How To Rig Our Lures
So I get asked a bunch about what jig heads I like to use for our lures and instead of tirelessly directing people to stores and other websites to find these, I finally an account set up with Owner hooks, which, as far as I'm concerned are the absolute best hooks on the market, that I've found.
In this article I'm going to cover the three models that we stock, my favorite applications for each and how to rig our lures up on them, if you'd rather watch a video on the rigging, I've uploaded one to both our Facebook and Instagram pages as well as our Youtube channel where I show how to set our lures up on all these hooks.
Let's kick this off with the Owner Beast Hooks, as the name implies, these hooks are Beasts, they are weightless, weedless hooks that're made with a 3X strong wire and an extra wide gap with a patented springlock to secure your bait. They are the perfect companion for our 7" size, or even 5.5" sized lures when you want to go with a slow sinking/suspending or even surface presentation. I will throw the 7" size rigged up on one of these Beast Hooks inshore and trigger ridiculously aggressive strikes from trout and redfish, however it makes an excellent presentation for any predatory fish feeding up shallow and/or near the surface and the Beast Hooks are strong & sharp enough to handle the fiercest fish.
Next, let's size down a bit with the Owner Inshore Slam Series, this series features wicked sharp 3X strong hooks, screw locks & completely sealed eyes so your braided line or light leaders won't pop out or get frayed. They come in a variety of sizes & weights from 1/16oz to 1/2oz in 1/0, 3/0 & 5/0 hook sizes meaning there is literally a size for any inshore application you can dream up! As a predominantly wade fisherman, my favorite of these is the 1/16oz 1/0 pictured here to the left. With this light, low profile jighead you can slow down and control where your lure is in the water column. Knowing exactly where your lure is in the water allows you to pick apart structure & hone in on where the fish are actively feeding in that particular area. These hooks pair up excellently with all of our lure sizes. If I'm fishing deeper water I'll size up the weight appropriately to a 1/4, 3/8 or even 1/2oz at times. I always recommend people use screw locks because they just hold on better and make your lures last longer!
Now let's round this out by sizing up with the Owner Saltwater Bullet series, so we've covered shallow & smaller presentations, but what about when you want to get a bigger bait down? Well when it comes to fishing big and deep, these jigheads are perfect, ranging in size from 3/0-7/0 & weights from 1/2oz to 1-1/2oz, they are tailor made for getting big baits down for big critters, they all pair up nicely with our 7" size and the 3/0-5/0 sizes pair up well with our 5.5" size, you can use these to jig for reef fish, launch them off the jetties or into the surf to catch tarpon, snook, bull reds, striper, ling & any other large deepwater menaces you enjoy targeting!
Here's a quick recap of the three types of hooks/rigs we discussed in this article:
7" AFB
Rigged on an 8/0 Owner Beast Hook
For fishing our 5.5-7" sized lures shallow/near the surface
4" Pearl
Rigged on a 1/0 1/16oz Owner Inshore Slam Jighead
For fishing our 3"-5.5" sized lures up shallow or off the deep end
7" Midnight Mullet
Rigged on a 5/0 3/4oz Owner Saltwater Bullet Jighead
Heavy weight with big hooks for taking 5.5"-7" sized lures down to the depths
Pairing up all 3 of these hooks with the 4 sizes of lures we offer will basically ensure that you have something appropriate to throw in just about any fishing situation you may find yourself in, from small inshore fish to mean offshore critters and everything in between,
Now all that's left for you to worry about is which color and/or size to throw, I get into how I make those decisions in these articles:
A Simple, No-Nonsense Guide to Color Selection
Thanks for reading, catch ya on the next one!