Hair Jigs

[tjulianc]

j

[Gavin]

Here's a couple ideas for you. I dont pour my own but I buy bulk ballhead jigs and Arkie Standup Heads if I want a weed guard...Mitch F's Football head jigs are pretty sweet.

[Guest]

I take a wiring clamp and use it to hold the fiber weedguard against the line tie.

Basically the fiber guard ends up like an upside down horseshoe.

This allows you to wrap hair around the neck of the jig.

I've done this a hundred times at least.

I can post a photo later if you need it.

[Dutch]

Also read that bear hair and synthetic is good too, but haven't used them.

Also for those who use wire weed guards, do you just drill out the hole and epoxy in the wire? All the molds I'm seeing are either designed without weed guards or for fiber weed guards.

Thanks.

I haven't used bear hair but have used craft hair. It works well.

For that type of jig I use molds that are not made for weedguard. I make slots for wg in the mold and mold short piecies of wire into the heads. That way I can powder coat the heads and bake the paint on. Before tying I pull the wire out so it is not in the way while I tie the jigs. When they are all tied up, I glue in my weedguard which is usually a coated steel leader.

[Mitch f]

It's not a big deal using a Dremel tool. Actually my best mold was a weedless football head mold from Do-It. I filled in the weedless cavity part for the fiber weedguard with hi temp JB Weld and took a hacksaw and sawed a straight line clearance for the wire weedguard. I use 7 strand mason wire that's around .023" diameter. I cut 2 pieces off the main coil about 1.25" long and take a pair of needle nose and bend the last .25" with a 90 degree bend so they won't pull out when molded in. Always dip the exposed tips in powder paint as the last step to keep the wire from unraveling. I always adjust the wires apart on a 30 degree angle or so when rigging to fish the jig. This can help "guide" or flip the hook upright to hook the fish in the top lip more consistently. Bear hair, craft hair and buck tail all work equally well. Arctic fox and marabou have better action but don't last as long. Rabbit has great action and lasts a long time, especially if you leave the hide on. I usually just bend the wires out of the way when tying.

Ps. I love Gavin's jigs

[Dutch]

I have used a Dremel but I get better results by taping a piece of wire where I want the guard then I gently compress the mold in a vice until I get the desired effect. Sometimes it takes more than one size of wire.

[Guest]

Im running low on jigheads right now.

So any of ya'll want to sell a few?

Im looking for roundball with weed guard (eakins jig style) and football head with weedguard.

[Al Agnew]

I find the rabbit strips (zonker strips and cross cut rabbit strips) to be the easiest to tie, and they give you some interesting color options. Use the cross cut for the body, and use a zonker strip or a red squirrel strip for a tail (or double red squirrel strips for a double tail. I'm not sure what the bass in the winter take them for, but with the cross cut rabbit strips you can do a multi-color body and tail...use alternating dark brown and light olive and it is very close to the color pattern of the most common Ozark stream crayfish. I don't even bother to tie hair jigs anymore with any other material than the rabbit and squirrel strips. If I was tying hair jigs to use with floats, I'd probably do craft hair, since you can do some very good minnow imitations with the craft hair. But for hair jigs fished on the bottom as I do during the winter, I'm basically imitating bottom organisms, and various brown, olive, and black colors in the rabbit and squirrel strips are perfect for that. And by the way...I also am now making all my trout streamers with rabbit and squirrel strips the same as my hair jigs. I've had better luck with rabbit strip streamers than with Woolybuggers and other typical streamer patterns the last few years.

[Mitch f]

Another thing I like about rabbit is that you can wash the jig with soap and water after use to restore the jig back good as new. Regarding craft fur, Even though craft fur has many pluses, there are 2 things I don't like....first, any hair found in nature is tapered, I think the tapered action of real fur makes it better resemble a critter. The second thing is the the color selection is limited, when I try to find olive, it almost looks like the light green of my dads old Ford Galaxy 500.

[Guest]

I'm going to start tying my own hair jigs this fall for the cold weather season on the way. Just looking for advice on getting started. I've been buying bucktail jigs made locally in olive color. So I'm going to start there. Also read that bear hair and synthetic is good too, but haven't used them.

Also for those who use wire weed guards, do you just drill out the hole and epoxy in the wire? All the molds I'm seeing are either designed without weed guards or for fiber weed guards.

Thanks.

The thread is really important for bucktails, you need the strongest stuff they offer.

GSP 200

http://www.wapsifly.com/gsp.html

gsp 200.pdf