Fishing a single bass fishing swimbait on a jighead is one of the best ways to catch suspended fish year round. Whether the fish are hanging close to the bottom, chasing bait just under the surface or suspended anywhere in between, a single swimbait gives an angler the perfect tool to pick the bass off one by one.
In order to reach these various depths, an angler can either adjust the weight of the jighead or the speed of the retrieve. Having a wide variety of sizes available is important and there are other factors that go into making a good jighead for a swimbait as well.
Today, we’re going to review one such jighead, the Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp Swimbait Head and see if it meets the mark.
Strong, sharp hook
For starters, the hook has to be of good quality. It doesn’t really matter how well the jighead is designed or how good the fish bite it if the hook is dull or bends easily. Not surprisingly, considering the name of the jighead has “Lazer Sharp” in it, this swimbait head has a nice sharp point to it.
This is important because bites often come a long ways from the boat and down deep, where the stretch and the bow of your line can make it hard to get a good hookset on a fish at times. But this hook is sharp and does its job of penetrating the fish’s mouth well.
The hook is also strong, which is a combination that is sometimes hard to pull off when trying to make a sharp hook. The larger the diameter of the wire of a hook, the stronger the hook is. But it’s easier to make a thinner wire hook sharper, so there’s a fine line to toe between a thin wire and a thick wire when making a hook that’s both sharp and strong. Eagle Claw nailed it here with this jighead, focusing slightly more on the strength of the hook when selecting the wire. This one is stout, which I like a lot, but still sharp.
Size indicator
This is one of the coolest and smartest things I’ve seen done in a long time when it comes to terminal tackle. Eagle Claw actually incorporated into the mold a size indicator on the side of the jighead. One of the more frustrating things with this kind of fishing is finally finding the perfect size jighead and not being able to remember what size it was when going to restock.
I’ve done this a lot over the years with different jigs and jigheads. I’ll take the tackle out of its original packaging then combine 3 or 4 packs together in my box. When it comes time to order more, I can’t remember if it’s a 3/16- or 1/4-ounce, for instance.
This doesn’t sound like much of a difference, but once you get dialed in with a swimbait head like this, you get a feel for how long to let it fall and how slow to reel it and changing the size up even just a little bit throws all that off. Well with the raised size indicator on the side of these jigheads, I no longer have to play the guessing game.
Thin head
One thing I noticed in particular with this jighead that makes it stand out from several others is that the head itself is rather thin, making the jighead really suitable for thinner swimbaits. I have the Missile Baits Shockwave rigged up on it in this photo; it’s thin, like several other swimbaits out there. So this jighead suits it really well.
Paired together, a thin jighead and a thin swimbait can fall deeper, quicker, using less weight than a wide bulky head and bait. Reason being, there’s less resistance. The thin combo shoots through the water compared to a bait rigged on a wider jighead.
This attribute also helps keep the bait down easier, again due to the decrease in the water resistance. If you tested the same weight in this head alongside a wider one, the wider one would rise up in the water column where the thinner Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp Swimbait Head would cut through the water cleaner and stay down better.
Sizes, weights and price
This jighead comes in a pretty good variety of sizes ranging from 1/8- to 1/2-ounce, with each weight class offered in multiple hook sizes, ranging from 3/0 to 5/0. All sizes come in a 4-pack, currently on sale for $3.98 per pack.
This is a really good deal in my opinion. Though I couldn’t find the regular price for these, I’d venture to say they’re around $5 per pack normally, which would still be a pretty good deal.
I would like to see a slightly larger range of weights in this jighead, with a few options over 1/2 ounce. Sometimes a 3/4-ounce jighead with a 6/0 hook is needed when trying to get larger hollow body swimbaits down deep. But there are bigger, bulkier heads out there for that which would likely fit those thicker swimbaits better anyway. So in my opinion, the Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp Swimbait Head really gives you all you’d need for most any swimbait under 5 inches.
Umbrella rig and final thoughts
We’ve talked exclusively in this piece so far about using this jighead for a single swimbait. While it is well suited for that, the thin profile and affordability also make this a great jighead for umbrella rigs. Being able to rig out a whole A-Rig for five bucks is nice and in the unfortunate instance that you lose one, you’re not out $10 or $15 for jigheads in addition to the cost of the umbrella rig and swimbaits.
With a strong, sharp hook, an innovative size indicator, a good range of sizes and a great price point, the Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp Swimbait Head is a good product and a great deal. The thin profile will help you keep the bait down with less weight whether rigged solo or in groups of five on an umbrella rig. With a quick glance, you’ll always know exactly what size you’re tying on or need a few more of. This is a really solid product for a reasonable price.
The Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp Swimbait Head is available at TackleWarehouse.com.
