I was rootin' around  my old tackle and actually located an old "Tionesta JIG" that was "custom tied" for me by PA bait store owner, Mrs. Grace Avery .  The Averys, Harold & Grace, ran a little, musty tackle shop (1950s-1960s) along the upper Allegheny river in Forest county ( a magical place in my youth, the small village of Tionesta,PA, as it was untamed & rustic  and completely surrounded by mountains and thick forest everywhere; the Allegheny river still flowed wild then ,before massive Kinzua dam had been constructed). Anyway, Harold sold the jigs in the small, quaint beside-the-river shop, labelled as "the Home of Tionesta jigs" along with a LOT of bait, including BIG suckers & such for muskies (the place smelled it too -to me it was DELIGHTFUL!!). Directed upstairs to their living quarters (yeah, same smell!!) to meet the "jig tier", I met Gracie who delightfully tied jigs all day long in between preparing sandwiches for Harold(!!) and, as I visited to special order BLACK bucktails , was astounded to witness fresh tied/painted drying bucks hanging on dozens of lines criss crossed along the ceiling - living room, kitchen, probably bedroom & bathroom,EVERYWHERE !  The simple, basic jig construction ; Heavy ( the standard being 5/8 oz up to 1 oz ) painted (think they used red house paint!) jighead, lots of dots on it for contrast , cheap mono as tying thread, and VERY thick(beyond just FULL),long,  bucktail ( mine was special, but most were tied in either white or yellow bucktail only, and actually much thicker and longer than my black bucktails!!) . Must have been tied to last, tho, as mine is 50 years old and still in great shape! Probably most guys tossed them with heavier  ole fashion bait-casting reels & broomstick fiberglass rods of the era. But articles in PA fishing magazines of the day called these jigs "shaving brushes" due to their size & thickness & look similar to the old time lathering brush &soap mug shaving gear! Also the mag stories often related how the Upper Allegheny anglers would go out fishing in late winter as the river thawed & was high & fast, locate swollen back water pools, and casually took 80-100+ pounds of fish most everytime out on these huge bucktails  ! I've a hunch that much of this total tonnage was big carp & suckers that "may" not have been exactly lip hooked (!!!), but many muskies, pike, bass, and walleyes fell prey legitimately! I can well remember trolling big,deep Kinzua reservoir many years later and tossing out a Tionesta jig on a lark, just to put it on a boat rod holder & then ignore it, to cover more ground ,while my main hand held rod trolled my highly touted special muskie plug ; yep, hadn't gone far when the rod in the holder bowed over and one of my prettiest, thickest muskies ever came to boat with the T-jig clamped in his chompers! So,I'm wondering, perhaps in nostalgia , or to resurrect a proven,productive tool, if any individual in the Pennsylvania area still has any of these jigs ( 10,000s were sold in Northwest PA) for sale, or even one of the unique cardboard display cards they used? I have a hunch that these less than a dollar (then) rugged lures would be great for OBX cobia and red fish , not to mention still appealing to muskies, walleye, and pike!

Hey all - as we are all sitting on our hands waiting for the country to decide if we elected a lying moron or if we elected a lying jack a$$......... just wanted to remind everyone that once March roles around for 2021, unfortunately this site will be going lights out.  With zero activity on the forum, there is no reason to continue to pay the hosting fees.  Once the yearly subscription runs out , the site will go away.  Unless there is anyone out there that would like to take over payment and control of the site?  The annual fee is no more than $150/year and would happily transfer all the information over to anyone willing to keep it up.  Other wise.......  

Sooooooo......... if there are any private conversations or other important information you want to KEEP, i advise that you copy/paste it into some text documents and save it on your own device or computer.  I can help people with the process if needed, just let me know what you need.  I have back-ups saved of the entire database, but they will only be accessible from my computer once the site goes dark.  It was a fun run and glad to have met some really cools people over the years.  I have a few phone numbers and check in with guys across the country every now and then.  

While i'm posting, might as well ask....... Anyone out fishing?  Hopefully my fall walleye will be biting soon so i can stock up my freezer for the winter.  I have plenty of panfish stored away already which should easily get me through to ICE FISHING season.  Can't wait.  Made 2 trips North into Michigan last season and have a full years license up there so will darn sure head that way before it expires.  Probably be heading up the the Cadillac/Mitchell area again this year.  Had a blast last year and learned a lot.

Hope everyone is doing well! Feel free to drop a comment even if it isn't about fishing.  Take care all!!!!! -: Russ

Does anyone have one of the old Cap Kennedy pamphlets(or a photo copy) that he gave away with his Rock-a-roo jigs and "Killer rigs", that I could beg, borrow,or buy? Or other written history of his jig fishing (i've read Larry Myhre's articles)?

 I just received word that Roger aka RadTexan went to be with the Lord yesterday.

Rest In Peace Roger! Your work has inspired many, We’ll miss you buddy!

A short video casting lead head jigs

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/OBDxYgnu0ZA

Looking for new ways to adapt slow jig techneeks to my shallow home waters, I have done very well with improvised inhciku jigs for small mouthed flounder. Namely a 1oz Flutter jig with a hole in it, rigged with a bucktail flounder teaser from e-bay (=China) and a pair of #2 octopus. Tipped with a little salted lug worm and dead drifted from a boat, it produced the majority of photo-worthy flounder.





Drilling a crude hole through lead and wire does`nt exactly spell "efficiency" so when I knew what I wanted, I asked my neighour for an according "just add high temp silicone" positive mold-for-a-mold. It is hard to find 3D printing material that is heat resistant enough to withstand half a dozen of substantial lead castings. So far, we found this the ideal way to make inexpensive low scale but Hi Fi prototypes before we get into the expensive machining part which is several hundred € even among friends.   

 




I have not fielded them yet, this is to be continued. What I can say already is that the whole slow jig way of rigging assist hooks on a slow fall center balanced metal is highly productive. I once had a fishtank and noticed that fish are picking on a sick fellow even if it is their own size, especially if there is floppy stuff dangling out of it, even a string of poop. So rigging a metal body with a teaser or just bright dressed hooks on flexible cords makes a lot of sense. I caught a 30cm dab with a 12cm hering spine in its mouth. I am 100% certain it did not chase it down but nibbled on its carcass and finally swallowed the head. 

Great video on how to air brush using Sharpie pens and a can of aerosol;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG-rMPNiXSA

Be an easy way to add fluorescent colors using the hi liters... The alcohol based paint might lift into your clearcoat.
I've used pens on blades without any problems.

I haven't posted in awhile so I thought I would show some of my chatterbaits since some recent posts had them up. I modified my 3/8 Poison tail mold to take a flat eye hook specifically for this type of bait. Tails are a new material by Wapsi called Awesome Possum zonkers that I special order through one of the fly shops here. Been using it for a couple years now and love it. I mix it up a bit tying in silicone rubber strands, flash and rattles in the tail so these baits are extra noisy. Crosscut rabbit is my go to body material and blades are hand painted as well.                         

7 minutes of expoxy coating fun.

https://youtu.be/Kv8-v8y5bng

Howdy!

I came across this cheap knock-off from a pouring supply store that makes cheap knock offs from molds that some guys found desireable for Norway n stuff. The action is fantastic, a very unique lure! The mold however is nothing to work efficiently with. The perfect fit of do-it inserts for jigging and shad spoon indicates that it was copied from something that was tailored for the Do-It insert universe, allthough probably discontinued. It looks like the squid mojo from collin`s customs but is not the same. Would love to know more about that mold and if it is available.