San Diego & SoCal Fishing Forums

I’m new to the BFS world and just adding to my tackle bag. I primarily do saltwater fishing and have done decently well in estuaries and quite areas of the San Diego and Mission bay.

Does anyone have any suggestions on baits and jig heads. Weirdly I had success using little swim baits on the Zman micro finesse jig heads but when I use ball head jigs, football jig heads and mushroom jig heads I skunk out.

Does the style of jig heads really matter when using different style lures ?

Are you fishing from shore, float tube, kayak or boat?

All of those heads will catch fish if used correctly. Spotties really like a slow, stop and go retrieve with pauses on the bottom. The main choice is whether to go with an exposed hook or weedless, which depends on how much weeds are in the area.

Heads with the hook eye far forward will have less action but go thru the weeds better. Heads with the eye further back seem to produce better in weed free areas. Lately, I have liked a version of the swinging jig that is very weedless and has lots of wobble, see viewtopic.php?p=24635&hilit=favorite#p24635 . But I still use the other jig heads, I will usually fish with 5 rods so I can vary my lures.

Unless you are alternating between setups, it is hard to know whether one lure is better than another or whether the improvement is due to location change or the fish just started biting. And you have to have a large enough sample size to know the improvement is real.

I posted some tips at viewtopic.php?p=19483&hilit=spotted+bay ... ips#p19483 . That should help.

Oh, I read that article several times over. Thank you.

Me personally I’m fishing from shore. Seems like no matter what the type of jig head it is you want it close to bottom or having some contact with bottom.

Any tips with using the ned rig ?

Ned rig has worked well for me although I can't say it is better or worse than the other heads for spotties. It has really worked well at Barrett for LMB. I prefer the weedless versions with an offset hook. The Zman Ned heads really retain the baits although you have to pull hard to get the Elaztech baits over the keeper. Same retrieve works. I don't see a compelling reason to use the ultralight jig heads for spotties since you want bottom contact and the 1/5 ounce heads cast further than the lighter heads. Long casts definitely catch more fish.

It is not necessary to use Elaztech or other TPE baits on a Ned head but the durability is very nice. Spotties will tear a bait up a lot faster than LMB. And you don't have to use Ned baits on a Ned head although they do work well. For that matter, you can also use Ned baits on other jig heads too.

You might also consider using a Gulp bait on a drop shot, keeping the bait 12" or less from the sinker. I would definitely try that if I was fishing from the shore. You don't need to move it as much and as a bonus, you will catch more than spotties. I would use an offset hook and rig the bait weedless. Drag and pause retrieve works for that, just slower.