LAKE ERIE – Late July in Ohio is my cue to head north to the Buckeye State’s best bass lake, Lake Erie. Pick your color white, green, or brown, our Great Lake has all these bass in abundance. However, this is not a Lake Erie promo ad. It is a product review mixed with a history lesson as to how this angling tool was born.
Bass fishing does not want for big boy toys designed to make fishing easier and pad the pockets of manufacturers… as in the helicopter lure, the Dance’s eel, and enough electronics to make NASA jealous. When all the guys in shirts with more product logos than a Bass Pro Shops catalog finish their heartfelt endorsements, catching bass boils down to one small piece of equipment that may be the most important item of all. That would be the hook, like the one on the D-K Jighead by Venom Lures.
The D-K jighead by Venom is a tool that I have been using since its creator was making them in his basement after pulling an eight hour shift as a surgical nurse in a Lancaster, Ohio hospital. Dustin Karns combined an idea for a weedless jighead to be used on Ned rig style baits with an Eagle Claw product that had been on the market for over a decade.
Ned rigs were just beginning to capture bass anglers’ attention when Dustin wanted to be able to throw that bait style into bass cover that was making short work of the small mushroom head jigs with the exposed hook on the typical Ned rig TRD worm. His original jigheads worked great with being snagless and successfully hooking bass, but the less than high quality hook was prone to bending as well as rusting.
Long story edited, Karns took his jighead to the owner of Venom Lures who quickly made a deal to put the Venom label on the item he named the D-K jighead. Longer story edited further, Dustin Karns purchased Venom Lures and now utilizes high quality hooks exclusively made for Venom by Mustad. (Wright & McGill had the same offer but declined to re-issue this hook style because they had discontinued making them and had destroyed the molds).
The unique bend in the hook just under the mushroom jighead is the key to this hook system that can work with everything from tubes to Senko style plastics. My preferred baits for the D-K jighead are the Z-Man Big TRD and Venom’s own Salty Sling in the four inch size. I used this jighead recently at Lake Erie on a bass fishing trip that started in West Harbor. The D-K jighead was producing so many largemouth bass that I did not need to venture beyond the harbor’s rocky breakwalls. Beyond my bass fishing success with this jighead is the science that makes it work so well. Pay attention, class, today’s science professor, Dustin Karns, is approaching the podium .
“The hook is a 3/0 to 4/0 with the longer shaft and it comes in four size weights,” says Karns. Those weights are 1/16, 1/8, 3/16, and ¼ ounce. “I prefer the 1/8 ounce for most of my fishing, but I’ll use the heavier heads to maintain contact with the bottom on windy days,” added Karns.
While the Mustad hook in today’s D-Ks is heavier than the original Wright & McGill model, it is still light enough for baits designed to float upright to do so. Pay close attention to this next part of the lesson! There will be a test.
“For keeper bass in the 14-17 inch range, I will boat flip those fish because the D-K will hold up. For bigger bass, I always use a net to land them.” Now that’s a problem any bass fishing addict wants to have.
The hook up success rate is extremely high with the D-K jighead, and there’s a science lesson behind that factor as well according to Professor Karns.
“The distance from the hook point to the line tie increases the chances for a high rate for successful hook-ups,” states the jighead’s creator. Now for the only bad news in this review. The D-K jighead is currently on back order because, “we sell these things like crazy in the summertime.”
When you can find these jigheads, I highly recommend you try them, especially if you like removing soft plastic lures from the jaws of bass hellbent on making a meal of your favorite soft bait.
West Harbor Butt Ugly
Now we know what Butt Ugly looks like in West Harbor.
The Marina Mink
The little guy (a mink?) followed me around a marina.
Venom Lures is my go-to
The Venom Lures D-K jighead has been my go-to for years.
Venom Lures D-K rig
The Venom Lures D-K jighead has been my go-to for years.
Mama Duck swim lessons
Mama duck giving swim lessons at West Harbor