White perch fishing is all about fishing light. Light tackle, light line and light jigheads. However, whereas many anglers choose to fish with 1/16- and 1/8-ounce jigheads, Jay Stone bucks conventional wisdom and tie on ¼-ounce heads.
“It took me about a year of convincing before I would even try them,” Stone said. “I’m about as hardheaded as they get, so when a friend of mine started scrapping them on ¼-ounce jig heads, I didn’t want to hear it.”
Realizing they probably had ¼ ounces of total weight with the addition of split shots above their jigs to give their lines enough weight to hang vertically, Stone began experimenting with the heavier heads.
“We don’t catch a lot of fish when our baits are swinging in a pendulum,” Stone said. “Our bites come either with our baits hanging vertical under the rod tips or as soon as they stop and get vertical after coming off that pendulum action.”
The ¼-ounce jigheads might make for a bulkier bait, but Stone hasn’t had any problems with them spooking white perch. In fact, he now believes that having all his weight in the jighead is a lot better option than having a light jig with a split shot above it.
“The less stuff you have on your line the better,” Stone concluded. “Big baits catch big fish, so even though I’ve caught a lot of smaller white perch on ¼-ounce heads, I don’t mind eliminating them if it means catching nothing but slabs.”
