Top Fuel

[rezz93]

Here is a brief description of my method of tying learned through a lot of bench time and errors during the time as a consuming member of this site. The early jigs were mostly disasters but with practice some of the basics have been drilled into my head.

While practicing my jig tying, searching for and finding my way for tying crappie jigs, and endless throwaways in the process, my way of truly enjoying jig tying has developed.
Some insights into my thought processes when deciding what jig to tie may be helpful.

Mass production and/or repetitive ties that look as close to each other as possible was ruled out when it became tedious and boring to do the same thing over and over. That realization became the inspiration to tie my way, that and my hardheadedness to simply do something a bit different. With that mindset and considering my preferred fishing method is using Livescope for open water and brushpiles to both catch a mess of eaters at times as well as looking for big fish roamers, my jigs are each unique with some differences even when trying to get close to a particular favorite. This way of tying is simply the way I prefer to do it for my enjoyment at the bench as well of using jigs that the fish like that may or may not appeal to the human eye.

Considering the above, here are some of the jigs from my recent bench work doing what I call building a crappie jig.

This one is being called Top Fuel and was made today:



This jig is 3/16 oz and 3" OAL with #1 hook.
I've been trying to get good at creating thread bodies as well as adding multiple colors in the same collar for variety of choses for color picky crappies.
This jig will be used mostly for single pole flipping in open water for larger fish.

Another one:



This multi-colored hair jig is like the one used to catch my PB crappie while picking through a brushpile:



Here more examples from my jig building hallucinations for the last 2 days:



And more from the last few months:



As you can see, these are not what is usually seen in tackle boxes.

Letting my imagination run while visualizing my version of what a crappie should eat, this free-style way of tying has really made my bench time and fishing even more enjoyable. It's great fun to try the various frankenjigs on the fish and weed out the failures while taking note of the ones that work for future builds.

Bucktail has proven to be very effective for my ways of fishing and has become my favorite material to use. Adding various types reflective material creates other variables to the creation and individuality of each jig.

Some Bucktails:



On the wild side:



Multicolor:



The menagerie:



The laboratory:



As you can see I have gone off the deep end with this jig tying/building stuff.

So far, my creations have worked well for the most part, some better than others, but they were all part of the process of finding my way.

Sitting a the bench and making individual jigs that are guaranteed not to exactly duplicate another has truly let me enjoy the entirety of crappie fishing. I'm either fishing, getting ready to fish, or making jigs and my current excitement about fishing is about as high as its ever been.

Hopefully this explains some of my learning experience and efforts to do it my way. There's still a lot of improvement needed, especially with thread collars and overall neatness, but there's a solution. Build more jigs and fish as often as possible to test them all. Problem is, there is not enough time to try all the different ideas, but you can bet I'm on the water every chance.

Thanks to all the contributors who have helped me along the way.