Bucktail vs Kiptail

[skiptomylu]

just wanted to say a little bit about the chenille again, do yourself a favor and try some of the size 10 or 12 mylar type chenilles like what skip uses, I finally did and the junebug with a chart tail made from salt hackle vees unpainted head really produced under a float tipped with a nibble.

Totally agree! Been using that stuff for a long time now, but once I started using it for myself I stopped using others near as much. I still tie a lot of Nylon/Rayon/Speckled chenille and still works great, but there is something special about the Mylar type chenille! Actually I should say there are some things that make it special!

Skip

[Fatman]

Been using more fox tail than kip but still have it

[VaCrappieMan]

Kip tail all the way! I use very little on a small jighead under a float... And it's worked great for me... I can't catch much on chenille body and tail... I have no clue why... But the crappie I'm after like it really simple... Lol

[redear]

Vacrappieman talked me into tying the kiptail sparsely on tiny jigheads and it really increased my catch the few times I have been lately, and there is a big difference in size 2 or 3 nylon/rayon chenille which has it's place and the size 10 or 12 mylar stuff, I think flash is the big thing with the large mylar because crappie like metallic flash and reflection from what Iv'e seen, and it adds bulk without adding weight, the bulk allows a much slower fall, I have only used the junebug so far out fishing and it produced quality fish that took the jig hard, this happened when we couldn't get much action with anything else. It helps to have a wide assortment of jigs.

[skiptomylu]

Let me confess about me an kip tails. I had never used any before 2010, just didn't believe in it much even though I knew a lot of guys used it. Well some guys over in Louisiana ask me if I could make them some jigs like some they had, but couldn't get any longer. So I told them to send me some so I could look at them in my hand. He sent me like 10 of them in different colors. Well first off I did't have a head like they had so I ask someone about making a mold for these. I mailed him a jig head to use as a base and soon he sent me 2 samples. Well I tied the 2 up and decided to tie one on and go see what I could see. It was March 10th I believe and I went down to my bank (not knowing if the crappie had come in yet or not) and I put a float on maybe a foot or so above the jig and plopped it down just a few feet from where I was standing. There was a lot of trash (small limbs and other floating wood and debris floating) at the bank because the water was a bit high. After a short sit, very short of course since I didn't believe at all really, lol! So I picked it up to move it a little and just as I raised it out of the water I saw a flash under it. So I plopped it right back in and very soon the cork when under. Now get this part, I am using my lightest rod, a 5' long (maybe less?) ultra lite and all this wood floating between me and my not hung fish so I literally had to pull the fish over the last foot or two to drag him on the back, lol! After about 15 minutes (this long only because I had to go find something to put fish in, lol! Well after that 15 minutes I had 3 crappie out of that tiny hole and the smallest one was 14 1/2" long! I was duly impressed and in that short time had become a believer in a big way, lol!

So that is my true kip tail story and how I learned about them. I do have a picture of the first 2 I ever tied and will post below.

Skip

[MattRagle]

Glad you shared that story with us. I'm gonna order several different color and start tying shortly. Where I'm at and my method of fishing doesn't allow me to get out until late December or early January most years. Being a bank fisherman that has to wait for Barren River Lake to get to winter pool and the lake bottom to freeze or I'll end up in waist deep mud. Plan is to have about 500-600 tied up before then that way I have plenty of stock that way when I get on a hot bite I can sell some jigs on the bank to the guys that keep creeping up to see what color I'm using and how deep my bait is.

[skiptomylu]

I think it's an excellent cooler water type material as is Squirrel tails. Feathers move a lot so lots of action, but I believe when the water is cooler the fish are not into chasing and like something sitting kind of still. For sure they work though! When I had these heads made I was ale to have some input and what I got was perfect, a thin collar with a flair on the end. I only had the 1/16 size with #6 Sickle hooks and think that is the only size he ever made. I am not sure if he still pours them, but I also will tell you the first ones he did were the best looking ones because after that he went to a spin casting and that I use, but they end up a tiny bit less weight, but also kind of a rough finish. I do understand why he did that though as the original ones were a single shot mold and with spin casting it's easier to pour a lot more a lot faster.

Skip

[Donald@CrappieLogic]

I use kip tail for all my hair jigs but you are gambling when you order them you might get one that has plenty of hair all the way down the tail and another tail you couldn't even tie a 1/64th oz jig out of and at 2.75 to 3.00 a piece it's a gamble buck tail is good and will catch them just don't use a lot of it here in ms

[redear]

I agree with Donald about the gambling part, I have been dissapointed many times with what I recieved for kiptails, a really good tail is few and far between.