Carnada Leaf Jigs by FishLab Tackle | Deep Drop Slow Pitch Jigs
In this weeks article I will be taking a deep dive, so to speak, with the FishLab Carnada Leaf Jigs.
A couple of years back FishLab Tackle hit the waters with their popular Carnada Slow Pitch Jigs, with a wide body and erratic fall. The new Carnada Leaf Jigs are an extension to that family and are more of the east coast style slow pitch jigs that they are accustomed to. The original Carnada Slow Pitch Jigs were to target the west coast erratic fall tuna fishery that has really boomed over the past half-decade or so. These new jigs are a slimmer body, and are still rigged for big fish, but won’t have as an erratic, wide kick to them as their older siblings.
In this article I will go through the jigs component by component and walk you through the good and the bad.
“The popularity of slow pitch fishing just keeps growing and growing,” states Mike Bennett, Product Development Manager. “All up and down the east coast and even out west, Slow Pitch fishing is catching on. We wanted to create a bait that gives you more opportunity to get bit.”
Here are the full specs on the Carnada Leaf Jig that I will be reviewing.
Outside Looking In
As with all of my articles, I like to take a look at the packaging of the product as that is the first thing you notice when it is on a shelf or hanging on a rack.
In this case, the Carnada Leaf Jigs are displayed in a clear PVC sleeve with paper surround for writing and specs.
As you can see above in the somewhat blurry photo, is that the jig is fully exposed and not covered by any of the packaging. This is nice in that you can see exactly what you are getting. Sometimes you get the packaging where a key component is blocked, and in this case, you don’t. The header card is a nice sturdy paper material that goes right over the pvc sleeve. This should prevent the baits from tearing and falling off of racks.
The back of the packaging is pretty simple as well. It lists a few key specs, website, barcode etc. Nothing too crazy. It does offer a link to the FishLab YouTube page where it says you can find rigging videos and tips. Another interesting aspect is that the Leaf Jigs are very popular in the Miami and surrounding areas Slow Pitch market. That said, the packaging also lists all specs in Spanish to target that market. Smart!
Dropping In Head First – Carnada Leaf Jigs
As I get deep into the components of the Carnada Leaf Jigs, I will start at the head and work my way down to the bottom where the hook is attached.
Starting at the end that I’ll call the head, it features a nice and sturdy line tie. No split ring, but a direct tie to the jig. I grabbed this eyelet with my pliers and gave it a side to side pull, and it did feel sturdy.
In the image above you now get your first look at the actual Eye of the bait. From what I can tell, these baits have an applied eye to the bait. It seems indented with a holographic eye attached. Nothing too protruding as it seems pretty flush with the bait.
Next up we’ll slide down the bait a bit and get a full look at the body of the Carnada Leaf Jigs.
The Body
As with all of my baits, I like to check for texture. The Carnada Leaf Jigs do have just a bit of detectable texture to them. In the image above, you can kind of see that as it almost looks like an orange peel type of finish. I always like a little bit of texture as it gives the bait just a little bit more flash. It also makes the water not glide smoothly over the bait giving it more disturbance as it travels through the water column.
With that textured pattern you can kind of get a look at the glow stripes on this Blue/Pink or Katy Perry, depending on where you are in the world. The glow on these is really bright. Here is a shot from the FishLab page of the glow on the Blue/Pink jig.
Here is a full look at the bait from tip to tip.
In this shot you can see that the body of the bait has a slimmer profile than a standard, wide-bodied slow pitch jig. That said, this bait will not have wide, erratic kicks like its counterpart, but will have a bit less erratic kicks, still catching edges and darting outward. But with the slimmer profile it will also get down through the water column faster. This is pretty standard for “Leaf” style jig.
The Back End of the Carnada Leaf Jigs
As we make our way down to the tail end of the Carnada Leaf Jigs, we can see that these things are well built with sturdy components.
As you can see above, the Carnada Leaf Jigs feature the same, heavy duty line tie ring at the back end as the front. The big difference here is that the back end features a heavy duty split ring that attaches to the most important component…the hook.
Before we get to the hook, you may notice above that the hook and harness is attached to a heavy duty welded ring. This is very nice as you don’t have to worry about the line attached to the hook sliding into a split ring and ultimately coming undone during a fight.
Getting Hooked
Another noticeable difference between the Carnada Leaf Jigs and the regular Carnada Slow Pitch Jigs is the hooks themselves. Well, at least the fact that there is only one hook on the Leaf Jig and there are two on the slow pitch jigs.
This is also pretty standard for an east coast slow pitch style jig. Especially in the slimmer bodied Leaf style jigs. In the case of the Carnada Leaf Jigs, you can see above that FishLab spares no expense in the actual rigging. They definitely use a very heavy duty hook that is VERY sharp. Like all baits, it is always a good idea to hit your hooks with a sharpener before fishing them anyway, but these are very sharp right out of the package.
The hook is shrink tubed onto very heavy line, and like all slow pitch jigs, the hook is attached to the bottom end of the bait.
In mentioning that these hooks are sharp, they do come with a small, clear hook cover out of the package. Just be sure to take that off before you start fishing these jigs. Getting a solid hookset gets a little tough if these are left on.
Conclusion
Overall, these are a very nice bait with great components. I have fished the FishLab Carnada Slow Pitch Jigs over the last season and they have worked well for the bluefin tuna on the west coast. With the opening of Rockfish Season out here, I’m sure these will be great as well. But don’t only keep these for bottom dwellers, I will certainly fish these for tuna and yellowtail as well. With that slim body, I will be pulling these from the bottom as a yo-yo jig.
To find out more information on the FishLab Carnada Leaf Jigs such as sizes and colors available, head over to their website at FishLabTackle.com
Thank you for stopping by Fishing Tackle Insider.
See you on the water!
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