May 19, 2010 By Neil Taylor
There are certain conditions where weedless lures are not just an advantage, they’re critical to having any chance at all to get a gamefish to eat your lure. For just about every hook or lure company, they have come out with their own version of a weighted, weedless lure. This is a look at “The Edje”, one weedless option that is produced and marketed by Captain Joe Hebert. This jig has a stainless steel screw-lock bait keeper that goes into the head of the plastic bait. The screw-lock attaches to the eye of the hook and the hook then feeds through the center of the plastic with the barb laying up flush against the top of the lure. This hides the hook, allowing the angler to use the lures in thick, weedy areas without picking up a weed on the hook. It also allows anglers to work lures at a much slower pace or even to let the lure settle right on top of the seagrass bottom, adding more finesse to their shallow water fishing excursions.
The jigheads are a great option for rigging a variety of plastic lures, “swimbaits” and also for jerkbait tails. The decision on using this kind of rigging for a plastic tail option comes down to the area the hook will protrude through the bait. The hook point needs to “expose” itself when the fish bites down on the lure or it is not a good choice for that particular style plastic tail.
This advantage is noted by tournament anglers who just used the Edje jighead in challenging fishing conditions to win approximately $30,000 in tournament prizes, in the Sarasota swing of the IFA Redfish Tour. Without the Edje, the winning fish would not have taken the bait. Joe gave some insights into why he created this design for his fishing and his charters. Joe, who lives in Dunedin, FL but fishes all over the state said:
“A few years ago fishing the Mosquito Lagoon and the low tides in St. Joseph Sound, battling the thick turtle grass with an exposed hook jighead was a nightmare. Mustad had come out with a sliding-weight weedless design. They did not make anything larger than and 1/8-ounce. I wanted something with a little more weight. So I changed the design of the molded weight but used the same style hook.” The hook that is used is the Mustad 91768BLN Ultra Point hook. It is strong, durable and combined with the action Joe’s molded lead design has, it translates to a very high hook-up ratio per strike.
Changing the molded weight design of this jighead also added some “flutter” to it rather than just a straight drop. He decided to powder paint the lead weights various colors to give choices to the anglers that prefer colored jigs. The Edje is available in: 1/16, 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 5/16, 3/8 and 1/2 oz.in hook sizes from 1/0 up to 8/0. The colors that are available are “unpainted” or in the choices of: Glow, Gold, Hot Pink, Chartreuse, “Margarita”, “Blood Red”, Black and New Penny. This information is all available at:
http://www.captainjoefishing.com/products.php?cat=66
The concept of value stands out in a price comparison. The Edje sell for around $4.49 for a package of 3. Captain Joe has succeeded in making a quality product at the lowest possible price.
Sticking with the theme of “proper rigging”, make sure whatever tail you attach to the Edje jighead that the hook is centered where it punches through the top of the bait and that the lure lays flat and straight. With the Edje, one extra step can be taken and the point of the hook can be “massaged” into the plastic.
Ask about them at your local tackle shops. A three-pack of these lures will go a long way. For more on “why to go weedless”, take a look at this article on Proanglersjournal.com: “This is Weediculous”
The Edje with the Buzz Tail Shad:
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