For the past few years, I have thrown a lot—and I mean A LOT—of soft plastic swimbaits. In turn, these swimbaits have caught me a lot of fish and I have learned a lot of nuances in what makes these baits tick. But, in all that time I had not found the perfect option to fish these swimbaits through heavy brush and/or grass. I prefer the action and hookup ratio of a standard, open hook jig head. But, in brush you’re going to go through a lot of money worth of baits and heads. Also, grass and an open hook does doesn’t work. There are the options of big belly-weighted hooks, which seem suitable, but I’ve never been really satisfied with the action they offer and in order to fish deeper water, you have a lot of lead and a lot of hook to work around—ultimately hurting the number of bass you actually get in the boat.

I’ve recently spent some time playing with the Z-Man Texas Eye jig heads and I am FINALLY satisfied with something that can do what I’ve been wanting. With the EWG hook and free-swinging jig head, it gives me the action, if not a better action, that I get from my beloved open hook rigged swimbaits WHILE remaining extremely weedless and snag proof. It casts like a bullet compared to a belly weighted style hook and does not have near the material in the way. I had originally just wanted this as an option for probing gnarly brushpiles, but I have come to find that it swims through grass extremely well. Another key feature to me is the bait keeper on the hook itself. When tugging it through cover, it keeps your bait snug on the hook and free from any slipping like you will get a lot of times with other hook styles.

The Z-Man Texas Eye jigheads are offered in enough sizes to cover a large array of whatever you want to do. There is the standard Texas Eye available from 1/8 to 1/4 oz. with a 3/0 hook, the Texas Eye Finesse ranging from 1/10 to 1/8 oz and a 1/0 hook, and my personal favorite is the Texas Eye TeXL available in 3/8 and 1/2 oz with a 5/0 hook.

All in all, I’m happy that I took the time to give these a chance and learn when and how I can utilize them as another tool in my arsenal, and surely a tool that will become a staple in my boat.