How to Trim a Weedless Jig

Many moons ago, I cut the fiberguards off jigs entirely. I fished jigs with fully-exposed hooks in the heaviest cover imaginable. This was in order to teach myself the hard way how to fish jigs in heavy cover. I reasoned that if I could master how to get an exposed hook jig into thick cover (the easy part) and out (not so easy), then it would be a cinch when I resumed using a fiberguard.

Without any fiberguard, you need to land your cast precisely where you want it, often in the thickest part of the cover, or the exact spot you want to work it. In dense weeds, you would need to land right in a hat-sized hole in the weeds, for example. Once it hits the water, you really cannot move it at all. Just let it sink and wait for what seems like forever without moving it at all. Fish will often pick it up, even after a long, long time without moving it. If that doesn't happen, just shake the line, quivering the jig without moving it forward. After shaking and quivering the line for about ten seconds, wait for another long, long time, which is when the hit will come. I call this the "shake and bake" tactic. Repeat shaking and baking about four or five times. All the while, the jig hasn't moved an inch. You shake the line, not the jig. When you finally do feel a need to move the jig forward, do it ever-so-slowly, hardly moving at all, until it bumps some obstacle - a rock, wood, weed edge or whatever. Now, just keep backing off and bumping the object, back off and bump, back off and bump several times, then wait a long time without moving the jig. I refer to this as "knocking on the door." Repeat knocking on the door, but make sure to pause. The bumps calls fish over to see who's at the door, and when you pause, they answer by hitting your jig. Even if the jig snags onto an object, never mind. Just shake it patiently and attractively while it's snagged. Always make painstakingly long pauses in between the short bouts of shaking. When you pause, fish will pull the snagged jig off whatever it's stuck on.

It took me two seasons to get good at it, but that's how I learned to fish jigs in heavy cover with fully-exposed hooks. The same applies to jigs with fiberguards, except they snag less.

In case you do not want to learn the way I did, I offer you the tips below that tell you how to trim a fiberguard to best protect a jig hook from snags. Why do you need to trim a fiberguard at all? Too full a fiberguard may block the strike, impede the jig's way into the mouth, and resist your hook set. So trimming the fiberguard (while still preventing snags) reduces these potential problems.

Tools Required to Trim Jigs. A knife blade and scissors are ideally required tools. A Leatherman Wave multi-tool conveniently includes both.

Step One. With the pocket knife blade, carefully and gently rock the base of the blade against the fibers, right where the fibers are molded into the jig head. There's no need to actually cut or apply force. Just gently and carefully rock or wiggle the blade against the fibers a few times. How many fibers you cut off depends on two things: 1) the cover you'll be fishing, and 2) the rod, reel and line you use. In light cover and/or with a light rod and line, cut off more. In heavy cover and/or with a heavy rod and line, cut off less.

In open water with no obstructions swimming a jig above the bottom, there's no need for a fiberguard and it can be cut off entirely. In light cover, often as few as 7 or 8 fibers are all you need. It goes against logic to buy a jig with a bushy fiberguard and then cut off all or most of it, but that can be your best option in open water or light cover.

To begin with, it is better to cut off too few rather than too many. You can always trim a couple more later. Especially if you are not hooking a high percentage of fish, your fiberguard may still be a little too thick. So you may want to trim a couple more fibers off. It's a trade-off between better hooksets (fewer fibers) and better snag-resistance (more fibers).

Step Two. About 20 of the approximately 40 fibers have been cut off flush with the jig head. Never pluck the fibers out. Plucking leaves a hole which will cause the remaining fibers to loosen and fall out. By keeping the "roots" intact as shown above, the remaining fibers cannot easily loosen.

Step Three. Clip the remaining fibers short with the scissors.

Step Four. How short to clip the fibers depends upon how heavy or light the cover you will be fishing. That's really the key to trimming a jig - where you will be using it. You usually do not want the fibers to be shorter than just touching the hook point, as shown here. In some cases however, especially in soft grass that can stick to a jig, I leave the fibers a little longer than shown above.

Step Five. Half the fibers have been cut off at the base, and the remaining half trimmed to barely above the hook point. However, a fiberguard bundled directly in front of the hook point as shown offers poor snag protection from the sides. There are still further steps to complete.

Step Six.  Most snags don't happen directly straight up in front of the hook point. Most snags happen from the sides of the hook point. So you need to fan the fibers out to the sides, forming a one inch wide shield of protection for the hook point.

Step Seven. Press a finger straight down the center in front of the hook point, and gently part the fanned-out fibers into two halves. This forms a vee or two bundles of snag protection, one to the left and the other to the right of the hook point.

View from Behind. Shows how fibers fan, forming snag shield to guard hook point from the sides.

Before and After. Untrimmed jig on left as it comes out of the package. Fibers have been thinned out, clipped short, fanned out and vee'd to the sides on jig at right.

I've been trimming jigs this same way over twenty-five years. It's not that I'm set in my ways. I have heard of and tried other ways to trim jigs, but keep coming back to the steps above because they work for me. Over time, what has changed is the availability of lighter and varying size fiberguards. Years ago, there was really only one size fiberguard (or so it seemed) - extra full and extra long with extra thick fibers. Today, there are light (.018), medium (.021) and heavy (.024) action fibers, base sizes (of the entire bundle) in 1/64" increments from 1/16" through 5/32" (which determines fiber count), and  from 1-3/8" to 1-7/8" lengths available. So jigs today can come off the shelf with fairly different fiberguards. Nevertheless, finding a jig that needs no trimming is not common. It's like finding a pair of fine dress slacks that fit perfectly off the rack without needing to be tailored. If the pants fit you, they may not fit other customers as good. So, good pants are often made long and unhemmed so everyone may tailor them. Likewise, good jigs are often left a little too full and a little too long. It's intended that you tailor them to fit your needs perfectly. The way I trim all jigs (if they need trimming) is as above.

Finesse Versus Power Jigs. Shown above are two Arkey style jigs out of the same mold. In font is a "power" jig with a heavy hook and heavy fiberguard requiring heavy rod and line to set this hook. In back is a "finesse" version with thinner (yet still strong) hook and more flexible fiberguard. The finesse jig has softer 1-3/4" long, .018 light action fibers in a 5/32" base. The power jig has stiffer 1-1/2" long, .021 medium action fibers in a 9/64" base. Both need to be trimmed in most fishing situations. How much to trim depends on where you will use them, and with what strength rod, reel and line.

The power jig is molded and painted with a metal pin temporarily in place of the fiberguard. Then the pin is pulled and the fiberguard is glued in. The finesse jig is molded and painted with the fiberguard in place, which seats the fiberguard a little more securely. In either case, however, you can expect a small percentage of fiberguards to pop out from handling them, from fish or hard use. Sometimes a fiberguard will come lose during the trimming process. This is not a mistake or badly-made fiberguard. It's just their nature. Just like an egg is fragile, that doesn't mean it's a defect if one's shell gets broken in the egg carton. It's just the way eggs (and fiberguards) are made. Point is, fiberguards may loosen. Don't pull or tug on the fiberguard more than you have to.

There aren't but 9-10 strands left in the fiberguard on this finesse jig - and that proved just perfect!