Jig Heads: Weight and Hook Size Charts, Shapes, Eye Angles

A jig head is a hook with a weight molded on just behind the eye, sold from 1/32 oz (0.9 g) for crappie to 3 oz (85 g) for big swimbaits. Push a soft plastic onto the hook and it catches crappie, bass, walleye, perch and smallmouth with one rig. Three choices decide which head you tie on: the weight, the hook and the shape. A fourth, the angle of the eye, is the one most anglers never look at.

Weigh your jigs. Rod Wall, a former guide, has found jigs marked 1/16 oz weighing anywhere from 1.5 to 2.1 grams; a true 1/16 oz is 1.8 grams.

How heavy should the head be?

Jeff Knapp, who writes on walleye for Bass Pro, has a rule that works for every fish: use the lightest head that still lets you feel the bottom. A light head falls slower, and you go heavier only for depth, wind or current. The numbers below come from the makers’ own ranges and from anglers who fish them.

The crappie rows are where small differences matter most. The popular crappie weights are 1/32, 1/16 and 1/8 oz. Rod Wall finds that a slight change in weight gives him about a foot (30 cm) of control over the depth his jig swims. That is why he carries a gram scale, about $15 at a hardware store, and weighs each jig before it goes into his rotation. For when crappie and walleye move up and down through the year, see crappie water temperature and walleye water temperature.

Which hook fits the bait?

The hook has to leave its point and some gap clear of the plastic. If the hook is too small, the point sits buried in the bait and misses fish. If it is too big, the bait hangs crooked. The makers pair them like this:

Shank length is the walleye angler’s choice. Knapp puts a minnow on a short-shank head like Northland’s Fire-Ball, and a twister body on the standard long shank, where the barbed collar holds it. The hook size chart explains why a #6 is smaller than a #4 and a 1/0 bigger than both. Light wire bends out of a snag and goes in with a light hookset on spinning tackle; heavy wire needs a baitcaster and a hard hookset. The types of hooks page covers wire and finish.

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Which shape, and which eye angle?

Wired2Fish’s Shaye Baker remembers when a jig head was a crude round lump of lead, hand-poured in someone’s garage and sold at half a dozen for a buck or two. Now, he writes, there is a head for every bait, and a line-tie angle for about every 5 degrees. The round head is still the most versatile.

The eye angle is measured from the hook shank. Drawing: fishing.info.

The line tie is the eye where you tie on, and its angle sets how the bait rides. A 90° eye pulls straight up from the head. That helps a Ned bait stand up on the bottom, and it holds a small swimbait level when the line hangs straight down under the boat. A swimbait head’s eye sits closer to 130°, tilted toward the nose. The pull then comes from in front, and the bait swims level as you reel it through the water column. That 130° is measured from the shank, as in the drawing; makers quote the angle in their own ways, so when you buy, compare the picture, not the number. Dirty Jigs built its Guppy Head for small swimbaits; the maker says its 90° design “allows for that perfect horizontal lure position”, which it calls “ideal for vertical jigging”.

The shaky head is likely the oldest and most popular of the modern heads, Baker writes, and it runs from under 1/8 oz to more than an ounce. The shaky head page shows how to fish one. For vertical walleye jigging, Knapp likes round and aspirin heads, which offer little water resistance; for casting he picks a stand-up head. The Scrounger is a head with a soft plastic bill that rocks the bait from side to side.

What keeps the plastic on the hook?

The keeper is the barb, wire or screw on the shank that stops the plastic from sliding down the hook. A simple barb works on a grub. A swimbait gets pulled by the tail, so swimbait heads carry stronger keepers: a bigger barb, two barbs facing opposite ways, or a screw-lock, which Baker calls likely the most effective. Gamakatsu’s Round 26 uses a double cone of lead. Z-Man welds a wire keeper onto the Finesse ShroomZ shank, and it holds the stretchy ElaZtech baits of Ned Kehde’s finesse rig without glue.

