We have all used or continue to use jigs on a fairly regular basis and probably haven’t given a great deal of thought to them. In the past few years however, there have been a lot of strides made in this basic piece of equipment that have made jig fishing, in all its subtle variations, more enjoyable, productive and efficient.
This year at ICAST a new comer to the industry takes jigs to the next level. Freedom Tackle Corp. has introduced some of most innovative jigs to hit the market to date called the Freedom Live Action Hybrid Jigs.
So now you’re wondering, what’s so different? Okay, let’s run it down for you.
The Hybrid Jig Heads
Let’s start with the single most unique feature that they employ on all of their products. With the Freedom jigs you can change the hook! That’s right, every one of these top quality offerings has this singular design adaptation.
At the risk of being redundant, you can change the freaking hook!
I’m sure that everyone out there has their favorite jig and or jig manufacturer. We certainly did until now. The problem has always been that once the stock hook was dulled, you had to either sharpen it, which since the introduction of chemically sharpened hooks, has been kind of a waste of time, or toss it and use a new one.
Furthermore, you had to change the size of the jig, which meant re-tying, if you wanted either a larger or smaller hook to go with your bait of choice.
The Freedom jigs eliminate both of these traditional hassles because you can change the hook! Without trashing the head or skirt the angler can easily make this swap on the fly. For instance, let’s say that you’re using a specific weight that seems to be working but you want to downsize your plastic and it’s just too small for the 5/0 hook that came on the jig.
No problem, grab your favorite 3/0 or 4/0 from whatever company you like and within about fifteen seconds, you’re back to fishing with the hook size that is best for your bait. This is beyond cool—it’s just downright awesome.
While the fact that you can swap out your hook (sorry, I said it again) is reason enough in our opinion to give these jigs a try, they come with a whole host of other features that are well thought out and executed.
Fishing The Hybrid Jig Heads
The design of all the heads across the line feature quality epoxy finishes with what they call an embedded brass echo chamber. This is true across their line, which features the Zodiac and Rogue—which are great for use with soft plastics like worms, creature baits, lizards etc.—The Hydra which is a swimbait jig head, and the Stealth which is a swimming jig.
All of the Freedom products are engineered to land in the optimal upright position so that fish can easily inhale your bait. They feature a slow bait free fall, which keeps them in the strike zone longer, and all come with premium black nickel and chemically sharpened hooks.
Action In The Water
The freedom of movement that the hook enjoys provides an angler with several advantages over traditional heads. One is that any bait used with this kind of jig will exhibit a more natural action in the water.
As an example, if you’re using it with a craw imitation or creature bait, the free swinging motion of the hook allows for lateral movement by the bait. It’s similar to when a crawfish bumps his butt into something on the bottom while moving along backwards.
He doesn’t stay rigid and just go up and over the impediment. Instead he feels his way around the rock or stick or whatever got in his way. This same action is what is displayed by the Freedom Live Action Hybrid Jigs.
Another advantage to this set up is that once you set the hook, there is much less leverage available to a fish to throw the hook. This results in more fish in the boat, or on your thumb, or in the net, or however you choose to land them.
In our testing, our hook-up ratio has been excellent and we haven’t lost a fish yet once we had them hooked.
If we have any complaints at all, it is just that the smallest weight available at the moment is 1/2 ounce across the board. While this works great in any number of situations, we are eager to see these jigs made available in lighter versions for more finesse applications.
You can visit www.freedomlures.com for more information, as well as how you too can get your hands on these jigs to find out for yourselves how special they really are.
Freedom Lures Hybrid Jig Heads | |
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Overall Rating | |
Innovative, effective, impressive! |
See ya’ on the water …
That’s pretty cool indeed! I am actually new to fishing and with so many jigs and different types of cover to fish, finding the right jig is quite challenging.
How you doin Clinton, we started this site with one of our goals being reducing the learning curve for new anglers because we had to learn it the hard way. These jigs are some of the most versatile jigs that we have run across in all our years of bass fishing. So let us know if you find them to be as unique and functional as we have.
See ya’ on the water …
I’ve been using these jigs since August 2012, great review, Awesome jigs with so many ways to fish them. I’m using Stealth and catching Spotted Bass, using Hydra and Zodiac catching Stripers around rocks, have’nt lost a Jig yet, and your right about the hook-up, I also have’nt lost a fish yet. What gets me is, Tackle Warehouse don’t carry the Zodiac at this time, three of us are looseing out there. The Fisherman, Tackle Warehouse, and Freedom tackle.