Jig tying question

[turk]

I have decided to start tying my on jigs for myself and my family, I have tied some trout flies so I am not new to tying. my first question is about material, I am going to use kip/calf tail for the tails since the jigs I have been buying for the last 25 yrs are made out of this material and they work great, I will be tying mostly 1/32 oz and was wondering how many jigs I can average out of 1 tail? The next question is about lead heads. I am not planning on pouring my on heads till I get the hang of this jig tying. Who has a good price on unpainted 1/32 oz lead heads? The best price ive found so far is $10.20 per 100 plus shipping. Thanks for any help in advance

[skiptomylu]

Welcome to the board!
The price is about right, but there are some that can be found for less, but also some not as good as others. I have tied a good bit of kip tail, but have no idea how many I can get out of one tail, but a good many. Now the most important thing to me is I don't want the tails to be short hair kind. I buy all mine for Hareline Dubbin and there are lots of places that sell their materials, like JS Flyfishing for example.There are a lot of people selling kip tails and a big difference from one to another, IMHO!

I have tied most of mine on 1/16, but makes no difference really. I just want to have a collar and a slight bell or flair or ball at the end and not a barb. I am picky though, LOL!

Skip

[redear]

turk, the larger and fatter the tail the more jigs it will tie, so it depends on how good the tail is. each tail has hair going from short at the butt to long hair at the tip end, so I cut the tails into pieces, this makes it easier to access the hair and cut it off. kiptail is kinda slippery and can pull out from under the thread wraps if measures aren't taken to ensure against that. everyone has their own methods, mine is to use ultra thin clear mono thread to tie the hair on the head, stretching the thread like a rubber band as I wrap, then I tie off the mono, trim the hair just in front of the mono wraps, touch that area with a tad of zap super glue to lock the hair in there, and then wrap over the mono wraps with colored flat waxed nylon just to give it a good color scheme. after wrapping with the mono, you really don't need glue though because the stretch grip of that stuff will hold it, but I don't tie a lot so don't mind spending extra time on them as I may only tie 6 or so at a time. since a 1/32 head is very small I would go with a collarless ballhead, a 1/16 is a different matter though, you could go with a collared head or a plain one, I will say that a collared head is harder to get the hang of because the hair has to evenly cover the collar all around the head, I now have nerve damage in my hands and fingers so I stick with the plain heads because of this. skip has tied some beautiful collared kiptail jigs for sure and he is good at it too!

[addictedangler]

The number of jigs per tail will vary do to each tail and the size of material you want to use. When I use a kip tail the vary bottom usually goes for tails and wings on flys. A little further up is great for 1/16 and 1/32 size jigs. Further up will be longer and can be used for larger jigs or cut for smaller size as you want to tie. Using the whole (perfect) tail can give you 100 flys and jigs. I never counted but I tied 30 or 40 from each section. I only buy materials I can see do to variations in natural materials. Synthetics will be fairly constant and can be got online. I also buy my heads because I do not need to breath the lead fumes. Prices are as you suggested depending on size and style using. Also quality can vary and some will need work to make them look pretty. I do not think the fish really care how pretty the head but the fishermen sure do!

[redear]

oh another thing, kiptails have increased in price like everything else, I have bought them from crazy angler, barlows, and ebay.

[VaCrappieMan]

Kiptail is what I use 90% of the time... And I use very little hair on a 1/32 oz jighead with a #8 sickle hook... It seems like that low profile is what does it. My dad had same color kiptail jig with a lot of hair and I caught 20 to his 2... So don't be afraid to experiment with the amount of hair you tie in for your jig... Using the small amount I use the kiptail can last for well over 100 jigs... Happy tying!

[lowe175]

Welcome, I think most everything has been covered. The guys on here are very helpful just ask there's no dumb questions.

[redear]

vacrappieman, thanks for the tip about tying them sparse, I had forgotten about that, and now that I think about it, that is true a lot in our experience too.

[JWirth]

The number per tail should be around 8-12 dozen depending on the tail size and hair length - sometimes the hair on the part that constantly brushed the calf is shorter from breaking. PM me I have many different style heads in the size you tie both painted and unpainted along with thousands of kip tails - many different colors.

[skeetbum]

I can't tell you how many but it's a bunch. I had a mold for a ball collar that had a tiny bulb at the end of the collar to flair the hair a bit. The closer you tie to the bulb the more it would flair. They worked well. I got talked out of the molds in a trade and wish i had kept them. Tying a small bit of thread on a plain shank ball head will give the same effect.