Feather Jig - Tube Style

[AtticaFish]

Here is the 2nd set of jigs i am making for a smallmouth bass swap.

They are #2 aberdeen hooks with 2 round (3/0 i think?) split shots crimped on the shank and shaped to a double taper. Would guess they are somewhere between 1/16 & 1/8 in wt.

Came up with these last year trying to make something that had a similar look to a plastic tube jig, but to use for fly fishing. Well my FR casting skills are lacking, only way i could get them out was the old chuck n' duck.... sometimes i forgot to duck! Ouch!!! So they went into my spinning gear tackle box and work just fine.

 

[jiggerjohn]

These are very similar to Hawnjigs' 1/16 oz "nail head" which is an elongated series of lead notches,originally designed to insert into various plastic dressings. I've discovered, tho, that some flash and a zonker strip, with the ties & notches encircled with lamb's wool is a spiffy looking critter than bass, in particular, simply can't resist!

 

[Hawnjigs]

Man, that is outside the box! Whatever is the material used for the head wrap?

 

[Jubs]

The design looks great and I can think of a way to make it a bit fly rod friendly.

Start by using lead wire for that size hook I would go with 0.030 or 0.035 and wrap the shank about 30%-35% the length and if you feel you needed more weight double layer it but I don't think that would be required. Then instead of chenille use some Hareline Quick Decent Dub (its made out of aluminum shavings) and actually from what I have heard you could even leave out the lead and just build up a large head with it and it will sink like a rock. If you just did the dub or lead wire and dub I still think you can save some weight.

With this method I think you could make a huge selection of sizes and with the larger stuff you might consider Ostrich for the feathers in the back to get some nice lively action from the soft hackle.

 

[Ron Don]

Very creative AF! Good stuff!

 

[AtticaFish]

Hawnjigs - head wrap is just twisted together med. chenille; white and olive. Don't have many of the newer colors of chenille, have been mixing my own sorta. Oh, and i am currently in training to learn how to stand on the box....

Jubs - Have some i made later for my FR just using a yarn base to build up the head and keep a similar shape. They work so-so, they sink but have to get water logged first. With much current in the river, they tend to drift over my holes instead of get down where i want. I do have some lead wire, not sure of the ga. and don't use it a whole lot for some reason, but i will give that a try, makes sense.

 

[AtticaFish]

Well, I meant to turn the hook eyes on these, but forgot to and didn't notice till i had half of them made for the swap.

I have not tried making these with the bend at the eye, but wanted to try it in hopes it would help to keep the hook point up. In the previous ones i have made, each one seem to run a little different i guess because the way they are weighted is not very consistent. Never bothered me much before because most time i rip these pretty fast through the water for the smallies and rarely let them settle on bottom to get snagged up. Plan to try it out the next time i make them though.

 

[Jubs]

I bought some of the Quick Decent dubbing and its funky! It feels like a S.O.S pad but a bit finer and it spins onto the thread nice and tight with no wax or dubbing loop. I think for this style of application where you just want it to build up an area and don't want to pick it out to make it look buggy it would work great but trying to pick it out is not easy to do! I tied up a scud fly and tried to pick it out for the legs and it didn't want to budge so I went back to hare's ear and lead wire lol.