There is a lake that I fish that has a rocky spine running down the middle.  Depth at the spine is about 5 to 15 feet and falls off each side to about 20 feet.  Each side has lots of grass.  Thinking about running a football head jig between the grass lines on the spine.  But not sure what weight I need to keep the lure on the ground.  Just don't have lot's of experience with football head jigs.  Any recommendations?  Thank you in advance!

5 to 15 feet is a pretty big difference but the weight you select would also depend on current, wind and bottom composition. My initial reaction is that a 3/8 oz would be good if there isn’t much current and wind, up size to 1/2 oz if it’s windy or has a strong current ripping through. But I don’t know your lake, so I can’t say for sure. Also, if the bottom is soft (mud, grass) a heavier jig may dig in and pick up a lot of muck. If it’s hard bottom (what I’m about to say applies more to bigger rocks with crevices in between them) then too heavy and your jig will get snagged. Experiment with it but I think 3/8 would be ideal covering 5-15 feet. 
 

Edit: Also forgot to mention that some days the fish may prefer a heavier jig b/c of its faster rate of fall, either while you’re hopping it or on the initial fall. Don’t go too crazy but 3/8 and 1/2 are pretty standard and you should get by just fine. 

Edited February 26, 20215 yr by Finessegenics

2 minutes ago, Finessegenics said:

5 to 15 feet is a pretty big difference but the weight you select would also depend on current, wind and bottom composition. My initial reaction is that a 3/8 oz would be good if there isn’t much current and wind, up size to 1/2 oz if it’s windy or has a strong current ripping through. But I don’t know your lake, so I can’t say for sure. Also, if the bottom is soft (mud, grass) a heavier jig may dig and pick up a lot of muck. If it’s hard bottom (what I’m about to say applies more to bigger rocks with crevices in between them) then too heavy and your jig will get snagged. Experiment with it but I think 3/8 would be ideal covering 5-15 feet. 

The spine is probably 5-7 feet deep for the most part.  At the end it falls off closer to 15 feet.  So it's really two different areas.  Sorry, should have been more specific.  Do you think the 1/2 oz is heavy enough for the area at 15 feet?  Really appreciate it.

 

1 minute ago, I/MBasser said:

The spine is probably 5-7 feet deep for the most part.  At the end it falls off closer to 15 feet.  So it's really two different areas.  Sorry, should have been more specific.  Do you think the 1/2 oz is heavy enough for the area at 15 feet?  Really appreciate it.

 

Imo it definitely is, I’ve fished 1/8 oz jigs at 15-20 feet! They took a while to get there but it  all depends what you’re trying to make your bait do. 

Less than 20’ use 1/4 oz.

3 hours ago, Finessegenics said:

5 to 15 feet is a pretty big difference but the weight you select would also depend on current, wind and bottom composition. My initial reaction is that a 3/8 oz would be good if there isn’t much current and wind, up size to 1/2 oz if it’s windy or has a strong current ripping through. But I don’t know your lake, so I can’t say for sure. Also, if the bottom is soft (mud, grass) a heavier jig may dig in and pick up a lot of muck. If it’s hard bottom (what I’m about to say applies more to bigger rocks with crevices in between them) then too heavy and your jig will get snagged. Experiment with it but I think 3/8 would be ideal covering 5-15 feet. 
 

Edit: Also forgot to mention that some days the fish may prefer a heavier jig b/c of its faster rate of fall, either while you’re hopping it or on the initial fall. Don’t go too crazy but 3/8 and 1/2 are pretty standard and you should get by just fine. 

 

 

This was pretty much my first thought also.

3/8oz is my go to for football jigs. It can be fished from 20 feet of water to 2 feet. Good all around size. 

3/8 and with a trailer it’s closer to 1/2 oz anyways 

I like to carry jigs in 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, and 3/4 at a minimum where possible, and my general philosophy is start light and work my way up until I get what I want, not sure if you are still looking for jigs or if you already got some, but I think the 3/8 suggestion is where I'd start, 1/2 would definitely do ya, but it just depends on what the fish are telling you, they know what they want better than any of us do.

Sphynx nailed it.

I keep it simple and throw 1/2 ounce for about everything in a jig. Always have a 1/2 oz. jig either in my hand or on the deck. ALWAYS!

 

The exceptions are deep water that I want to get to bottom quick, I use a 3/4oz. football.

 

And finesse/compact presentations, I throw a 3/8 ounce tungsten football.

 

And I prefer line ties that are perpendicular to the hook. Also called horizontal line ties.

 

I adjust rate of fall and add bulk with trailers.

 

I guess another thing while I am thinking about it, the recommendations are going to vary depending on if your talking to a guy with some sort of watercraft, and if he's a bank angler, guys from the bank find out fairly quickly if they pay attention that heavy jigs get hung up a lot, and that working uphill is often problematic for us, pretty much the complete opposite for guys fishing towards the bank, usually you have a larger number of options going shallow to deep, including plug knockers and retrieval options that simply aren't available to the bank beater unless he's willing to swim for it and potentially blow out his only accessible shore opportunity, I'd say that unless we are off the bank, it is very, very uncommon for me to fish a jig heavier than 3/8, couple of notable exceptions are current heavy areas like bigger rivers, and anywhere I know I'm working with a gravel bottom that won't likely hang me up, but other than that I try to stay as light as I can get away with from shore

On 2/26/2021 at 11:59 AM, I/MBasser said:

There is a lake that I fish that has a rocky spine running down the middle.  Depth at the spine is about 5 to 15 feet and falls off each side to about 20 feet.  Each side has lots of grass.  Thinking about running a football head jig between the grass lines on the spine.  But not sure what weight I need to keep the lure on the ground.  Just don't have lot's of experience with football head jigs.  Any recommendations?  Thank you in advance!

The rule of thumb is "the lightest foot ball jig weight you can maintain bottom contact with" ... *If no wind at all a 3/8th oz. size would work but in reality I hardly see such perfect conditions , so I start with 1/2 oz. size football jigs as my starting point now and then go up to 3/4th oz. 

3/8 is an all round size.