Jake's field report "Nories Oval Head Jig" Oct 21, 2017

Overview
The Nories Oval Head jig is one of my favorite football jigs. The small compact presentation the jig has is hard for any bass to turn now. the skirt is almost a hybrid between a regular football jig skirt and a spider jig skirt as the skirt flares out at the jig head. Despite being a compact presentation the skirt material flares out in the water so it gives a bulkier small profile. The reason it is called “oval head” is solely based on the shape of the head. The bottom of the jig head is perfectly flat. I believe this is why it is so easily to feel the bottom and what you are dragging ng the jig over. I was also impressed on how well it detected a bite. I knew one hundred perfect the difference between a bite from an inactive bass and what a rock felt like. To top the jig off, it had a very strong and sharp hook I was not worried about bending a hook out at all with this jig.

Rigging
No jig is complete without the proper trailer. Your jig trailer should all be on the water temperature and activity of the bass. If the bass are inactive and it is a cold-water situation try a trailer with little to no movement. If the water temperature is higher and the bass are actively feeding try something with a lot of movement. My trailer of choice was a Imakatsu Bushido for my conditions.

Testing
I took a trip out to Long lake for testing new and upcoming products. The first thing I had tried on was the oval head jig. I came up to the biggest point on the lake. I sat at the bottom of the drop off and casted up and dragged the jig back down the drop off. I was sitting in 12 feet of water and was casting to the top of the drop off around 5 feet. When I started to drag I noticed around 6-7 feet the bottom was very bare almost mud. Once I got to 8-10 feet that’s when I ran into a big rock bed. I every time I dragged the rod I could feel each rod the jig would bounce over. Every few pulls of the rod I would give the rod 1-2 rod twitches to make the jig look like it was a fleeing crawfish. All of my bites came in that 8-10-foot range on the rock pile. The bite was very easy to detect with this jig anything that felt like a different tick than a rod set the hook. It is also important to watch the line because sometimes the fish will hit from the back of the jig and swim towards you and you would miss the bite if you were not focused on your line to see the slack the fish put in your line.

Equipment
My rod of choice was the new legit Design Wild side 610M which I was testing. I am very impressed. It was very sensitive so I could feel every rock the jig climbed over and detect even
the slightest bite, but it was strong enough to handle big fish. I felt like I had control over every fish I caught that day and was positive they would make it into the boat. My reel choice was of course a Daiwa Zillion in 7:3:1 gear ratio. I wanted the fast gear ratio so when I felt a bite I could reel up the slack line quick and set the hook. The line for this combo was Toray Exthread ion 12-pound test. 12-pound test seemed to the style I was fishing perfect it wasn’t to light and too heavy so I had the perfect balance of feel and strength to fight the fish.

–Jake Gaston