I had really good success last year dragging a football jig on rock and submerged wood.     I know a football jig is designed for rock, but I have read that they are outdated and not needed.   A lot of fisherman are using structure jigs or others instead with better success.  I usually use a 3/4 oz jig and fish it in 4-15’ of water.  
Football jig or not?

I’ve used a lot of different types of jigs.  The football is my favorite for most everything except swim and bladed jigs.

Lady Pro Bass Angler Judy Wong once won a tournament in the discharge of a dam by rigging a 5 inch Senko on a football head jig.  It had less water resistance and she could get the Senko down where others couldn’t.  Fast forward to one of our early trips to lake St Clair long before spot lock and we used drift socks.  Even with drift socks, we couldn’t get baits to the bottom drift fishing.  The weights needed to get tubes and other plastics deep enough, totally overpowered our gear.  That’s when I remembered Judy Wong and her rig.  I rigged it up and smoked the smallmouth. After that I regularly rigged it for dragging because the football head jig acted like when you were trying to launch a kite and it “walked” across the ground.  The football head jig did the same on the bottom and wagged the Senko like the tail on a dog.  I named it the “Wong” rig and it has produced ever since.  Gotta be a sandy fairly clear bottom because it is fished hook exposed but man does it catch fish.  So yeah, my vote is for a football head jig. 

I use a structure jig because most of the places I fish have a combination of wood and rock and they work great. Yesterday I was dragging bottom for 4 hours+ and never lost a jig.

 

You can see it wore pretty well...

6 minutes ago, Jig Man said:

I’ve used a lot of different types of jigs.  The football is my favorite for most everything except swim and bladed jigs.

Awesome!   Glad to hear that.   I stocked up on football jigs while they were working so well.   Your name (jigman) tells me you know what you are talking about.  ??

A ps. To my post, the football head jigs I use have no skirts, just hook and head. 

6 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

Lady Pro Bass Angler Judy Wong once won a tournament in the discharge of a dam by rigging a 5 inch Senko on a football head jig.  It had less water resistance and she could get the Senko down where others couldn’t.  Fast forward to one of our early trips to lake St Clair long before spot lock and we used drift socks.  Even with drift socks, we couldn’t get baits to the bottom drift fishing.  The weights needed to get tubes and other plastics deep enough, totally overpowered our gear.  That’s when I remembered Judy Wong and her rig.  I rigged it up and smoked the smallmouth. After that I regularly rigged it for dragging because the football head jig acted like when you were trying to launch a kite and it “walked” across the ground.  The football head jig did the same on the bottom and wagged the Senko like the tail on a dog.  I named it the “Wong” rig and it has produced ever since.  Gotta be a sandy fairly clear bottom because it is fished hook exposed but man does it catch fish.  So yeah, my vote is for a football head jig. 

Thanks.  That makes a lot of sense.   I really liked using the football head jig last year, so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.  I throw an Arkie type jig all the time.   It was just last year that the football was awesome.  I might have to try the senko trailer!!   

If you are dragging a football head jig pop it occasionally to clear off any debris. Another trick with a football jig is rocking it, a dead stick technique by light pulling the line tight lifting the trailer up then giving it slack to fall back. Shaking a football jig by jiggling your reel handle to shake the rod tip and combine the rocking and shaking.

Tom

6 minutes ago, JediAmoeba said:

I use a structure jig because most of the places I fish have a combination of wood and rock and they work great. Yesterday I was dragging bottom for 4 hours+ and never lost a jig.

 

You can see it wore pretty well...

This is kind of what I had been hearing.  I do have some of those jigs as well.  The football just worked so well I was wondering if others had the same opinion.  Thanks. 

17 minutes ago, WRB said:

If you are dragging a football head jig pop it occasionally to clear off any debris. Another trick with a football jig is rocking it, a dead stick technique by light pulling the line tight lifting the trailer up then giving it slack to fall back. Shaking a football jig by jiggling your reel handle to shake the rod tip and combine the rocking and shaking.

Tom

I kind of discovered this last year.  I had a what I thought was a bite, swung on it and nothing.  Threw it back out there and just shaking my rod and not moving the jig.   It got hammered.   I use it often now.   I hope this year shows the same success as last year.  It was really fun.  Thanks for the tips.  

Where I fish, I use the football head mostly. Especially this time of year when we are fishing deeper.

1 hour ago, Fishin Dad said:

I had really good success last year dragging a football jig on rock and submerged wood.

 

Conversation over! ?

Yep, looks like it has been confirmed.  I will keep confidently using it.  

exactly , if it aint broke dont fix it. for deep summer fish for me a football head is hard to beat.