Improved Sculpin

[smalljaw]

It has been awhile since I messed with spinning deer hair, I was making my hairy back sculpin and I discovered that it was a fish catching machine and I kept it hidden since then but over time I've been tweaking it and this picture is what I came up with. It is a 1/8oz weedless ball jig with a 1/0 Aberdeen style hook, the head on this one is brown and the body is natural buck tail. The hairy back part of the jig is deer hair from the belly, the way I tweaked this jig is the length of the back I made a little longer and I used to spin the hair so the entire collar had the trimmed deer hair around it but it was hard to finish tying as the hair was in the way and there wasn't anyway to really add any head cement so I decided not to do the whole collar and the fish didn't care so it works for me. I will be the first to admit it looks funny and weird and even ugly would be accurate but it works, it changes the way it falls and because the deer hair is soft, when it hits bottom the back compresses and allows the jig to sit up pretty good, that along with the gliding type fall I believe are the properties than make this a fish catcher. So, give me you criticism, I can take it.

 

[Bucho]

I find this really interesting since I am working on a sculpin pattern myself these days. My first thought was "why doesn`t he use rabbit?" since it is easier to work with and much softer. Then again, you say that it has a gliding fall with a change of direction. I can imagine that that really makes a difference. One of the very, very few hairbaits that has persistet in the flood of plastics over here is a sculpin imitation that is threaded on the line but apart from that seems to have similar characteristics. Its made from deerhar, too:

http://www.fischerforum.ch/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=9800

Edit: The longer I study the silhouette and shape of these things and compare it with a real sculpin, the more I am impressed of your jig. It does`nt look like much at first but I notice you`ve put a lot of thought in it. You throw that at browns? wonder if they would mind the weedguard.

 

[AtticaFish]

I like it, sure not much to critique as i believe it would work well.

..........my only second thoughts would be about the weed guard. Sometimes i like them other times i cuss them, but never totally sure. I'm conflicted on their use.

 

[Hawnjigs]

No conflict here, I dislike weed guards and never use em. Of course, that might change if I move to Texas or inland Cali.

If I may, a jig acting like prey might be more important than looking like a sight replica. From what i've seen, if a sculpin or goby darts up from its usual bottom lie, it indeeds glides back down. To slow the fall even beyond the tie material resistance, I would prefer a wider flatter bottom head like a Cabela's Wobble or Erie, among others, with the added advantage of lying upright without flopping sideways.

 

[hookup]

I'd be tossing them w/o the weedguard.

And you're right, they work. Something so simple being so effective.

Hawn - I make allot of jigs with weedguards, but in mid-atlantic rivers they are move like rock & ledge guards so you dont loose your jigs every cast. This time of the year, I don't use a weedguard because I'm throwing such light weight that I rarely get snaged and I look at smalljaw's bucktail jig as something I'd be throwing in the dead of the winter.

 

[smalljaw]

Thanks for kind words and the though provoking debate, I've bounced this jig around in a few different versions and this is the best one. For those who don't like the weed guard, I agree and Hookup actually fishes the river I use these in and he is also correct in that the weed guard is there to keep it from going under rocks as it is an extremely rocky river. The weed guard looks big but it isn't, the color is just enhanced as I tried to edit the picture in a way that you could tell the difference in material, my photography is bad. It is actually 6 individual fibers that are soft and they do help but I do make them without, if the fish are behind islands in slack deep water then I'll go with no weed guard but if they are using isolated boulders as a current break and feeding in the current seams then the weed guard is a must because the bait is worked slow and the current will push it under a rock, it does happen even with the guard but no where near what it would be without.

 

[StumpHunter]

That's one that will work around here. Nice work smalljaw.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Thanks for reminding me that the guard is only 6 strands. Are you splitting the FG-12 in half, SJ?

With your explanation, I can understand the necessity of hook guarding, obviously learned by trial and error. Are you using the weedless round head design because other Do-it weedless molds use too large hooks and weedguards? How would the smaller hook single wire guard Wacky design work in your rivers?

 

[smalljaw]

Thanks for reminding me that the guard is only 6 strands. Are you splitting the FG-12 in half, SJ?

With your explanation, I can understand the necessity of hook guarding, obviously learned by trial and error. Are you using the weedless round head design because other Do-it weedless molds use too large hooks and weedguards? How would the smaller hook single wire guard Wacky design work in your rivers?

Hawn, yes, I'm using the weedless ball jig, I have used heavy wire 1/0 like the Mustad 32786 in a 1/8oz football head but it seems like it is too much with using 6lb line, so I use that jig when I'm going with 8lb. or 10lb when the water is in the mid 40's. When it gets cold the Aberdeen style hook with light line seems to work really well and as for the wire weed guard, yes those work but are a pain to tie with. You are also correct in that I'm splitting an FG-12, I use the FG-9 when I'm going with a size #2 but they are too short for the 1/0 so I split the FG-12 and it has worked great, about the same performance as I would get the with wire weedguard with the ability to glue it in after I tie.

 

[Pup]

Great-looking tie SJ.

 

[LedHed]

Very cool jig - excellent tye