Trout Swing Tail Jig

[Bucho]

The freshwater version of the slip jig has proven extremely successfull, both financially and fishing-wise. After being desplayed in a nation wide published article, I could barely keep up with production. One returning customer I spoke to on the phone said that due to the cormorant pest in his region they would stock only big brown trout (3-4kg!!) and he caught 7 or 8 of them recently in short order. 

Run-through-design is not for everybody though. I keep getting requests from customers who accidentily buy them and then ask me where the heck they should attach the hook. Bearing that and the often compulsory pike wire in mind, I started playing with my swing tail mold. The smallest cavity in tin makes a sweet trout lure in combination with a wide, closed eye VMC Spinner hook #6.

Using open eye hooks combined with an open eye wire form has proven unreliable: The tolerances add up and the fish levers out the hook. The fish down below is a chub, awfull tablefare but demanding sport fish very similar to trout.

 

[Hawnjigs]

What is the advantage(s) of a swing vs. fixed hook on a jig?

What kind of a fancy reel is that? Handle, rotor, bail, are eye catchingly different. Does it work any better than the usual?

 

[Bucho]

The guy with the big browns told me that he used a stopper with the slip jigs to position the hook way back into the very last frays of the tail. These things are well over 2,5" long, short strikes are to be expected. I feel the hook needs to be in the tail section, whether it dangles or not. Also, at a retail price of more than 5$,  I apreciate a hard point that allows me to exchange hooks should they be damaged or dull.

The picture is from a friend who tested them for me, I have no information on the gear.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Hook further back and interchangeability definitely sounds advantageous. Before I started making my own jig heads, I'd use a sliding sinker butted up to a line tied single hook, and thought that a fixed hook in a head afforded a more positive hookset than a swinger.

Altho I usually snag and lose a jig to breakoffs, it would be useful to swap a bent out hook. But, EZ enuf for me to melt the head to salvage the metal and pour another.