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Tieing Kiptail jigs
Good Morning I'm trying to tie on 1/64,1/32,1/24oz. heads with all having a #8 gold hook. I do this to try and have the best of both world's in catching gills and crappies. Its not that I'm not catching enough fish on them as they do a very good job on bite to hook up percentages. No complaints there at all. BUT I need to tie a very short collar just back of the head to hold the Kiptail. This allows me to slide up under the skirt a one inch Gulp Alive minnow for attraction and scent. Trying to get a good looking collar that every jig looks the same is my problem. I start out pinching down on the KT and make 3 easy rounds of thread and then tighten down to finish without moving my finger tips sometimes they come out great looking but the next one looks really bad as the collar is way to long????? Any help our thoughts on this tying problem would be appr..I've put down SH HARD AS NAILS thinking this would help but no go there either. Maybe I just need more practice. HA HA Sorry for being so long winded. Thanks ahead of time and every one have a great fall season!!! STEVE
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Steve you said it,just need more practice,the more you do the easier it becomes and more uniform too.Just takes a little time and patenice.
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Practice and bench time will help you work out the answer to your problem. You might try a smaller thread, like 140 denier instead of 210, to achieve the smaller collar. 70 just isn't tough enough to pull the KT down tight enough unless you have a very controlled hand. Sally before you start and finish holds them good, I use it thinned (50/50 acetone) in a needle tube applicator.
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I make my ties on plastic tubing collars. If the tubing is too loose I lay a foundation wrap of thread then put super glue on the thread, with the glue still wet I spindle on a piece of tubing and glue it on in that manner. I get the small tubing from Pepperell Braiding Company (can Google it) at 3.50 per 100 ft. roll and it comes in a large variety of color including glow in the dark.
If you make the tube sleeve too long and it shows at the rear, soft plastic trailers and the like will adhere nicely to it. Just slide the plastic on over the tubing and it holds better than a lead barb. Once you get used to the tubing, it becomes easy.
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After you cut the hair off the tail use a comb on the end of it to clean it - it does have some underfur and this will enlarge the tie in point and will make it spin on the hook no matter what you have on the shank.
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Also they make a hook thats longer right? Would that help?
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bassbull - another thing you can do is instead of making 3 wraps of thread and tightening take your first wrap of thread around the end of the kip pull it down to the shank and then make your second and third then tighten more. This is an old fly tying trick and works well.
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tying kiptail can be tricky, I put the hair down on the hook and wrap over it about 8 times loose enough to move and adjust the hair and pull out any wild hairs, then I hold the hair in place and unwrap all the thread holding the hair, and at that point I push the hair towards the heads a little so it rides up on the jighead. then I wrap one or two times on the hair and tighten slowly while holding the hair from spinning, it is key to make your wraps right behind the jighead. remember this my first wraps when I first lay the hair on the hook are only temporary wraps until I get the hair looking right, and these temporary wraps can be slid down the hook some too, that wont hurt a thing. but when you unwrap the temp. wraps and go to wrap your permanent wraps, it needs to be right behind the jighead only.
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after you have wrapped about 10-12 permanent wraps, take a single edge razor blade and press it against the hair right at the back of the jighead using the jighead as a backstop, the hair will pop right off, be carefull not to hit your thread, now unwrap about 2-3 wraps of thread exposing some hair right behind the jighead, and take some high quality super glue with a slender applicator and touch the glue to the hair behind the head, just enough to soak that little band of hair, now wrap the thread over top of the exposed band of hair and then whip finish.
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keep in mind the glue helps lock the hair in preventing slippage and allows you to use less thread wraps also, so your thread neck won't have to be so long to hold the hair, I use a thin variety of super glue either zap a gap medium which is pretty thin and also locktite super glue with the 2" tapered pointed applicator. the glue needs to be pretty thin to soak the hair easily. If I think I may have gotten too much glue on there, I will take a paper towel and touch it to the spot and the extra will soak into the paper towel, if you don't do that, you will have trouble with your whip finish, it'll bind up before you can get it cinched up.