I have never fished football jigs but hear they typically are less likely to get snagged vs a traditional ball head jig. I fish in a moderate flow rocky river. Has anyone used 1/8 or 3/16 ounce ball head in a rocky river in 1-6 foot water with Ned style baits? 

Closest I have used is a 3/16 oz VMC Rugby head. I typically rig with a Hula Grub, but saw Ott Defoe using that same jig with a 3 inch Ned in the Mississippi up North here. 

I am thinking about trying one of the silicone finesse jigs with a football head in 1/4 ounce 

I typically use 5/16 as a starting point for ball heads, but this is also in the Columbia River, and I have no way of knowing how the current in my river compares to yours, I tend to find the problem trying to go super finesse like that in the main river channel is that my baits get swept past the target area and end up places I don't want them to be, resulting in my getting too frustrated with the outing to continue. I don't really object to losing a bit of tackle in an outing, that is just part of fishing, but losing $3-$5 jigs every 3 or 4 casts gets me thinking about my wallet more than the fish. I will usually go with something like a 3/8 or so with a football head, and if your in gravel or other reasonably small rock, they are phenomenal, but when your talking boulders and stuff, your just going to lose jigs no matter what you do if you are dragging them instead of trying to go straight in and straight back out of a hole.

Yep, works fine. I lose about as many ball heads to snags as I do ned heads and football heads, I don’t think it makes that big a difference in big rocks

When you have a lot of rocks try to go as light as possible. For football heads you may have to go custom to get a 1/8oz or smaller.

they work well but I have all but switched to draggin' heads for river use.  They don't give that same straight up profile but they seem to always get bit and rarely snag due to their design.   their finesse jigs also use this same jig head and they work very well also.  

 

https://confidencebaits.3dcartstores.com/Draggin-Head_c_11.html

Grid Iron G2, Next Generation Football Jig. I like 3/8 oz with a Rage Craw

trailer.

 

https://siebertoutdoors.com/products/ols/products/grid-iron-brush-jig

On 6/29/2022 at 8:57 AM, Creek Chub 1 said:

I have never fished football jigs but hear they typically are less likely to get snagged vs a traditional ball head jig. I fish in a moderate flow rocky river. Has anyone used 1/8 or 3/16 ounce ball head in a rocky river in 1-6 foot water with Ned style baits? 

1’-6’ of current water with rocky bottoms snagging occurs from slack line allowing the jig head to wedge between rocks.

Tiny football isn’t going to help, the Ned mushroom style head is your best choice.

Tom

11 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

Grid Iron G2, Next Generation Football Jig. I like 3/8 oz with a Rage Craw

trailer.

 

https://siebertoutdoors.com/products/ols/products/grid-iron-brush-jig

I agree, these are fantastic river jigs. Go as light as you can for the current. 

13 hours ago, TNBankFishing said:

I agree, these are fantastic river jigs. Go as light as you can for the current. 

3/8 oz is the lightest available. 1’ to 6’ of water isn’t a River unless it’s the head waters or white water. 3/16 is the heaviest weight the needed. Controlled slack and light weight jigs works far better than too heavy a jig regarding snagging.

Tom

 

12 hours ago, WRB said:

3/8 oz is the lightest available. 1’ to 6’ of water isn’t a River unless it’s the head waters or white water. 3/16 is the heaviest weight the needed. Controlled slack and light weight jigs works far better than too heavy a jig regarding snagging.

Tom

 

Totally though his finesse footballs were down to an 1/8th. My mistake.