Painted or Unpainted jig heads

I’m just wondering what most of you use when jig fishing. Do you like a jig head that is painted to match the color of your plastic bait? Do you think it makes that much difference painted versus unpainted. I have done quite well using unpainted jigs in inland rivers wading dams. I think the plactic offers enough color.

Any thoughts?

For some reason I have better luck with jig heads that are not the same color as the body–I like unpainted too—but usually use painted.

–Whitey

In my oppion I think having painted jigs help and ussualy I ussually I like to make my jig a different color than my bait to keep as much visibility to my bait as I can. I have seen the day where I have used the same plastic as my partner and he has kicked my butt and the only difference is the jig color I will say that I have found spooky fish in clear water perfuring a neutrel or black color. Also river fish are not as fussy as lake fish and you can get away with alot more when it comes to jigging. It will be interesting to get other oppions on this post GOOD POST

If I use a Painted jig head it is for the most part when I casting wing dams other wise when I vertical jig on the river it is a plain lead head.When fishing tournaments on lakes then I will use differant colors and most of the time it is a blended color,does it make a differance? at times I think it does but other people you talk to say different.Hope to see more comments on this thread.

Have every color just checked my rods in the basement and three have on plain lead heads. I fish plain at dams alot and colors away from dams but dont know why. Guess it was the way I was taught most of my learning curve came with time and a good set of bino’s watching other people pulling in fish…………..lol

For my approach, I use plain heads exclusively. I am picthing these jigs very shallow (less than 10 feet) about 85% of the time and the fish tend to be very opportunistic feeders when they are that shallow. For me, color has made no difference in my experience for this application. However, in a verticl jig bite, I opt for jig color. Not sure why, but maybe my thoughts are that the fish have more time to look at it and make a more educational guess on whether to hit the jig or not?
Those BFT precision unpainted jigs are everything I need in a jig and more!

For cold-water fishing I use unpainted jig heads. The water clarity is the best in the winter months and I believe the fish can see your jig all that much better. Once the water warms up with the spring runoff and becomes murky I switch to painted jig heads.

Eyehunter

Unpainted, the life expectancy of a jig head is so short I don’t think it’s worth the time to paint them. Besides, a 1/4″ at the head of a 4″ ringworm isn’t what they are drawn too.

at times i dont think a painted head is any better than unpainted but a thing that i think helps at certain times is having a eye on the jig head i think that is pretty important to my observations but i do paint all my jigheads but they are all painted the same color two tone black and silver,all lot of the walleyes i have caught usually have a sheephead shad or some times a mooneye in there gut, these fish all have large eyes so it could help putting an eye on your jig.

The only color of jig head that i’ve seen really excel has been orange. when fish are aggressive, this can provoke them even further i’ve experienced. I agree that in cold water, which is most of the time we all really target eyes, unpainted heads can really perform b/c there is no interference with the meat/bulk of the bait. Anything th makes them cautious when they are somewhat lethargic can turn them off immediately. I try to use color according to light and water clarity to a degree, but i think paying attention to the mood is just as important. greens and blues will work just as well as plain lead heads when fish are finicky. i think b/c they don’t differentiate the g, b, p part of the spectrum as well (not totally sure about this). when this is the case, natural colors and live presentations work better for me. Example: in feb two years ago on a warm sunny day, a friend of mine and i were wading in very clear water in a favorite spring/fall spot (med. interior river). we started with our orange, red, yellow type heads with twisters and minnows and had one very light nibble in about a half hour of fishing. I switched to an unpainted head/minnow b/c i broke off and that’s all i had… caught a ~15er. My buddy switched to a hook and splitshot and caught a nice ~20ish eye. i switched to the same rig and we caught 19 nice eyes in about an hour. we stayed on those fish for two more days with 1/16 oz unpainted jigs and shot rigs and that was literally all they would eat. other guys tried everything in the same area and didn’t do nearly as well. Let them tell you what they want and keep tuning in on them. Sorry to drag on but this is an interesting thread. walter