Winter Jigs

[RockGeo]

Since the first of the year, I have had more time to tie jigs and I wanted to share some of my ties with the JigCraft readers. My favorite ties are bucktail (or deer tail) jigs. I get my tails from friends and relatives and then wash them, debone them, dry, sort and dye the tails to my liking. I have over 30 tails currently waiting to be dyed (from the past two years) plus some I keep for the white hair. The blue-green-yellow jig below is to mimic a young bluegill. I should put bars on it. It is based on a color of spinnerbait called bluegill I saw at BassPro.

I have enjoyed seeing some wonderful jig creations on the JigCraft site and have worked to expand my tying skills and jig types. After seeing Jungle Jim's and others' "duck jigs" and some of the various Float N Fly "craft hair" jigs (especially Pup's from a few years back), I decided to give them a try, with the following results. I tried tying the "duck jigs" with no underlying hair or fur and using both "craft hair" and Australian opossum hair before tying in the flash. I have really enjoyed tying with "craft hair" and have made several trips to a local fabric store to scour the shelves for interesting "fur".

A friend who is an avid squirrel hunter has also give me several dozen squirrel tails that I am enjoying playing with, so I included a photo of a couple jigs I tied from one of the tails I dyed.

I want to thank all of you for sharing your designs, as I am not terribly creative in my thinking. It seems I'm always trying to match the hatch rather than thinking outside the box. Please keep posting your work, it helps inspire me and expand my horizons. Tutorials with tips and tricks on how you tie your jigs is very helpful. I'm looking forward to getting these jigs in the water.

 

[hookup]

Jigs look good!

Post some pix of the fish ur catching with them.

I've fished allot in January and mostly with jigs I either pour or tie and have been doing great.

 

[eddieb]

Since the first of the year, I have had more time to tie jigs and I wanted to share some of my ties with the JigCraft readers. My favorite ties are bucktail (or deer tail) jigs. I get my tails from friends and relatives and then wash them, debone them, dry, sort and dye the tails to my liking. I have over 30 tails currently waiting to be dyed (from the past two years) plus some I keep for the white hair. The blue-green-yellow jig below is to mimic a young bluegill. I should put bars on it. It is based on a color of spinnerbait called bluegill I saw at BassPro.

I have enjoyed seeing some wonderful jig creations on the JigCraft site and have worked to expand my tying skills and jig types. After seeing Jungle Jim's and others' "duck jigs" and some of the various Float N Fly "craft hair" jigs (especially Pup's from a few years back), I decided to give them a try, with the following results. I tried tying the "duck jigs" with no underlying hair or fur and using both "craft hair" and Australian opossum hair before tying in the flash. I have really enjoyed tying with "craft hair" and have made several trips to a local fabric store to scour the shelves for interesting "fur".

A friend who is an avid squirrel hunter has also give me several dozen squirrel tails that I am enjoying playing with, so I included a photo of a couple jigs I tied from one of the tails I dyed.

I want to thank all of you for sharing your designs, as I am not terribly creative in my thinking. It seems I'm always trying to match the hatch rather than thinking outside the box. Please keep posting your work, it helps inspire me and expand my horizons. Tutorials with tips and tricks on how you tie your jigs is very helpful. I'm looking forward to getting these jigs in the water.

How do you tan the squirrel tail , and do you skin the tail , thanks

 

[RockGeo]

Eddied, I don't tan the squirrel tails but rather, dry them. I trim the tail back to the point that there is very little flesh left on the bone. I then wash/soak the tails in a mixture of Dawn 4X dish detergent (to remove the oils) and Borax overnight. I then rinse the tails in clean water and let them dry for a couple weeks on newspaper in a cardboard box. This cleans the tails nicely and they are ready to dye or put in storage. I store the tails in Ziplock bags in a five gallon bucket with a few mothballs in a Ziplock bag in the bottom of the bucket. The tails can be stored in a freezer as well. I have had some squirrel tails in a Ziplock sit on my materials shelf for over two years without problems using this process.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Almost too nice to use jigs, are you sealing the thread & head of some with a top coat of Sally Diamonds?

Watching the squirrels chomping the sunflower seeds in the bird food outside my front door those fluffy tails do look enticing. Natural sienna color looks attractive as is. Do you tie it with hide attached or trim off fibers?

 

[hookup]

I buy now, but in the past always carried a bag full of rock salt & borax for tails

 

[eddieb]

thanks for the info. I have tried to keep squirrel tail and after a week or two my wife will not let me in the house with thim , I may try the borax , I use it on deer tails with good results ,but they are skinned