Year in and year out, a BassFan analysis of winning techniques has shown that flipping remains the dominant tour-level pattern. It wins tournaments. And within the flipping category, the jig is most often cited as the winning bait.

Surprising? Hardly. Jigs are the hammers of pro fishermen – simple but powerful tools that drive home wins.

Photo: All-Terrain Tackle Jim Moynagh's Football Head jig from All-Terrain comes in two versions, and what stands out most is the dimpled head (inset) and heavy-wire Mustad hook.

What's surprising, though, is the sheer number of jigs on the market, and that new companies continue to enter the already crowded category. Sometimes, jigs sell well regionally. Occasionally, a new jig is different enough that it takes off nationally.

But can any new jig really be much different than what's already out there? At the very core, no. But this is pro fishing, where every little detail matters. And according to some pros, one new company that's nailed more than a few of those details is All-Terrain Tackle.

The company offers a full suite of jigs, with more on the way. Two in particular – Jim Moynagh's Football Head and Scott Martin's Grassmaster – have a buzz around them. They reportedly back up the company's namesake ("All-Terrain" means they "go anywhere") and the jigs have quickly built a following both inside and outside the pro ranks.

Here's an analysis of both products, and a look at their genesis.

Football Fever

Used to be, when jigs were mentioned, the referenced bait was a classic flipping-style jig. Swim jigs rose in popularity a few years ago – notably, after Mike Iaconelli won the 2003 Bassmaster Classic. They're still a factor, but were somewhat pushed aside as the Chatterbait exploded.

In the West, football-head jigs have been going strong for more than a decade. There, they're often tipped with a hula-style grub to create a "spider jig." The football-heads moved east in the mid- to late-'90s – a movement helped in part by All-Terrain pro Jim Moynagh – but never really took off.

Photo: All-Terrain Tackle All-Terrain's jig suite includes (clockwise from top left): Scott Martin's Grassmaster jig; Rattling A.T. jig; new Finesse jig; Jim Moynagh's Football Head jig (available with or without weedguard); and Big Bass Swim jig.

What set Moynagh's jig apart then (and now) was its heavy-wire hook, which believe it or not is somewhat hard to find on football-heads (to learn why this is important, click here to read today's BassFan Pro Fishing Tip). Also, the head's heavily dimpled – another unique characteristic. That reportedly helps it catch bottom, and it better transmits vibrations from that bottom.

Still, footballs were seen as largely smallmouth baits for deep, clear, rocky water. Things began to change about 2 years ago, when the football quietly came to dominate venues like Kentucky Lake, Lake of the Ozarks and Table Rock. There was one problem though – the good football-heads rarely came with a weedguard, which meant suicide when fishing brush-laden points and creek bottoms for bucketmouths.

Moynagh went to work again, and released a version of his jig this year with a fiber weedguard. The development coincided with a relative explosion of the technique on all the tours. It was at this point that All-Terrain reached critical mass, and word quickly spread about the football-head everyone was throwing.

Moynagh noted: "We needed a version to fish in brush so we added the weedguard, and we changed the angle of the line-tie to help it come over limbs and through wood. Instead of a 90-degree eye, like on the regular Football, this one's more like 60 degrees."

It's no coincidence that, once he had the weedguard version in hand, his fishing improved – he finished 3rd in the FLW Tour points this year.

"When I first went out on tour, the football was something I sparingly used," he said. "In fact, in 2005, I hardly threw it at all. Coincidentally, that was my worst year on tour. This year, starting with the second event at Lake Murray, I threw it a bunch, and had my highest points finish ever.

"I was leading at Kentucky Lake after 2 days with it, and Steve Kennedy won with a football there. My point is, when I went back to it this year, all of a sudden, it was feeling like old times. And I've been using a football head around docks for years, which is something I got back to with the weedguard, and it's a technique that seems to fly under the radar."

All-Terrain pro Todd Faircloth caught key fish on Moynagh's jig to win the Table Rock Elite Series this year. He said: "Football jigs are definitely on the rise. It seems like it kicked off real hard last year, and this year it just exploded. And I've tried different football-heads, but Jim's design is the best I've seen.

"With the unique head, you're able to tell much more about the bottom contour. When you pick up another smooth-head football and drag it through, it seems like you're not even going through the same spot. It also grabs and kicks up off bottom more than a standard head."

