Squid Jig Sinking Angle: How to Check Balance in Water

Before you buy another squid jig, test the ones you already own. If one falls poorly for active eging, you may still be able to put it to work beneath a float.

The red-head jig’s head-high, tail-low posture in Adrift Fishing’s underwater comparison video prompted this lesson. Below, I explain what to watch in that clip, how to check your own jig, and when to give it a different job.

I’m using footage from my own KR74 test at Quailbank to walk through the fall, pause and gentle pull. You can make these observations beside you before making a long cast.

This lesson mainly concerns front-weighted, sinking shore egi. Floating droppers, bait-loaded jigs and tip-run jigs need to be assessed against their own intended rig and behaviour. Start with the model’s design, then test whether its movement is consistent with that design.

Perfect sinking vs Bad sinking: watch both videos

Start with my KR74 test, then watch Adrift Fishing’s complete original video from the beginning, including the introduction to both jigs and their brands. Perfect sinking labels the controlled nose-down presentation I want from my KR74; Bad sinking refers specifically to the red-head’s head-high, tail-low posture later in the Adrift video, judged against that nose-down falling goal. These are examples for learning to read posture. The recordings were made in different conditions, and “perfect” does not mean every jig must hold the same angle.

My KR74 view is cropped to follow the jig and plays at the original speed; use it to inspect posture, not to measure sinking speed from screen movement. The Adrift player shows the full original video without a crop or a selected time excerpt. For your own nose-down sinking jig, repeat the slack-line test before deciding it is unsuitable for active eging. If the poor action persists, the float-rig section below shows how a sound jig may still be put to use.

Open the full-size teaching diagram.

Teaching illustrations, not measured KR74 angles. The head carries the eye and line attachment; the tail carries the hook crowns. Read each state separately.

First, separate body angle, travel direction and sink rate

These describe different things:

What you are checking	What to observe
Body angle	The head-to-tail body axis relative to a horizontal reference
Travel direction	Where the jig moves through the water: down, sideways or towards you
Sink rate	How much depth it loses over time
Stability	Whether it holds or recovers its intended posture without persistent unwanted rolling or spinning

A jig can point nose-down while drifting sideways. It can remain almost horizontal while losing depth. Pulling the line can lift the nose without changing the lure’s underlying buoyancy.

For measuring fall time rather than body attitude, use the separate squid jig sinking-rate guide.

1. Free fall: what does a 45-degree sinking angle mean?

In the illustration, the head is lower than the tail, and the body axis slopes 45° below horizontal when read from tail to head. The reference is horizontal water level, not a rod tip, leader or sloping seabed.

Do not use 45° as a compulsory target. Some designs settle at a shallower pitch. Others use a steeper falling attitude. Shimano’s guidance explicitly distinguishes more horizontal slow-fall presentations from faster-falling options, illustrating why a single angle cannot define all good egi. Shimano’s egi rotation guide For a wider checklist of evidence to ask for, read how to test squid jig performance claims.

For a model designed to fall nose-down, watch for a controlled transition into that posture after release. An initial turn as the jig enters the water is less informative than what it does once it settles. Repeat the drop: does the same basic posture return, or does it repeatedly sink tail-first, roll onto its side or rotate continuously?

A side-on view is essential. If the head points towards the camera, the body is foreshortened and its apparent angle can be misleading.

Keep the camera level and the whole jig in view.

Watch the line while it sinks: free fall vs tension fall

The posture checks in this guide happen under water. On the pier, the only part you can actually see is the short stretch of line between your rod tip and the surface. This animated lesson, set at Rye Pier, shows how that line behaves as the jig sinks and what it tells you.

• Close the bail and leave a little curve. With that slack, the jig sinks at its own angle and speed (a free fall), and you see the line drawn into the water slowly and evenly.
• Once the curve is gone and the line is tight, it becomes a tension fall. The line holds up part of the jig’s weight, so it sinks slower and flatter. Because the line cannot get longer, the jig cannot drop straight down; it swings back towards you in an arc, like a pendulum.
• Count to ten either way: on tension the jig ends up shallower and closer to you. To reach the bottom, don’t keep the line tight.
• The most common sign of a squid on the jig is a little jump in the line. A sudden stop or sudden slack can also mean something has taken it. See it, and strike.
• When it’s windy, keep the rod tip low. The less line in the air, the easier it is to read.

