High-soaring jig head

[Bucho]

Hi everybody,

I´m totally new to the matter and would like to introduce some baltic sea fly patterns that I am acquainted with to the world of jiggin`. My question is - I am having thoughts about a small shrimp tie that casts well, but soars relatively high in the water, allowing a slow retrieve -or even higher weight for windy days at the sea. When given some slack, it should ideally dive slowly and balanced.

I`ve already learned to like banana heads for fry- and wooly bugger patterns and wonder if there`s something better. Been thinking of flattening a small footbal head, that would make a nice shrimp tail, but don´t know how that woud plane.

Any Ideas? Same goes for a frog pattern, that thing should cast well but allow long, not too fast leaps over the ground.

 

[Fatman]

You might try a darter head on the shrimp pattern, another that might be good with it is a tube head jig as you could tie right over it and the lead would be wrapped inside. I'd think a ball head should be good to start on the frog pattern and move forward from there.

 

[AtticaFish]

If you want one that rides up in the water easily, you want something with a flat bottom. Not sure of any commercially available jig head shapes that are that shape. A member here (Hawnjigs) has a custom made mold for these:



By your description of what you are looking for, this should work. The flat bottom shape and hook eye coming out the front lets them lift off the bottom quickly.


The banana head does have somewhat of a flat bottom so you are on the right track. Some other suggestions of Do-It style jigs.......

The Sparkie jig is similar in design to the banana head

Here is another, Style "S" Bass Jig. Have never actually used this style to know how well it works though.

The Swim Jig. They wobble side to side when you reel them and lift off the bottom quickly, but do not have a lot of room to tie material to them.

One other option is to add a wide (colorado) shaped spinner to your jig somehow. The wide shaped spinner blades push a lot of water and let you reel them in very slow.

 

[Bucho]

Thanks Atticafish,

at least I now know what I have to be looking for. The first one looks good to me as it seems to have quite some lifting effect but still leaves enough space to tie an appealing pattern onto the hook. Not sure though if I want to go through the trouble, don´t even have 45° hooks at hand. Of course I can fix them, same as a silicone mold.

Fatman, thanks, too, that tube-jig-tying-over-the-lead idea got me thinking. I´ve seen guys tying shrimps on offset hooks, so I´ll try some lead-dipping or simply lead-wire-winding with those.

 

[Fatman]

The tube tie is one from one of the guys on one of my fly tying boards - I had never thought about it till then. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

 

[Hawnjigs]

AtticaFish suggestions were good, but I think he forgot the Cabela's Wobble Jig, possibly because of its rarely publicised obscurity.
The mold been out of production for years and commanding prices of $100+ on eBay, but I just read that Do-it now has it available again.

I don't have much use for it, because the lowered tie point of my favorite short leg 2x hooks would increase the potential of line rub on the scooped up nose. Otherwise, its shallow running slow fall wobbling performance is superior to any other production head design for these design functions. Another performance advantage is that the hook point is unwaveringly upright in motion or sitting on the bottom.

The stock upward canted wide lip of the head creates hydrodynamic lift when retrieved, but an enterprising jigger in Utah has reversed the hook eye position top to bottom on the head for totally different but nonetheless useful performance function.

View attachment 3

 

[Fatman]

Hawn - here's another one I kick myself for, used to have it and sold it off. Caught alot of walleye and bass on erie and ontario with it and the blade bait (heddon sonar copy) which I finally got hold of again. Never heard of changing the eye on it!!

 

[Hawnjigs]

Well, if you sold it on eBay Fatman, maybe I was the buyer? Word is, unverified, that you can contact Do-it for a new one.

Yup, pretty cool on the reversed hook, eh? Sucka would dig deep and probably shimmy like a crank.

 

[Fatman]

Sorry this was before ebay!!!LOL Sold it to a local tackle store which was really cool because he had ALL the Do-It molds and for a $20 deposite you could rent them for a week at a time or longer if no one else was needing it. Made it easier to decide if you wanted to buy the mold cause you actually got to try it. I still remember my Uncle ordering them for $15-$18 new. Oh to have those prices now!!!!!!!!

 

[Bucho]

Oh to have those prices now!!!!!!!!

tell me about it! Just ordered 2 Do-its that sum up to over 50€ each, plus import duties...

just checked, they actually have those jigs on ebay, inland order. Just the jigs, not the mold, but those will do to fix myself a silicone-mold

Thanks!!!

 

[Fatman]

Thanks I'll have to check it out

 

[Bucho]

So I´ve got a few of those heads....

Tied some simple, commonly used Magnus-style seatrout patterns to them and took them to the test. Only the large boolie has a nice wobble, so I wondered how it would do in a steady troll and put it on the 2.nd rod, in a holder. It was grabbed once, but as I couldn´t let it drop to trigger a full take I have no idea if I missed out on a massive trout or just a garfish that would attack anything with some flash on it.
The smaller ones(1/16) cast and move nicely, quite high in the water, but still drop fast in compare to weighted streamer lures. Yet not high/slow enough to serve as a shrimp imitation, I´ll skip that thought. They habe no wobble, though. I wonder if that is caused by too much material or too thick powder paint, or both. My wobble flies don´t like too much hair on them either. More, skinnier test objects recuiered.

The big hooks are a problem, too, will have to get a myself a mold. I´ll have to order from Do-it these days anyhow, so I`ll ask if they are available.

 

[Fatman]

Nicely tied!!!!!!!! Does the wobble of that head affect the propellor blade at all???

 

[Bucho]

Thanks!
The boolie worked just fine, both wobble- and prop- wise. Its not that much of an angel, just a nicely hurried swing, like a baitfish trying to keep up with its school.
It propells on the drop, too, even better than the banana which seems to have a tendency of letting the slack line get in the way.

 

[Fatman]

Thanks for the info!!

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

I'd like to get that wobble mold myself. Had some heads awhile back that I bought off ebay and don't know what happened to them. Nice ties Bucho.

 

[Fatman]

I think it was Stump who ordered some and made a mold. Might order some to try before buying another one!!

 

[Bucho]

Do-it says:
"The Cabela's Wobble Jig is not currently listed at the site but Cabela's has given us permission to sell it as they have discontinued it's sale. You can order one by calling customer service directly 319-984-6055"

Jiust ordered one, its 49 $

 

[eyecrosser]

I too was going to suggest the wobble head jigs. I have used that style head before fishing the flats on the west coast of Florida with great success for Redfish , Seatrout, Flounder and even an occassional Pompano. They should give you the desired effect of rising high and a slow erratic fall on the drop. Let us all know how you like them.

 

[Bucho]

execrosser,

that sounds like a similar kind of fishing for a different kind of seatrout. I find that very interesting. Is there any chance you still have some ties I could get some inspiration from? Or other sources of info about patterns you know of that work with this head?
As much as I`d like to continue tying proven local patterns to this new head, I found that the amount of material being used in them is strongly impeding its action. The only one that worked was the skinny "whatever"-tie with just the tail and the dubbing. That might be attractive to fish, but not to anglers...
I promise to make a lot of use of them and report!