Thread: My First Buck Tails !!!

Lmk What you think!!!
Steve-stabgnid

Those look great.

those are pretty ties! but if you want them to be the most effective they can be, use about 1/2 the amount of hair and try to get it to lay back and not flair. we use deer tails from local deer here in Va, and the hair is much finer and more limber, just using the white hair and tying it sparse enough so you can hold it up and see light through it, an unpainted head and red thread on a 3/32 or 1/16 head. there are guys down on kerr reservoir who literally catch thousands of crappies every year on these. google up the fishdoc bucktail jig and maybe hit images and there are pics. I tie them on barbed heads meant for plastics and the small barb on the do it mold heads is just big enough to keep the thread from slipping off the back of the collar when tying. I know a guy who tried them for the first time this year and wore the crappie out in the winter by lowering them down by bridge pilings and just holding them as still as possible. but mostly cast and retrieve slowly is the way to go most the time, I know I'm being long winded but they are close to my heart. redear.

X2 with redear on thinning them down a bit, other than that they look good.

Yes I am in same boat, thinner and less hair is best, but your ties look really good!

Skip

Thanks guys for your help !!! I have a couple of people here in Washington wanting me to tie some for the upcoming Pink salmon season so I need to get this right cause the pinks only run every 2 years and daddy needs some fish !!!

they look fantastic I don't use much deer hair when tying jigs.

Also try to find someone selling Southern Buck tails, they will have finer hair and like the redear said the deer in Va. sounds like they would be really good too. I would say just hand pick from the big Northern Buck tails to find ones with smaller diameter hair. You really need to talk to who your ordering from to see if they can help you pick some out that are not the heavy thick hair?? I have done that before.

Still even the bigger stuff can be done well, just less of what ever your using on the buck tails, but lots easier if you find some with finer hair really! If you just looking for White then you can ask hunters from the South if you know some to give you some of theirs. All they need to do is borax and salt them and let dry before sending them to you. Work a trade with someone.

Just remember materials can make a difference so where you get them and what you get is key!

Skip

You do very good work! another trick is to trim the hair just before finishing the jig, just behind the head and then touch a tiny bit of high quality super glue to the hair in that spot with your bodkin and then finish up your thread wraps, it wont look any better than what you have there but the hair will never pull out, ya gotta be carefull with the thin super glue though as it can soak up under the thread and back into the wing of the jig, I use thin zap glue in tiny amounts. I trim the hair at the back of the head with a single edge razor blade, they are about 1.50 for a pack of 5. I was referring to crappie bucktails when I said they needed to be thinner, but am not sure what a 10 pound pink salmon would prefer.

Originally Posted by redear

You do very good work! another trick is to trim the hair just before finishing the jig, just behind the head and then touch a tiny bit of high quality super glue to the hair in that spot with your bodkin and then finish up your thread wraps, it wont look any better than what you have there but the hair will never pull out, ya gotta be carefull with the thin super glue though as it can soak up under the thread and back into the wing of the jig, I use thin zap glue in tiny amounts. I trim the hair at the back of the head with a single edge razor blade, they are about 1.50 for a pack of 5. I was referring to crappie bucktails when I said they needed to be thinner, but am not sure what a 10 pound pink salmon would prefer.

Thats probably safer than what I use, got it from the fly tiers and they use double edge blades especially when they trim spinning deer hair bugs. Just know they think the double edge blads are sharper, but I also always have some small cuts after I tie some hair jigs, LOL! I do also sometimes use a utility single edge blade is one of the holders that look like a pen kind of. All I know for sure is that kind of hair sure dulls stuff fast and why you want special scissors just for the hair and other for everything else. Don't want to ruin your good ones on deer hair!