Do paint and eyes matter?

Paint is the last choice and the least important one, but it is not decoration on every head. Swimbait heads are the most detailed, Baker writes, with reflective eyes and scale-pattern paint, because the head is the front of the fish. Z-Man sells the DieZel Eye with red, glow or chartreuse eyes, and its molded collar takes a skirt. Dirty Jigs paints its tungsten Guppy Head and gives it 3-D eyes.

Which color is best depends on the water, not on one color. FishUSA’s walleye guide says to match the head to the body in clear water, where a contrasting head looks unnatural. In stained water a red, orange or chartreuse head gives fish a focal point to track to the hook, and a red head on a white body is its classic pairing. When in doubt, it says, a red or red-orange head works in most conditions.

Lead or tungsten?

Tungsten is 19.3 g/cm³ and lead 11.35 g/cm³, so tungsten is 1.7 times as dense. A tungsten head of the same weight takes about 41% less volume. But each dimension shrinks only about 16%, which is why a tungsten head looks smaller rather than half the size. Here is the same math at four common weights, with the head pictured as a ball:

Volumes are the weight divided by NIST’s densities; a real head is not a ball, but it shrinks by the same 16% in every direction. Dirty Jigs says its Pure Tungsten Guppy Head is 30% smaller than a lead jig, and that the density adds sensitivity. The price is the catch. In October 2026 the lead Guppy Head sold at $7.49 for three, about $2.50 a head. The Pure Tungsten version cost $9.99 for two, $5.00 a head, about twice as much. You can also pour your own lead heads; the tackle guide covers how, and the EPA’s warning against doing it at home.

In some states the law makes the choice. New Hampshire has banned the use of lead jigs and sinkers of 1 oz or less in fresh water since June 1, 2016, painted or not, with fines up to $250. In Maine it is illegal to sell lead sinkers and lead jigs of 1 oz or less or 2.5 in or shorter. Using them is illegal on inland waters, and since September 1, 2026 that covers painted jigs too. Maine’s wildlife agency says swallowed lead tackle is the third leading cause of death for its 4,000-plus adult common loons. It suggests tungsten, tin, bismuth and steel instead.

Can you fish just a jig head?

Yes, and river walleye anglers do it all winter. Knapp’s version is a short-shank head tipped with a minnow. His other trick, used for years: pinch the tail off a twister grub and tip the jig with a fathead minnow. Baker points out that a shaky head will also carry a swimbait or a tube when the tackle box runs short.

How to choose one, step by step

1. Name the fish and the depth. Read the weight off the first table, and start on the light side.
2. Measure the plastic. Read the hook off the second table; the point needs a clear gap above the bait.
3. Decide how the bait should ride. Standing on the bottom or held under the boat: a 90° eye. Swimming on the retrieve: a swimbait head near 130°.
4. Name the bottom. Rock: football. Mud and sand: round or stand-up. Current: a wobble head.
5. Match the wire to the tackle. Light wire on spinning gear and light line; heavy wire on a baitcaster.
6. Check the law where you fish. In New Hampshire’s fresh water and Maine’s inland waters, a lead head of 1 oz or less is out.
7. Weigh a few. A gram scale sorts a box of 1/16 oz crappie jigs into the real 1.5 g and 2.1 g heads.

Mistakes to avoid

• Too heavy. The lightest head that keeps feel of the bottom is the rule; go up only for depth, wind or current.
• A hook that does not fit the plastic. Hold the head against the bait before you rig it.
• Trusting the label. Marked weights vary from jig to jig; weigh them.
• The wrong eye for the job. Ned and shaky heads use 90° to stand the bait up; a swimbait you reel wants the 130° head built to swim level.
• A dull point. Jig heads drag the bottom all day, so touch up the point or replace the head.

Every jig on the jigs hub starts with one of these heads; the fishing terms glossary defines the screw-lock keeper, the stand-up head and tungsten.

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