Aftermarket Jig Rigging: Rigging Your Jig for Noise, Vibration, and Added Movement

Sight, sound and action are critical to attract fish, especially predatory fish like largemouth bass, speckled trout, and red fish. One of the most popular ways of catching these species is a soft plastic worm on a predetermined weighted jig head. When right out of the retail packaging, most jig heads come with a standard j-hook with a lead head and eye to attach your line or leader. No where on this simple contraption is there a noise making devise: or is there?

For me, to get a little more action and noise from my jig heads and soft plastics, I do a little aftermarket rigging to a symphony of fish-pestering noise, vibration, and extra motion. I add a split ring and swivel to the jog head. The extra -forty-five seconds it takes me to after rig my fish-slaying bionic jig head pays for itself with extra fish bites and less line twisting, tangling, and snarling if I have a client using a spinning reel.

The only thing you need to aftermarket rig your soft plastic's ride is a good pair of split ring pliers, a split ring (obviously), and a swivel. I leave the sizes to you.

Step 1

Open the split ring with your pliers.

Step 2

Place the split ring in the eye of the jig head. Leave a small gap in the split ring for the next step.

Step 3

Insert the swivel into the open gap.

Step 4

Work the jig head and swivel around until they are on the split ring.

Step 5

Add your favorite bait, tie on, and have fun.

Now what have we accomplished here? First, we've added a little ticking noise when the slack line goes taut to bring the jig head back to the surface. Second, we've added an additional plane for the plastic to move-in-side-to-side rather than just up and down. The split ring leaves the lure to move more freely than a straight tied jig head. Third, if you are using a spinning reel the line will not twist because the swivel takes out the spin inherent in the reeling process of the retrieve.

The added noise, movement, and time alleviated from untwisting braid or light monofilament from a garbled mess at the tip of your rod after a day of fishing is well worth the time needed to aftermarket you jig. Good luck and tight lines.