The Best Little Walleye Jigs You’ve Never Heard Of FISKAS ‘Gets Heavy’ with New XL Walleye Series Jigs
You can’t fully appreciate the need to sink your lure like a stone until you’ve got a big red sonar fish staring you in the face at 32 feet and you’re sitting there over a hole in the ice with a tiny jig at the end of your line. Ditto for vertically jigging a deep swift river for walleyes. Or when you’ve found fish hovering in heavy cover.
In these situations and a bunch of others, an unexpectedly heavy tungsten jighead is a nice trick to have in your tackle box. It’s the same reason bass anglers use tungsten weights to “punch” through thick mats of vegetation. And it’s exactly why anglers like Tony Boshold have been leaning on FISKAS Wolfram (tungsten) jigs for everything that swims for well over a decade — ice and open water alike.
FISKAS XL Walleye Series color array
“On tough bites and extremely pressured fish, a FISKAS Wolfram walleye jig has produced time and time again,” says Boshold, a Chicago based fishing guide and tournament angler with national and international wins to his credit.
“Crazy that these jigs still fly under the radar for most anglers; they’re so good for deep structure and for walleyes with small strike zones. And their compact, heavy nature helps telegraph bites and bottom composition better than any other jig material. Goes both ways with acoustics, too — tungsten bangs hard bottom and attracts fish; seen it happen with an underwater camera.”
Size reference of FISKAS XL Walleye Series jigs
The heaviest, most compact tungsten jigs available, FISKAS XL Walleye Series encompasses three small yet ultra-heavy sizes and eleven handpainted colors. Three vivid epoxy-painted patterns and a metallic gold with a glow bead configuration give anglers additional outside-the-box options. Each anvil-heavy, compact jig sports a classic teardrop profile and a sticky sharp premium long shank hook, allowing ample gap for adding a softbait or a live minnow, leech or nightcrawler.
For situations calling for a shorter shank hook, FISKAS also offers the 6, 7 and 9mm GiganJig, an equally heavy lure with a short offset hook, as opposed to a long shank hook.
“After launching 7mm and 9mm FISKAS GiganJigs in 2014, we received a bunch of requests from customers across the walleye belt asking for a long-shank walleye tungsten jig,” says Jamie Olson, proprietor of Your Bobbers Down, Inc. and exclusive distributor of the elite tungsten jig brand, FISKAS.
Compact, precise and anvil-heavy, FISKAS XL Walleye Series tungsten jigs hold the potential to revolutionize fishing in rivers and in deep water, all season long.
“The XL Walleye Series arose from the need for a compact jig that sinks fast in deep water and in heavy current,” notes Olson. “The 9mm size, for example, weighs just under 1/2-ounce, but is physically much smaller than a 3/8-ounce lead jig. So you start to understand the appeal of the XL Walleye Series — a jig that sinks fast yet fishes with finesse, ice or open water. It’s truly a unique walleye jig.”
For comparison to traditional larger, relatively lighter lead, a 6mm FISKAS XL Walleye Series tugsten jig weighs approximately 3/32-ounce, matched to a #8 long shank hook. Armed with a #6 sticky sharp hook, the 7mm size weighs about 1/6-ounce, while the 9mm (>3/8-ounce, 0.40oz) has a #4.
“Put a lead jig in your hand beside a similar size XL Walleye Series jig and one of them feels much heavier than the other,” Olson adds. “Which one would you rather fish? Most of the time, tungsten wins for walleyes—and for good reason.”
“Too many anglers still believe tungsten is for ice fishing only,” asserts Boshold. “That’s old school thinking. Yeah, a FISKAS Wolfram jig with a Little Atom Nuggie is still the gold standard for panfish — the money-winningest ice lure of all time. But once more anglers discover these heavy, compact walleye jigs, it could change the game—rivers, deep structure and anytime you need to really precise presentation.”
ABOUT YourBobbersDown.com
Acknowledged as the finest one-stop-shop for premium, cutting-edge ice products, YourBobbersDown.com continues to bolster its product line with elite items. Beyond FISKAS and Little-Atom lures, Olson has added popular J&S Plastics, ASSO technical fishing line, Fiskas Balances, and bi-metal tungsten jigging spoons. Select complementary products such as Jonttu palm rods, C9 Scent Formula, Cold Snap Products, Ice-Strong Titanium Spring Bobbers and Bug Luggage jig boxes put the good stuff within the reach of all anglers.
By: Cory Schmidt
