The Perfect Jig Recipe

[Hawnjigs]

Redman, does the pill head fall faster than your custom?

 

[redman]

Plateboater sorry didn't see your post as thought that mine would be the last this page. I don't have a mold for my pill head what I do is pour a 1/16 oz. ball head a put it in a press that I have to make the pill head. Fatman ( Doug ) has a thread some where how you can use a pair of pliers to make them. It has a picture and is easy to understand. I pour a couple of dozen heads press and paint them. I can then tie them at my leisure. I try to keep 48 unpainted around at all time for those just in case moments.

Redman

 

[redman]

Keith yes it falls faster than the custom head. There are thousands of trees to fish and some of them hold fish and some don't. You have to fish every one you can or think that may hold fish. The secret is to fish the shady side of the tree. This time of year when the crappie move into the trees you only have to fish about 3 feet down so drop is no big deal. Some days I never lose site of my house some days I have to fish half way to Shreveport to catch a limit of crappie.

There is three colors heads that I fish Galaxy Black, Neon Pink, and Silver Fleck. The thing that I think makes all the difference is the big Hand painted eyes. White with a True Blue pupil.

Redman

 

[plateboater]

Thanks Redman

 

[redear]

redman, thanks for the insight!! hard to beat a flat sided head for painting eyes.

 

[Fatman]

PB -

Basically find a pair of your pliers that has large size flat area by the handles as you have to put your jig eye up for half and eye down for the other half to make your pill head

Eye up squeeze

Eye down squeeze

Pillhead finished

One thing you have to make sure not to do is over squeeze the head or you'll crack the lead.

 

[plateboater]

Fatman working on the fly.....Thanks. Do you know what % of lead you are using. Wondering if cracking could be affected.

 

[LedHed]

soft lead shouldn't crack....

 

[redman]

Led Hed is right I can vary the thickness of the pill head with my press. I have done very thin ones about 1.25 mm. thick and they didn't crack I use pure lead. The way I usually press them is about 2 mm thick or about the thickness of a nickel. This gives a nice large surface in which to paint a nice large eye.

Redman

 

[Hawnjigs]

FM, you must have a hard head to crack under pressure...

 

[bombora]

Pretty varied fishing makes it a scratch-head question! Fish from one foot or less, to 300 feet or more, with jigs in salt, and upper reaches of small rivers in fresh, learning about trout.
And there's a lot of species in each salty habitat too! And fish ashore and afloat. Fish sizes all over the shop too!
Maybe for salty flats and shallow estuary, a 1/8th, short shank wide gape No2 hook in heavy wire/light forged hook with 60 degree bend in thick minnow/chub style head. White head, thread, and Arctic fox tail, with pearl/black pupil domed epoxy eyes. Just a little flash.
For outer Harbour and inshore, um, a quarter ounce ultra minnow head, forged 2/0 wide gap short shank 90 degree eyed hook. All white like the flats/estuary jig. Bit more flash. Or, and this has worked in cold and tropical water alike: chartreuse glow head, oversize eyes, red thread, white bucktail, with a mix of silver and gold flash. Really can't decide.
Close smallish pelagic water and deeper jigging: One ounce bullet head, 4/0 wide gape short shank forged hook, 90 degree bend. Colour scheme like the inshore minnow, either all white or chartreuse glow/red thread/white bucktail. Stick on large eyes placed on the thread so I can pretend the jig looks like a squid. Quite a bit of flash.
For the trout in shallow water, a 1/32nd round head with sides filed down to fit smallest bug eyes, on a no6 medium bronze wire 90 degree bend Aberdeen hook. Black head, a body of peacock hurl, black rabbit tail with a strand or two of bronze flash, maybe. Then again I only fish one river and still learning, doesn't matter what jig on the line when I cast for half an hour at an underwater rock.

 

[Fatman]

Wife always says I've been a bit cracked - Yes I have to watch how I do mine as Im using up my wheel weight and I'm using a 2/1 mix (tire/pure).

 

[redman]

FWIW When I make my pill heads I will press them off set so when they are jigged they have a off set wobble. Acts like a wounded minnow. They don't need to be to off set much. If you want you can bend the hook at the head but I do it at the pressing. Think that this will help some of you put a few more fish in the Ice Chest.

Redman

 

[plateboater]

Keep going with tricks of the trade Redman!!

 

[Fatman]

Thanks Redman

 

[redman]

PB sadly most of the tricks that I have come a crossed have been by some of the many mistakes that I have made. The big secret is to know when there is some merit to a mistake that you have made. Heck sometimes I make the same mistake more than twice. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Some times those mistakes will pay off. May be there is something to my current insanity.

Redman

 

[Hawnjigs]

I'm not insane, everyone else is !

Hmm, lotsa white for salty Oz jigs. JigMan would feel right at home.

Since we're moving into colors, I agree with La Bomba's trout preference for black head & tie, except that would be my choose one multi-species choice for (shoreline) fresh and salt water.

 

[redman]

Keith you are spot on except I would go with a white belly. A old,old pattern named meat in the pot. Two contrasting colors. Black and white. Have tied up some with the white satin and black kiptail they look great.

Redman

 

[plateboater]

Who has the pic of this perfect jig?

 

[Fatman]

Redman - is that with a black or white jig head??? Got the wool and white satin that might be a good one to start with.