Hair/feathers or Plastics

[waxnslabs]

I've been tying my own jigs for several months now, but haven't really got to use many of them bc the bite is slow in this area until October. Now I don't go out and buy hundreds of dollars worth of tying stuff. I have 5 or 6 preferred colors that I like to tie and use. I am just curious to know how they measure up. Are hair/feather jigs more productive than plastics ex: a bobby garland baby shad)? And long run cheaper being that they don't tear up as often?

Wax'

[Pup]

I've been tying my own jigs for several months now, but haven't really got to use many of them bc the bite is slow in this area until October. Now I don't go out and buy hundreds of dollars worth of tying stuff. I have 5 or 6 preferred colors that I like to tie and use. I am just curious to know how they measure up. Are hair/feather jigs more productive than plastics ex: a bobby garland baby shad)? And long run cheaper being that they don't tear up as often?

Wax'

Wax',

Not trying to instigate here, but you really need to field test them all for yourself.

That said, I've never been much of a chenille-bodied/marabou-feathered jig fisherman over time, though I know they work. I used to use white-bodied, white-feathered chenille/marabou jigs a lot and found them to be algal traps. I grew tired of removing algae from the barbules of marabou feathers and chenille yarn bodies, so I moved on to hair jigs.

Craft fur is my favorite. I believe that I can tie well enough with it for a crappie to show interest in one of my jig creations.

Soft plastics can work incredibly. Curly-tailed jigs are my favorite of those, though the bodies better be moth-balled Culprit grubs. I fished these during the early eighties for tailwater walleye and crappie. They tore apart pretty easily though. Their tail action was second to no other grub I've found since then. Though, I don't field test curly-tailed grubs regularly.

I tie marabou jigs nowadays for show and discussion on fishing web sites, more or less...

Just my thoughts and opinion.

[skiptomylu]

I have fished with soft plastics since some time in the early 1960's for bass and some for crappie. Personally most of the time I like feathers better and for sure once the water temp gets below about 50 degrees since soft plastics lose some of their action then.

Both will catch fish for sure and I still have a ton of soft plastics, but just don't fish them a lot. Sometimes the crappie just are not very active and will not hit anything much. You know they are under you, but no bites, it happens.

As far as Marabou goes, I like it a lot especially in the spring, but I guess that I use more hackle tails after that. I do use some hackle tails in the spring as well. Also if you look a the fly tying places on the web that sell materials, just go through looking at hair and synthetic stuff to see how many say "it's much like marabou". To me that tells what is one of the best type tail materials.

In the end though you just need to try them all as see what fits your way of fishing better. After all, it is all about what the fish hit.

Skip

[waxnslabs]

Yeah I've fished hair a lot in the past, just not my own and mostly I fish two poles; one in each hand bc I like to feel the thump. Usually I fish a gray and chart #120 black Lake hair jig. It's been very productive for me over the years. I guess this past year I just saw tons of fish being put in the boat particularly in May and most were caught on plastics including mine. I'm really hoping my tied jigs perform like this. The few fish I have caught on them this year were really rewarding knowing that I made the bait. I guess I just need to fish mine when the fish are turned back on good to know how they will perform for I got into tying right when the bite was on the downward slope this year.

Thanks guys