1st Recipe: Smallie Tail

[FuzzyGrub]

OK, as some of you know, I am new to tying jigs or tying in general. I have tied a few bucktail jigs and muskie trebles prior to this recipe. Please provide constructive feedback. Thx.

While most here will be able to disect how this jig was made, this was written to help other newbies, and to provide feedback on the individual steps.

This is the final product:


This was done with Green Pumpkin and Orange, but you can sub other colors to suit. My purple bucktail is not here yet, but will be my next ones to tie.

Materials Needed:
Base Color: Green Pumpkin / Olive
Hi-light Color: Orange

- 1/4 oz Football Jig, 3/0 Flat Eye Hook (Mustad 32796BLN) Mold: FBB-4H-AFM, Jig Head Powder coated in base color
- Bucktail: Base Color
- Bucktail: Hilight Color
- Thread: Base Color 210D flat waxed thread
- Crystal Flash: Hi-light Color
- Medium Round Rubber: Base Color
- Medium Round Rubber: Hi-light Color
- Wire


OK, lets start



Put a base layer of thread between the bait keeper barb and collar:


Tie in a small tuft of hi-light color bucktail on one side:


Tie in a small tuft of hi-light color bucktail on the other side:


Tie in a small tuft of base color bucktail on the bottom:


Tie in a small tuft of base color bucktail on the top:


Tie in a small tuft of base color bucktail on the side:


Tie in a small tuft of base color bucktail on the other side:


Perform final wraps and lay a base layer of thread between collar and head:


Tie in crystal flash with a crisscross pattern:


Add round rubber strips (2.5-3") in both colors, loosly wrap with wire, position rubber:


Cinch wire and cut legs free:




And a few samples:

 

[Fatman]

Fuzzy

Looking forward to the pictures, for photo's some like flicker but I use photobucket and have it set to automatically size for email and forums - and if I want to have them printed I dump to a CD or flash drive and take to Wally World and print em.

 

[LedHed]

Way cool tye!

 

[CrappieHappy]

nice jig...

 

[StumpHunter]

Those look good and different, nice work

 

[redman]

Nicely Done,Good tie. Really like the tutorial no small mouth down here but would use that one back home to catch them Bronzebacks and they do put up a fight.

Redman

 

[Fatman]

Fuzzy

Real nice ties - do you find any problem with your line tangling in the rubber legs when fishing it????

 

[Jig Man]

Great tutorial... and jig!

 

[FuzzyGrub]

Thanks for the positive comments.

Pics are hosted on my website so I don't have to worry about them vanishing or links changing.

I've used similiar type rubber on jigheads with soft plastic grubs and never had a line tangle problem. Not sure about the crystal flash. Thought it would look like crayfish antenna. I left it long, and can cut it back or completly off.

 

[AtticaFish]

Wow - excellent tutorial for just getting started!!! Will tie me a few of those with the legs up top, looks similar to some finess style plastic baits i have seen.

...provide feedback on the individual steps...

I will give you what i would change, but bear in mind you will figure out your own way of doing things as you tie more.

1st off, i would file down the lead barb, makes things a little easier from the get go. If the hook gap allows with the xtra material i plan to add..... i prefer to leave the complete lead collar down the hook shank like you did. The collar gives a nice base to work with but the lump of the barb can get in the way and cause you to use alot more thread than you need.

Only other thing i might change is that you can add on your Bucktail a little differently. Your orange color could be tied in as one clump.... make 2 or 3 slightly loose thread wraps around the B.Tail just to hold it to the collar. Once it is there you can spread it around the shank by pushing it with your finger. Takes some practice to figure out how far you can slide it before it gets screwed up. If it does get out of wack you can un-wrap the thread, line up the tail fibers again and start over.

Your top color of B.Tail might need to be aded on in 2 clumps. I would tie in a top and a bottom section and spread them out around half of the shank as i went. Hope that makes sense....

As i said earlier - nothing wrong with the ones you made - SMB will eat those AS THEY ARE! Bucktail Spider Grubs.

 

[Radtexan]

Great tie Fuzzy,and thanks for the tutorial...That one will get bit !

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

Nice,I love the football jigs.I used to cut the collars off mine but now I just flatten the barb with a needlenose pliers.On the bunny jigs I tie with crosscut rabbit it wraps really nice with the collars on and I don't use as much thread. The bucktail & rubber combo should be a smallie & walleye killer.

 

[FuzzyGrub]

Thanks for the constructive feedback.

While I should do a better job with spreading the base color, the hi-light color was done that way to create a "V" look from the top. ie like a crayfish claws. I even did one version where each of the two tuffs had a skirt collar on them. It made it too wide of a seperation, and removed them.

 

[Pup]

Good-looking jigs.