September 29, 2020
By Ned Kehde
Keitech’s 1/8-ounce Tungsten Guard Spin Jig is a touch heavier than we normally employ in the flatland reservoirs that we fish in northeastern Kansas. From Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, we ply shallow-water lairs from one to about 12 feet of water. But an 1/8-ouncer will play a role for our Midwest finesse colleagues who ply deeper lairs that grace hill-land and highland reservoirs.
The Guard Spin Jig has a teardrop-shaped head. Like the heads of the Tungsten Super Round Jig Head and Tungsten Mono Spin Jig, its head is made from a pure tungsten powder, and three percent of it contains a mixture of a polymer adhesive. The folks of Keitech note that it is 30-percent smaller and harder that an 1/8-ounce jig that is made with lead.
The teardrop-shaped head is five-sixteenths of an inch long and a quarter of an inch wide at its widest spot. It is fitted on a number two Katsuichi jig hook.
The eye of the hook is slightly more than one-eighth of an inch above the top of the head. It is three-sixteenths of an inch from the front of the head and about one-eighth of an inch from the back of the head.
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About one-sixteenth of an inch from the eye of the hook, there is a tiny font or porthole that contains five strands of black and sturdy pieces of monofilament that are about seven-eighths of an inch long. These five strands are hand-glued into the fount.
The shank of the hook and jig’s collar extends from the center of the back of the head. The collar is one-quarter of an inch long and one-sixteenth of an inch thick or wide, and at the end of it, there is a cone-shaped bait keeper that is one-sixteenth of an inch long and slightly more than one-sixteenth of an inch wide at its widest spot.
The distance from the apex of the hook’s bend to the tip of the jig’s teardrop-shaped head is 1 1/8 inches.
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The gap of the hook, which is the distance between the point and the shank of the hook, is three-eighths of an inch.
A spider-cut skirt is affixed to the collar of the jig. According to our counting, this skirt consists of about 35 strands of SR40 silicone. These strands are hand tied to the collar of the jig.
The skirt has two segments. One of them is a short-flared skirt that surrounds the back of the jig’s teardrop-shaped head, and these strands of silicone are about nine-sixteenths of an inch long. The second one is 1 7/16 inches long, and these strands surround the shank, bend, and point of the hook. All of the strands readily and radically gyrate, undulate, and pulsate.
It is available in two hues: Dark Green Pumpkin and Green Pumpkin.
It costs $4.29.
Endnotes Here is a link to KietechUSA’s website: https://www.keitechusa.com/catalog/guard-spin-tungsten-jigs.html . Here is a link to our Midwest Finesse gear guide about Keitech’s Tungsten Super Round Jig: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/keitech-tungsten-super-round-jig-head/375587 . Here is the link to the Midwest Finesse column that explains how Midwest finesse anglers will present the Tungsten Guard Spin Jig to largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and spotted bass: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/six-midwest-finesse-retrieves/153946 .
