baits refers to their finesse jigs as "Eakins Jigs" anymore.  I h ave decent supplies of both the round head finesse jig styles ( both weights) and the flipping style.   In my opinion, the round heads are more for hopping and the flipping style are more for dragging.  The tipping point for me in choosing which one to use is how much vegetation is present.  The flipping styles come through modest vegetation better than the round head does.

On a side note, I've always wondered why Jewel Baits doesn't call them Eakins Jigs anymore.  The guy was a force on the Ozark Lakes during the 90's, early 2000's, but haven't heard much from him since.   At a KC metro area fishing store I frequent, they closed out all their Eakins jigs several years ago,  I asked how come and they said Jewel told them to.  It is a mystery.

I make the ball head style finesse jigs and prefer to use them around docks and sparse cover/rocks. They skip well and parachute down on the fall so fish catch them that are suspending under the docks as well as on the bottom. They flared skirt seems to do pretty well in rocks too at preventing itself from getting wedged.

I love that style jig and I make my own. I fish them on shallow rock flats and around docks with sparse cover.