2. Pause and “suspension”: watch depth as well as posture

After a gentle pull, stop moving the rod. Anglers use “hang” for several behaviours, so watch the jig against a fixed background mark.

A slow-sinking jig keeps losing depth, even while its body looks almost level. The middle illustration shows this posture. Give a conventional sinking egi slack and expect it to continue descending.

During a line-supported pause, tension and water movement help hold or redirect the jig. Release some line and watch what changes. If the nose drops back when you release it, the line was influencing its posture.

Neutral suspension means holding approximately the same depth in still water without supporting line tension. Watch over time to distinguish that from a slow descent or a brief pause after a pull.

3. Gentle pull: watch alignment and recovery

Move the jig slowly through the water at a repeatable pace. Watch from the side for pitch, then from behind for persistent roll or rotation. Do not confuse a deliberate dart after a twitch with uncontrolled spinning during a steady pull.

Stop pulling. Watch it settle.

The transition back into the fall is part of the test. Use the same towing speed and pull direction each time; a faster tow or a steep upward pull can change the angle.

Yamashita describes stability during the fall as a design objective and discusses how wind and swell can produce unintended movement. That is a reason to start your test in sheltered water before judging performance in surge. Yamashita’s guide to choosing egi

4. On the bottom: front down, tail hooks clear

For a conventional front-weighted egi, look at what touches the bottom. On a clean, level surface, the front weight can support a nose-down, tail-up posture with the hook crowns raised.

A fisheries symposium paper by Yamaria authors describes the nose-down posture of traditional egi and its role in keeping rear hook crowns away from the seabed after contact. Yoden and Mori, 2023

Body buoyancy, keel geometry, hook weight, line tension and the surface all affect the resting posture.

Watch it happen in the open water

The clip below is a RUI GS07 resting on a reef patch in shallow, clear water at Sorrento. Nothing is staged: the jig has been allowed to settle and the camera is held above it while the tide runs.

Filmed by Rui Tang at Sorrento, Victoria. Twenty seconds, real time, no cuts.

Watch the head end rather than the whole jig. The front weight stays put on the rock while the body pivots around it, so the jig swings through several different headings without the tail ever settling onto the surface. Over the twenty seconds it also creeps slowly across the rock as the tide pushes it.

That is what the posture described above looks like when current is added: the front contact does the anchoring, and the raised tail is free to move. It also shows why a single photograph is weak evidence. Any one frame here could be used to argue the jig sits nose-up, nose-down or level, depending on which moment you stop at — which is exactly why this guide asks you to judge recovery across repeated drops rather than one frame.

The jig in the clip is a RUI GS07 Red Gold Stripe Iridescent, listed in sizes 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5. The orange body is doing a second job here: it stays readable against pale sand and grey reef, which is what makes the movement possible to follow at all from the surface.

Start with a submerged flat tray or a visible patch of clean sand.

Keep the line from propping the nose up. Weed, uneven rock or soft mud can support or tip the jig, obscuring its balance on level ground. Raised hooks can still catch weed or rock when the jig moves; avoid dragging it through snaggy habitat to test it.

A simple water test you can repeat

1. Identify the design. Note the model, size, sink category and whether it requires a particular rig. An undamaged example of the same model makes a better reference than a different jig.
2. Check the hardware. Clear weed and leader wraps from the crowns, check that the clip is seated correctly, and inspect for a loose weight or visible damage. Remove optional add-on weights for a baseline only if they are not part of the intended setup.
3. Choose sheltered clear seawater or a large clear container with enough room for the jig to settle without touching the walls or floor. Freshwater changes the buoyancy conditions, so use the same water for comparisons.
4. Lower the submerged jig gently, feed enough line to avoid supporting it and observe the settled fall. Make at least three similar releases to check how consistently it settles.
5. Pull and pause. Repeat a small, gentle pull. Compare light line tension with released line, recording angle and depth separately.
6. Let the jig touch a clean, level surface. Record front contact, tail-hook clearance and any repeatable sideways collapse, then lift it away.

Keep a short side-on video with a fixed background reference. Write down the line setup and conditions alongside it. A tracking close-up is useful for body attitude, but camera movement makes it unsuitable for measuring sinking speed.

