This summer I’ve decided to finally try out using a swing head football jig for smallmouth. Last night I was casting to a school in 15FOW and hooked up 6 times. Every single smallmouth (probably in the 1-3lb range) threw the jig on their first jump. After the first 2, I bent the hook out thinking that would help. Then I really let the rod load up before swinging. Asking for some help as I’ve caught thousands of smallmouth over the past decade with other techniques and never had problems like this.

 

After doing some research, it seems that the owner haymaker hooks might help with their open angle as well as adding two split rings to allow the hook to spin, preventing the fish from getting leverage. Any thoughts? TIA
 

Gear:

Expride B 7’2 MH

curado mgl HG

FC Sniper 16 lb

strike king tungsten football 3/4oz

gama ewg 3/0

zoom z craw jr

 

I do everything that I can to keep smallies from jumping.  They seem to be able to throw anything.

Hello @TBJ Fishing and Welcome to Bass Resource ~

I am a big fan of throwing swingheads for smallmouth myself.

It's one of my favorite ways to catch them and I do get my fair share.

I've had a few trips where I was jumping off more fish than I'd like.

Something that has helped me get a few more in the net

is to keep reeling through the entire hookset.

Seems the fish often pick these baits up off the bottom from behind

and then continue to swim At The Boat.

A standard hookset for me was falling short of getting a solid hook up.

So cranking through the hookset is standard operating procedure for me now.

Here's a little more info

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/211811-brown-bass-tools-~-questions-answers/page/4/#findComment-2467689

Good Luck

A-Jay

I find this absolutely fascinating.

 

I fished a Jika extensively for SMB, which isn't tremendously different in use when fished like a swing head. And I don't lose fish on the jump. Ever.

 

So I'm genuinely surprised and curious.

 

Is this because I'm using lighter spinning gear with parabolic rods that stay well loaded on the jump? Is it luck?  It certainly isn't any sort of special skill on my part, that's for sure.

 

I'm genuinely curious why this is. Is this some advantage due to rig or gear? Or is this just a completely random thing that's happening currently and will even out over time? 

 

Any insight? 

I feel your pain, my hookset/chakra/biorythm/whatever isn’t compatible with swingheads either. I lose far more fish on them than I ever did standard football heads.

 

I solved this problem by dumping my inventory of swingheads off on a buddy.

While I don't have experience with your specific application, this might help some, as a rolled-up line-through swinghead as they won't get leverage on the shake. 

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Reins_Tungsten_Sliding_Football_Heads/descpage-RTSFH.html