The Nichol’s DB Finesse Jig packs a lot of punch into a pint-size package. Built on a smaller frame, Drew Benton’s signature series Finesse Jig boasts a stout hook, solid trailer keeper and effective weedguard. All of these attributes come together to make up a quality jig on the smaller end of the spectrum that can still handle any size fish that inhales it.
Let’s look at some of the finer details of the DB Finesse Jig.
When you move to a smaller jig, you’re typically looking at a light wire hook or maybe even a more cheaply built jig all together. A lot of smaller jigs are designed for light bank fishing and creek fishing, where the average bass isn’t all that big, and there’s not a lot of money on the line.
And then there are some high quality finesse jigs on the market as well, but most of those are ball-head jigs with spider cut skirts meant more for slow dragging out deep. These jigs typically have a thinner wire hook, which requires less energy to penetrate a fish’s mouth. This makes up for any stretch in the line on a long cast, so it’s the right selection for ball-head finesse jigs. But not what you need when fishing heavy cover shallow.
The DB Finesse Jig fills this gap in the market nicely—compact finesse jig that still has a super strong and stout hook. Short of sticking this jig in a stump with braided line and giving it all you’ve got, you’ll have a hard time bending this hook out.
There are a couple benefits of having a compact but strong jig. One, you can put this jig into a few places where you might have a harder time getting a bigger jig. But more importantly, when you flip this jig into a laydown, up next to a dock or into a thicker patch of matted grass or debris, the bass have a smaller offering to take a swipe at. This is particularly important in winter months, when bass are a little more lethargic and might hesitate to hit a bulkier jig.
With the recessed line tie and weight forward design of the head, this jig falls vertically well and comes through all sorts of cover better than some other jigs that feature a raised and round eye. You’ll notice when fishing a jig, it’s often not the hook that hangs up, but instead the eye or head of the jig that wedges into a tight spot in the cover.
With a more rounded nose and recessed eye, this jig isn’t prone to wedging into tight places. Instead, if you fish this jig slowly and check to make sure that what you think is a bite isn’t just an upcoming obstruction, this jig slips through and rolls over cover well. The fairly stiff weedguard also plays a large part in this jigs weedlessness.
Nichols incorporates a rather unique trailer keeper into their jigs, spinnerbaits, and buzzbaits. They mold a hole into the barbed keeper that allows you to stick a toothpick through the soft plastic once it’s rigged on the jig.
Simply push the tip of the toothpick through the plastic, through the hole in the keeper and then through the soft plastic on the other side of the keeper. Then you can snip off the excess of the toothpick and your trailer has little to no chance of coming off.
I’ve found through the use of this jig and several of their other products, that this feature isn’t even all that necessary most of the time. The barbed keeper alone is designed so well that trailers are rarely pulled off and they’ll actually lose an appendage or suffer other carnage from striking bass first.
If you use a super durable soft plastic, however, like Z-Man’s ElaZtech, this toothpick trick paired with the extreme durability of the ElaZtech will lock your trailer on until you finally have to remove the trailer yourself if you want to change it.
At $4.99 and available in 3/8- and 1/2- once options, the Nichol’s DB Finest Jig is a solid buy. Giving an angler the ability to fish a smaller jig in the heaviest of cover, this jig is perfectly suited for cold shallow water fishing when the bass are a little more reluctant to bite.
Available in 7 colors, there’s a selection for almost any need an angler might have. A compact, strong jig that rarely hangs up, the Nichols DB Finesse Jig is an easy product to recommend trying out for yourself.