Adrift Fishing video: a poor-posture example for active eging

Watch the original Adrift Fishing video, “Flashboost vs Redhead”, particularly about 1:06–1:09. Follow the red head and the white body towards the tail: the head sits high while the tail hangs lower. I use this as a visual example of the posture to investigate in a shore egi intended to fall nose-down.

For active eging, I want a jig that responds to a lift or dart and then recovers a controlled fall. If my own nose-down sinking jig repeatedly falls tail-first or fails to recover after a pull, once fouling and line support are ruled out, I would take it out of my active-eging rotation. That is poor action for the presentation I am trying to fish.

The footage shows the posture, but does not isolate line tension, current or the jig’s condition. Use it to recognise the problem, then run the repeatable test above on your own jig. It also does not demonstrate how the red-head rests on a clean bottom; check bottom posture separately.

Keep watching around 1:12–1:16: a squid approaches and takes the red-head. That context matters. A jig can attract a squid while showing a posture I would reject for my active-eging setup. It may still have another useful job in the tackle box.

Head high, tail low: work through these checks

Left: the tail falls below the head during descent. Right: the jig lies on its flank with the hooks down, instead of resting on its front sinker with the hooks raised. Check these two postures separately.

Open the full-size poor-posture diagram.

If a nose-down sinking model repeatedly descends tail-first on released line, work through these checks:

Observation	First thing to rule out	Useful next step
Tail drops during the fall	Wrapped leader, fouled hooks, supporting line tension or an unsuitable reference model	Repeat with the same clean rig in calm water
Jig keeps rolling or spinning	Fouling, attachment problems, damage or changing flow	Compare steady pulls and releases with an undamaged same-model jig
Tail hooks rest on the bottom	Uneven surface, debris, altered hardware or model-specific design	Repeat on a clean level surface without supporting tension
Jig “hangs” only when the line is tight	Line support	Release line and watch depth as well as pitch

If the unusual behaviour persists after these checks, keep the footage and ask the maker or retailer what posture that model is designed to have. A water test can identify a repeatable problem worth investigating; one frame cannot distinguish a design issue from damage or rigging. The Kmart squid jig review discusses why consistency matters when evaluating budget options; use the same test conditions rather than price as the verdict.

Poor active-eging action? Try the jig under a float before binning it

If the jig is sound but still fails your active-eging checks, do not rush to throw it away. Try hanging it beneath a float. Reserve a jig with a reliable fall and recovery for the rod you work actively; give the awkward one a chance as a suspended presentation.

A float supports the rig through the line and limits how far it can sink. The jig can stay above weed or bottom while water movement gives it some motion, without relying on a repeated dart-and-free-fall retrieve. Suspending squid jigs above structure is also described in Tackle Tactics’ squid-fishing guide.

Here is how I would test that second use:

1. Check that it is still usable. The body, line eye, weight and hook crowns must be secure, with serviceable hook points. Deal with loose or damaged parts before fishing it again.
2. Match the float to the complete rig. It must support the jig and any other terminal tackle while remaining afloat. Check it in the water beside you before casting.
3. Set the depth above the structure. Adjust leader length or the float stop so the tail hooks clear the weed and seabed. Recheck that clearance as depth, tide or drift changes.
4. Watch the actual presentation. Let it hang or drift gently and check for leader wraps, persistent spinning and towing into weed. Adjust and retest if those problems appear; a float does not automatically make every jig usable.

The float gives the jig a different job; it does not fix its underlying balance. This is a practical reuse option for a jig you already own. The Adrift Fishing excerpt shows a squid taking the red-head, but does not test this float setup, so test your own rig before relying on it.

For the differences in control, depth and bite detection, see float fishing versus active eging.

My KR74 water test at Quailbank

I tested my KR74 at Quailbank and filmed the sequence used in the RUI water-check video. In my footage, the body moves between a nose-down attitude and a much flatter posture as I work the jig. Follow the head and tail hooks through the fall, pause and pull to see how its angle changes.

The edit also includes the separate red-head excerpt from Adrift Fishing’s original video, discussed above. My KR74 footage was filmed at Quailbank in different conditions, so the two recordings illustrate posture; they are not a controlled performance ranking. The red-head excerpt retains the squid approaching and taking that jig.

For the next step, read the sinking-rate guide and rod, reel and line setup guide. If you need to compare labelled standard and slow-sinking options, see RUI’s squid jig range.