It's pretty thick, so his 3/32- and 1/16-ounce versions on
ballheads work at super-slow speeds.
For fall and winter harvests, the late stars in our garden are Krautman and Danish
Ballhead, the latter being an old-time favorite.
This compact round
ballhead has a clipped skirt that perfectly matches Jewel's Eakins Craw, a flat realistic rendering of a 2.5-inch crayfish, which Eakins reduced to just 2 inches to give the package an enticing glide that fooled bass wherever anglers tried it--deep under docks, brushpiles, cold-front conditions, finicky bass, and more.
But even during those memorable years, slow-downs would occur and the go-to solution was always a 1/8-ounce
ballhead jig and a 5-inch Kalin's Lunker Grub or Berkley PowerBait Grub--which remain effective to this day.
Danish
Ballhead and Early Jersey Wakefield are heirloom varieties of cabbage that have been grown in gardens since 1840.
Most days, Balog begins and ends with a 1/16-ounce
ballhead jig inserted into a 2-inch tube.
Shimano Stradic 2000 reels, both with 10-pound Sufix 832 mainline, a 6-foot leader of 10-pound-test fluorocarbon, and usually, a 3/8- or 1/2-ounce teardrop or
ballhead jig, though I often use 5/8-ounce heads in bigger swift rivers.
"Trolling a 1/4-ounce
ballhead jig tipped with a 2 1/2-inch Midsouth Tackle Tube Jig and lip-hooked minnow is the way to get 'em," he says.
"When I chase smallmouths, I use either Frank's Leech--basically a black, brown, or olive bunny strip on a
ballhead jig--or a Perch Pattern," he says.
His weapon of choice is a 1/2- to 3/4-ounce
ballhead jig tipped with a 3u-inch paddletail softbait such as a Bondy Worm, though baits such as 3-inch Berkley Gulp!
To find active fish in those situations, he fishes a crankbait or small swimbait like a Berkley Havoc Beat Shad on a 3/8-ounce
ballhead jig, covering water to locate groups of bass.
A standard
ballhead like the Gamakatsu Round 26 or Owner Ultrahead Round is my go-to style because it adds or subtracts nothing with respect to tail action.
The football head lies flat, making it more snag-resistant than a
ballhead. I usually fish 1/16- to 1/4-ounce versions with a twin wire guard if there's wood or rock cover to deal with."
"A 1/4- to 5/16-ounce
ballhead jig with a curl-tail grub like Strike King's Rage Tail catches smallmouths everywhere," he says.
When larger minnows are unavailable, I lose the sinker and, go with a 1/4- to 3/8-ounce
ballhead jig.