The jig market is saturated with small companies that proclaim they have made the ultimate fish-catching jig. But in most cases those claims are wildly exaggerated, not least because of a little thing called quality control. Pour each jig in your garage, and they all might turn out different.

But a few little companies get bigger because their product does the talking, and a quiet little Missouri company, Jewel Bait Co., has amassed a large and growing regional following by doing just that.

"We're very concerned with quality and precision in each of our products," says company owner Gayle Julian. "We spend the extra money on aircraft-grade billet aluminum molds (over $600 per mold) so we can get the exact duplicates of our jigs each and every time.

"We also maintain a precision placement of the hook during the mold process so the integrity of each jig remains constant, and we also use only the best lead. There are cheaper ways to do what we do, but we feel that our customers are looking for a quality product each time they buy a Jewel product, so we work very hard at making sure they get what they pay for."

He adds: "We've seen our business expand as a result of anglers utilizing our products while here in Missouri. Pros, regional anglers and even people here on vacation found success with our products, and then took them home and had the same success there. That allowed our business to spread significantly. We've seen many orders from pros – not necessarily those that we sponsor or have relationships with – time and time again. That told us we were doing it right and the need to make our name more widely known we had to expand our footprint."

Eakins Jigs

Jewel Bait Co. makes over 25 different lines of products and has been in business over 15 years, but the two new Eakins Jigs – the Eakins Jig and the Eakins Flip'n Jig – are the ones Julian is most excited about right now. Designed by perennial local and regional tournament winners Jim and Troy Eakins, these jigs allow the angler to fish deeper water in wind, and the Flip'n Jig allows the use of heavier line around heavy cover.

Both jigs feature a custom-designed Mustad Ultra-Point hook, and have a chip-resistant powder coating and painted red eyes. The short strands of premium silicone skirt near the heads give the bait a more natural appearance, and since they're available in nine colors they can be fished in all water-color applications.

Most importantly, the tests: The regular Eakins Jig's balanced action creates a great fall rate that truthfully is hard to beat in tests we performed with comparable products; and when fishing the Eakins Flip'n Jig we noticed a drastic decrease in hang-ups when fishing in the heaviest of cover.

To view or order these jigs or Jewel's other products, click here to go to www.jewelbait.com.

Notable

> Julian says: "With the water quality continuing to improve in our lakes and rivers, we see the next major push moving towards more finesse fishing. We're prepared with our current lines of finesse products, but we also have a few tricks up our sleeve that will come out in the upcoming months."