jiggerjohn
Active member
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2010
- Messages
- 547
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! :bigfish: :jig: :jig: