How To Hook Shrimp On A Jig Head (EASIEST Way To Catch Fish)
- By: Luke Simonds
- on
Want to know the easiest way to catch a ton of fish?
Find a spot with structure, current, and bait, and throw a shrimp rigged on a jig head out there.
You’re almost guaranteed to catch fish!
Unless…
The shrimp doesn’t look natural.
Fish are smart and if the shrimp is spinning in the water the fish are going to know something is wrong and not eat it.
So how do you keep your shrimp from helicoptering?
It all comes down to how you rig it, and in this video, we’ve got Capt. Mark “Hollywood” Johnson showing us the best way to rig shrimp on a jig head.
And just to prove how well it works, he had me cast out the shrimp he rigged for me twice and I caught two snook in a row…
Check it out in the video below.
P.S. A big (and rather scary) Everglades crocodile even made a guest appearance that shocked us all! (I think Joe might’ve peed his pants.)
Hook Shrimp On A Jighead [VIDEO]
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Here’s how to rig shrimp on a jig head so they’re both hydrodynamic (they won’t unnaturally spin in the water) and aerodynamic (they’ll cast far):
Step 1: Pinch the tail off.
When you pinch the tail off you’re letting extra scent in the water, plus giving yourself a place to insert the hook.
Step 2: Thread the hook through where the tail was and out of the back.
Be sure to bring the hook out through the center of the shrimp so that it’ll stay straight when in the water.
Step 3: Cast it out and catch some fish!
When you’re retrieving shrimp on a jig head you can drag them along the bottom, bounce them on the bottom, or do a lift and drop like I was doing here.
All three methods work, so test them and see what is working for you that day.
Pro-tip: Use a boxing glove-style jig head.
Although I was using a trout eye jig head in this video (which I prefer for using artificial lures), I recommend a boxing glove style jig head, like the Mission Fishin jig head, if you’re fishing live shrimp.
This is because when it’s on the bottom, it’ll sit upright.
You can see that as Hollywood rigged the shrimp on the trout eye jig head, it just fell over to the side on his hand.
It’ll do that under the water, too, which doesn’t look natural.
But with a boxing glove-style jig head, it’ll sit upright, look more natural, and catch more fish.
You can get the boxing glove style Mission Fishin jig heads from our store here.
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Conclusion
Pinching the tail off and threading the hook through where the tail was and out of the shrimp’s back is the best way to rig shrimp on a jig head.
This way it’s hydrodynamic (so it doesn’t spin in the water), aerodynamic (so it casts far), and it clearly catches fish as shown by the two snook I caught here.
Have any questions about rigging shrimp on a jighead?
What’s your favorite way to hook shrimp on a jighead?
Let me know down in the comments.
You can get the Mission Fishin jig heads from our shop here.
And if you’re in the Florida Keys and want to book a trip with Capt. Hollywood and his crew, you can find them at FloridaKeysFunFishing.com.
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That was a great video as usual and the rigging live shrimp awesome Thank you
Have you ever used artificial crayfish rigged the same way as the shrimp
Most artificial crayfish/shrimp lures can be rigged like this… as long as it doesn’t helicopter around in the water, it should work out just fine.
Does this technique also work on frozen dead shrimp and if so, does spraying Dr. Juice on it help?
Thanks
Yes, this technique works with dead shrimp too as long as they are thawed out enough to rig. The main downside to using frozen/dead shrimp is that their meat is generally more mushy so the small fish can more easily pull it off of the hook before a bigger one can get to it.
As for adding Dr. Juice to a natural shrimp, I don’t think it’s needed because natural shrimp already have very good scent.
Off topic a little bit here but I was wondering if you guys ever use bucktails with these jig heads. Last time I was at my beach house at Galveston (on the bay side), I tried a bass lure with a white plastic bucktail and caught two nice flounder with it. I hear bucktails, preferably white are all time killers. I sure would like to see you guys try this and make a video of it and give us your take on that. Should be different and interesting. Thanks.
Yes. Bucktails are excellent lures by themselves. And tipping them with natural bait like shrimp can work well too.
And when you think you’ve seen it all! Especially the amount of times you’ve been fishing. That’s what I love about fishing! You never know what you’re gonna get! lol!
Very true!
Was that a crocadile or alligator?
Definitely a crocodile. I grew up on a lake in central FL and had a huge bass fishing addiction so I have seen alligators thousands of times… this was a croc which are known to inhabit the everglades.
You can use the Weedless Trout Eye Jig also.
Yes, that setup will work too.
That was too funny with you and that Croc. A few more seconds and it would have grabbed your Snook underneath the water before you even saw it. 😂😂😂
That croc sure was intimidating!
So simple, but I had never tried this technique. Worked great last week on mixed bag of St Marks River area trout, Ladyfish, some mangroves and even a few Spanish Mackerel. I found biting the tails off was better than “pinching”. Thanks Team SaltStrong!
Very glad to see that you enjoyed this video about rigging shrimp on jig heads.
Somebody should tell Hollywood that elephants do not eat peanuts.
What size jig head was used in the video.?
That was a 3/8th oz jig head.
That must have been very deep water. I like the Z-man trout eye jig head for soft plastics and now for live bait. I was not aware of that size nor seen it in the store.
My mistake… that was a 1/4 oz jig head. We were using 3/8th oz ones earlier that day, but switched shortly before this video was filmed.