Trimming The Weed Guard

[andrewlamberson]

What length do you leave your weed guards?

I normally trim them so that the ends extend to about the middle of the hook...or to the curve at the longest.

Do you think the weed guard length affects your hook ups? It just seems to me that a long guard provides too much resistance for a good hook set and possible becomes a leverage point to push the hook out.

I have to admit...I make a lot of swim jigs without weed guards (or cut them off the store bought swim jigs).

For bottom bouncing jigs I leave the weed guards..but trimmed to the mid point.

[Muskygary]

Im like you, I like to cut them so they just cover the point. Also I like to spread them in a fan shape. the areas I fish I am only dealing with weeds. Here lately I am going more, to the screw-loc jigs using a crawfish plastic.

[Jerry V]

I tend to trim them about 1/8" or 3/16" past the hook point while the guard is bent back toward the hook. You can always trim them more "on the fly" but trust me it's a hell of a game trying to add more after the fact.

[Denny Welch]

I like to trim the weed guards on the jigs I keep for myself.  I'll trim it to about 1/4 inch past the tip.of the hook and then make a diagonal cut at about a 45 degree angle starting about 1/4 inch below the hook point and ending at the tip of the weed guard.  Ordinarily, I don't have much of a hook set problem using this method.

[DobynsTriton]

I trim mine to a little past the hook point as im fishing shell beds when i throw a jigs.it makes it much easier to bust em in the mouth with it especially when fishing deep. as for swim jigs i leave a little more above the hook than i do with a football & just fan the strands out

[gone2long]

I'm just getting started with this but did some internet research several articles seam to lean with trimming them just past the hook barb,  any thoughts, sounds like what some of you guys are doing  just a different way of explaining it.

[Lamar]

  I use to trim my jigs just past the point and spread them out a little bit to guard the point. But then I fished with a guy that all he even did was spread them out a bit. And I found out it didn't make any difference. Plus he wasn't getting hung up as much as I was. So I fish them full length now. The way most guys set the hook on a jig fish that little weed guard isn't going to stop much.

[kipbass]

Looking at Barlows, and they sell 3 different sizes of weed guards, .018 thru .024. What does this mean? Does one have more strands than the other, or stiffer? Thanks.

[ctom]

The .018 will be "softer", easier to flex, than the .024 guards.

I trim any weedless jigs used for bass to about 1/16 past the hook point. I have not seen any hook-up issues, but then I am no bass connesuer either.

[kipbass]

Thanks CTom.

[t-billy]

 I leave mine pretty long, and fan them out some. The tips of my weedguards come almost to the bend in the hook when bent down. They come through cover great and don't cause any problems with the hookset. My wife hooks up just fine with them trimmed this way too, and her hookset is FAR softer than mine.---Tim.

[earthworm77]

I trim them to about 1/4" past the hook

[smalljaw]

I trim them so when I bend the weedguard back it is even with the barb. I like to use the softer weedguards for finesse jigs, medium ones go on swim jigs and the heavy ones go on flipping jigs.