And the new weedguard version made the difference for All-Terrain pro Jacob Powroznik, who used it deep at the Lake of the Ozarks FLW Series almost exclusively. He finished 30th and qualified for the 2007 Forrest Wood Cup.

All-Terrain pro Scott Martin is happy that All-Terrain's been able to leverage the explosion of football-heading, but at the same time he's a little bummed.

"To be honest, Jim's Football Head, as well as the (All-Terrain) A.T. jig and my Grassmaster jig have been a big part of my success the last couple of years," he said. "But I'm kind of upset the football has taken off like it has the last couple of years.

"It's been a secret weapon of mine. I learned the technique a few years ago at Beaver Lake, and was able to duplicate that success at Pickwick, Kentucky Lake – all the lakes with deep water. A few guys knew about it, but really didn't know the intricate details about fishing them deep."

Grass Attack

Another key jig in All-Terrain's line, as mentioned, is Martin's Grassmaster jig. He's a Florida pro, so he's a flipper. But he bucks conventional wisdom, and that's one reason he sought a company to help make the grass jig he wanted.

"A lot of guys in Florida want to flip a little crawdad, which does catch a lot of fish," he said. "But I'll tell you, in December and January, they bite a jig better. I don't know if it's the bulkiness, or that it's something different, but I catch a lot more fish on it."

He said he had trouble with grass jigs though. Even weedless jigs would still catch a lot of grass, which hurt his efficiency. Those problems, and a few others, led to his current design on the Grassmaster.

"A lot of guys say they have a weedless jig, but it's nothing more than a big, heavy jig," he noted. "We've taken it a step father, and designed one to go through grass more efficiently than any other on the market – bar none. It has a 6/0 extra-strong hook, and the angle of the weedguard is lower, so it goes through the grass better. The head is pointed, and the line-tie is completely surrounded and protected. It's very efficient."

And that efficiency is the whole reason he favors a jig in Florida, even when nearly everyone else is flipping crawdads or buzzing toads.

Photo: FLW Outdoors FLW Tour pro Scott Martin says he can get 200 more flips a day with his Grassmaster jig, which might mean the difference between 1st and 10th.

"But with the jig, it's one piece, so it doesn't get messed up. If I make 1,000 flips with my 1 1/2-ounce jig, that means I get 200 more flips than the other guy. The difference between 1st and 10th can easily be those 200 flips."

Faircloth said of the Grassmaster: "I grew up fishing Rayburn and flipping the grass, so I'm real particular about my grass jigs. That jig is as good as they get as far as coming through the grass. I like to trim the skirt up, put a compact trailer on there, and it really goes through stuff well."

Other Attacks

All-Terrain, of course, has other jigs in its lineup. There's the Rattling A.T. jig, which is the company's flipping bait, and its Big Bass Swim jig. Each one is built with the same attention to detail.

What BassFans don't know about is the company's newest jig – the Finesse jig – which will be available soon. That makes five tournament-quality jigs now in the All-Terrain lineup. BassFan asked the company whether it'll branch out into other bait categories, or stay its course with jigs.

All-Terrain owner Steve Hauge said he'll stay the course. "We're definitely happy with the jig niche and bass niche. I don't think we'll do much straying from that. We started out as a jig company, and we're pretty much known for that, so that's where we'll stay."

Notable
> All-Terrain jigs can be purchased at the company's site (www.AllTerrainTackle.com), and they're also available at many local tackle stores – typically those near major tournament fisheries. That's actually how Powroznik got turned on to them.
> Powroznik on discovering All-Terrain: "They came into the store near Buggs Island and I picked up an A.T., took it down there and started flipping bushes. I'd never found a jig that came through bushes and never got hung up, but that A.T. jig did. I never got hung. I called to order more, and we started talking from there."
> All-Terrain also makes mushroom-style shaky heads, insider tube jigheads, plus select plastics.

Which Jig Do I Use?
By Jim Moynagh

Leading and Not Following
by Team All-Terrain member John Graham

How do you catch an 8 fish limit in Minnesota that weighs 38.91 pounds?
By the All-Terrain Tackle Staff

Sight Fishing 101
By Team All-Terrain Members Brad Cline and Jeff Bosshardt

Secrets for Fishing the Rock Jig
by Jim Moynagh