Entry 248-1

Fishing Strike King’s New Lures with Luke Estel

Part 1: The Football Jig

Question: Luke, what’s your favorite new Strike King lure released this year?

Estel: I really like the Football Jig because it’s great for fishing structure, like points and ledges. I prefer to fish this bait at Kentucky Lake. On many of my home lakes, we have ledges in about 15 feet of water. You can work the Football Jig like a crankbait, over ledges and on top of humps, and it will get you a lot of bites.

Question: How do you work that bait over structure?

Estel: I primarily hop it over structure, depending on the mood of the bass. Other times I like to just drag the Football Jig on the bottom, like I’d fish a Carolina rig. When the lure reaches to a piece of structure, I hop the jig over the structure or on the bottom, like I do any other type of jig.

Question: Why do you like the Football Jig instead of other more-traditional jigs?

Estel: The Football Jig is designed to keep the hook straight-up. So, if you’re fishing a Rage Tail Craw on the back of the Football Jig, the crawfish’s tail will be down, and the pincers will be up in a defensive position, which is the attitude the crawfish takes when it feels threatened by a predator fish. A regular jig, when it comes to a stop, will fall over on its side with the hook lying parallel to the bottom. I’ve found that with the Football Jig, I get more hook-ups than I do with the standard jighead.

Question: What trailer do you use on the Football Jig?

Estel: I use the Rage Tail trailers because they really move in the water when the jig’s moving, and the pincers stand up when the jig stops moving.

Question: What color do you like, and why?

Estel: I like the green-pumpkin and the standard brown-craw-colored Rage Tail Craw. These crawfish colors are my favorite trailer colors to put behind a jig.

Question: What pound-test line do you use when you’re fishing this jig?

Estel: I use 12- to 15-pound-test fluorocarbon line. I prefer the 12-pound-test line because it lets me feel the jig as it moves across the bottom.

Question: What rod and reel do you use when fishing the Football Jig?

Estel: I use a 6-foot, 10-inch All Star American Classic SJ1 medium-heavy action rod and a Shakespeare Pflueger Presidential Reel.

Question: At what time of year do you fish the Football Jig, and why?

Estel: You can fish the Football Jig all year, but my favorite time of year is during the post-spawn when the fish are moving from their spawning beds out to the ledges and the drop-offs in deeper water. At this time of year, the bass will school-up and feed on crawfish and shad. The Football Jig is a bait the bass want to eat in a place where the bass are holding. When the bass eat the Football Jig, you get a high percentage of hook-ups, because of the way the hook is positioned in the jig.

Next: The Rage Toad

Contents:

• Part 1: The Football Jig
• Part 2: The Rage Toad
• Part 3: The Iguana
• Part 4: Sexy Crankbaits
• Part 5: Drop the Zero and Be a Hero