A Great New Jig Idea

[Al Agnew]

I won't use fiber weedguards at all, and no matter exactly how they are constructed, double wire weedguards are best in my opinion. Of course, I'm coming at this mostly from a river fishing standpoint. For winter river fishing, where much of your time will be spent jigging rocky bottoms, I want a football head jig with double wire guards (which Mitch has been supplying me with). I tie mine with cross cut rabbit strip bodies for the most part, although I will also change the body profile a couple ways. One way is to tie some cross cut rabbit strip toward the back end, then finish with a couple winds of red squirrel strip toward the head. The squirrel strip hair sticks straight out and gives the jig a wider profile just behind the head than farther back. The other way is to tie some fairly short marabou toward the rear with the cross cut rabbit in front. The marabou covers up some of the plastic trailer.

I make my own trailers by dissecting one of the Cabelas Go-To Creature Baits (6 inch), or a Zoom Brush Hog. You can get five good trailers something like the old Zoom Skinny Chunk out of one of these baits.

I also tie some jigs with twin red squirrel strip tails. I caught a lot of fish on these in the past few years, including my personal best river largemouth, a 25 incher, but I seem to have a bit more confidence in the ones with the plastic trailers these days. Still, I carry the squirrel strip tailed ones and use them in the rare occasions when I fish in trout water for winter smallies.

[Mitch f]

Ron, I use the hair jigs in the trout areas were some good smallmouth reside and bait & plastic is a no, no....NFoW, Current Blue Ribbons, and Meramec most often. A good bass jig will produce a bonus trout occasionally;>)!

dtrs5 you have some killer looking jigs there!

Think Billy W. favored a black bear hair jig....1/8oz aspirin head from what I've been able to research.......Absolutely worthless IMO:>)!

I think those aspirin heads are made to cut the current and get down to deep water quicker. One easy way to make one is take a regular round jig head and hold it against a concrete floor and hit it with a hammer, flattens it out nicely. I think Billy fished mostly Dale Hollow and deep resevoirs like that. As far as the bear hair, it's got a good color but it's so darn expensive it's just not worth it.

As Al said, Football heads are good for rocks, round heads are good all around, and I use a "walleye head" from Do-it molds for all my swimming jigs. I always bend the hook a little bit ever so slightly. I like to take a pair of needle nose pliers and place then in the bend of the hook and barely squeeze...it actually increases the bite of the hook, making a 1/0 hook into a 2/0 size bite. I also bend the point slightly up, this increases the hook up percentage, it also makes it easier to get snagged, so less is more. Like Ron said, the light wire hooks can be freed with a steady pull and straighten out the hook so you don't loose the jig. There is a debate among fisherman whether a light wire hook or a heavy wire hook penetrates with less pressure. My opinion is, with both point sharpness amounts being equal, the heavy wire will penetrate better. However, being able to straighten out the hook when snagged is a big bonus. These new ultrapoint hooks seem to hold the point so well they can withstand several snags.

ps. for me this was long winded, but the Oscars always bore me to death

[Mitch f]

Mitch: I like your idea of bending the point up slightly. I also agree that the heavier hook will penetrate slightly better, but, as I said, it is a compromise. To restate an older point (pun intended), with a smaller and softer weed guard, you are going to set the hook more often into the soft tissue of the inner mouth, where a softer wire hook penetrates and hold much better than the hardest and sharpest hook will in the lip.

Agreed, Whats your opinion on a flat eye vs regular... and 60 degree vs 90 degree bend? the perfect hook i'm looking for doesn't exist, I called Gamakatsu and Owner and they said I would have to order a minimum 5K worth of hooks. That aint gonna happen. But i'm too darn picky

[grizwilson]

I won't use fiber weedguards at all, and no matter exactly how they are constructed, double wire weedguards are best in my opinion. Of course, I'm coming at this mostly from a river fishing standpoint. For winter river fishing, where much of your time will be spent jigging rocky bottoms, I want a football head jig with double wire guards (which Mitch has been supplying me with). I tie mine with cross cut rabbit strip bodies for the most part, although I will also change the body profile a couple ways. One way is to tie some cross cut rabbit strip toward the back end, then finish with a couple winds of red squirrel strip toward the head. The squirrel strip hair sticks straight out and gives the jig a wider profile just behind the head than farther back. The other way is to tie some fairly short marabou toward the rear with the cross cut rabbit in front. The marabou covers up some of the plastic trailer.

I make my own trailers by dissecting one of the Cabelas Go-To Creature Baits (6 inch), or a Zoom Brush Hog. You can get five good trailers something like the old Zoom Skinny Chunk out of one of these baits.

I also tie some jigs with twin red squirrel strip tails. I caught a lot of fish on these in the past few years, including my personal best river largemouth, a 25 incher, but I seem to have a bit more confidence in the ones with the plastic trailers these days. Still, I carry the squirrel strip tailed ones and use them in the rare occasions when I fish in trout water for winter smallies.

Al or Mitch where do I get these double wire weed guards? While I am not nearly as good of tyer as most of you guys I find the fish are not used to perfect food and they work, wish I was as good, just keep tying and practicing. Would like to tie some up if I can get the guards. Thanks

[Gavin]

You can get those Arkie Standup Heads at Wal-Mart..$2.50 for 5 if I think. Powder paint will adhear to the stock black paint if you want to change the color. I make my own aspirin heads out of regular ball head jigs by compressing the heads a smooth jawed vice.

[Mitch f]

Al or Mitch where do I get these double wire weed guards? While I am not nearly as good of tyer as most of you guys I find the fish are not used to perfect food and they work, wish I was as good, just keep tying and practicing. Would like to tie some up if I can get the guards. Thanks

I make my own, you have to modify a regular football head Do-It mold with a dremel tool to make enough room for the wire. The wire is from Mason, it's the same wire used to make musky leaders. You need 7 strand woven wire around .023" diameter. I bend the ends so they won't pull out. Also you need to heat the exposed ends of the wire with a torch then dip them in powder paint to keep them from unraveling.

[grizwilson]

Thanks Mitch, I have a mold that I use a with a plug for glue in guards, think I can dremmel a holder to split the wires. Looking for the bass with lips like those dowels.

g

[jeb]

Problem I see with the "perfect" jig is there is not any protection from a branch/cable going between the guards parallel to the hook shank.

I agree. I think you'd be losing a ton of these in snaggy areas. And at $5 a pop, that'd get painful fast. Might hook a few more fish, though. Although you have to wonder about his testing method. Only one jig hooked on the side of his test stand with all the jigs he pulled through it, except for his jigs, of course. I don't know about you guys, but my hook up percentage using standard jigs is WAY higher than that. It's actually unusual for me to not hook them.

[stinger160]

Ron, I'm trying to tie up a few of your jigs. Spinning bucktail and so forth, but the results don't look that great. Any hints on how to get better results?

[Gavin]

Bucktail wont work for Ron's jigs. Bucktail isnt hollow, so it wont flair or spin worth a darn..You need deer body, or deer belly ...a large hair stacker, and some GSP or Kevlar Thread..stuff a fly tyer would use to spin deer hair bass bugs.