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Horsehead Jigs Offshore?
by Patrick Lemire
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Horsehead Jigs Offshore? "What's a horsehead jig in the first place?", you might ask. They are a family of leadhead jigs with an unusual head shape and a flashing, vibrating spinner blade mounted low on their head that takes everything from bluegills to striped bass. Fish are fish - and many of our saltwater inhabitants also seem to think they're something special. I've taken numerous offshore species on various sizes of these jigs over the years, with or without a head-hooked baitfish attached.
The spinner blade adds its strike-attracting properties to this already deadly combination, and its location virtually ensures that it has no interference with your line or hookups. Its larger head profile also adds mass to your presentation and the flaring, almost breathing bucktail skirting gives a life-like appearance, adding to the total strike attraction. When viewed by a predator from the underside, its silhouette is broken up by the alternating flashes of the spinner blade. Another "alive" look.
My first exposure to horsehead jigs was in 1994, when I saw a partyboat captain casting a yellow one of around two ounces. He caught many red snapper from eight to fourteen pounds over the course of several trips. Only after losing all of its hair, most of the paint, and the hook bent and reshaped several times, before breaking, did that jig stop catching red snapper. His success on those trips told me I had to get my hands on some of them, which I did.
The Striper Stump Jumper from Bass Pro Shops is available in their catalog or online, www.basspro.com, in sizes up to 1-1/2 ounce. The Blakemore Roadrunner comes topped out at 1 ounce with 1-1/2 ounce unskirted heads available from Cabela's (www.cabelas.com). Head and skirt colors that work for me are yellow, white, chartreuse/white, red/white and blue/white. I know there's some heavier ones out there, but to date I've been unable to find them.
The illustration has a cutaway section through the bucktail skirting showing a small piece of shrimp body on the hook as a sweetener that adds some scent to the jig. While a shrimp piece is shown, this could be a piece of other natural bait such as squid or a baitfish. The reason for the small piece of sweetener is that, when fishing for reef fish in Federal waters, using a whole baitfish, squid, shrimp or big baitfish strip on the jig's hook would be illegal.
The rule states that circle hooks must be used when fishing for reef fish with natural baits. Fish included in that group are snappers, groupers, amberjacks, hogfish, gray triggerfish, etc. These horsehead jigs and others have "J" hooks.
The exception to the rule states that "natural baits include any bait derived from a living organism, either dead or alive." Artificial baits which include a small amount of embedded fish or shrimp are not considered natural baits.
Examples of dead baits include cut and frozen fish, shrimp and squid. The sentence about artificial baits and a small amount of embedded fish or shrimp being used makes the tipping procedure described legal in Federal waters when targeting reef fish.
Pelagic species such as dolphin, kingfish, wahoo or ling fall into a group that you won't get into trouble with if you nose-hook a sardine, etc. onto the jig. This added size, mass and flash plus the scent trail of the baitfish has one drawback; it will slow your retrieve speed a little. To bring your retrieve up to a strike-generating speed when attempting to attract kingfish or wahoo strikes, a casting reel with a 6:1 retrieve ratio as part of your combination is a must.
As far as rigging goes, the pretty much standard, dark swivel and mono leader of 2-3 feet works well. Using a dark coffee colored wire leader has a stealth factor besides its color; its small diameter comes into play. Another plus is increased motion that's given to the jig by a loop connection. With mono, use a loop knot to connect your leader and jig.
When used in the proper sizes, with drag settings to match their hook strength, horsehead jigs are lures that should be part of everyone's offshore arsenal. Their look, combined with their structure-dodging abilities, should make them inshore weapons as well. Keep your spinner blades shiny and rinse these horsehead jigs well with fresh water after their saltwater swim for best and long lasting results.
"Horsehead Jigs Offshore?"
You bet! They're definitely a "try 'em, you'll like 'em" item.