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Just tied my first kiptail jigs. I know a lot of guys on here like hair on their jigs, especially in cold water. When I tried them out in the aquarium, the kiptail seemed very stiff and lifeless with little action, especially when compared to hackle or marabou. What do you think it is about the hair jigs that fish would seem to prefer over other materials at certain times such as in cold water?
Well this is my opinion. Kiptail retains a fish like shape in the water. Marabou does not. Also it has a sheen as does many minnows such as shiners. Marabou has a flat non sheen to it. Also a minnow does nor wiggle like a worm to move. Just a slight side to side bend in the tail area propels it. Depending on the minnow I am imatating I use kiptail. a Aferican goat hair and squirrel tails. Some minnows such as sculpins and testelated darters are a molted color. These minnows do not have air bladders so they are not able to suspend in the water column. Also if using a flash in the jig or fly never cut it straight across. Almost all the flask is in the very end of the material. Cut the lengths a little longer or shorter for proper flash.
bugtussle, the threadneck version is very old school and was called a pinky jig back in the day, today a guy has to make his own or have them custom made. the hair gets a lot softer once it gets saturated with water, and also they tend to catch more fish by staying a little sparse with the hair, this lets the hair move a little more. I know of a few local crappie fishermen who are top notch and kinda secretive in what they use for a jig, and I can tell you that they hold the kiptail jig in very high regards. they tend to use the 1/16 sizes tipped with a small minnow for spider rigging and also jig and bobber methods. there is a guy on our Virginia forum this last few days by the name of Vacrappieman and you might want to check out a couple of his pics in those posts. we use the smaller sizes a lot in ponds to, 1/32 etc. and tip them with a crappie nibble, just fish it like it's a minnow, I just let it sit, and my buddy is always jiggling his bobber, and he usually catches more than I do too. so I give him some jigs and he wears me out with them, he's been using them for 50 years.
I make a kip tail jig I have used here in Ohio for last fifteen years. either 1/32 or 1/64, shad dart. I make just two colors and in the spring the crappie and the white bass seem to go nuts over. Small weighted bobber and the jigging or popping action seems to do the trick.
To answer your original question. My opinion is that in cold or cooler water the fish are looking for something natural. Maribu and other materials with a lot of movement do not appear natural in cold water. The Kiptail and Bucktail look much mor natural to them in cold water. Minnows and other bait have very little moment in cold water. They just kind of glide along real slow.
I never liked it at all until some guys got me to make some for them. I had to get someone to make a mold for the head they wanted and once my guy had that done he sent me 2 samples. I tied them up and tie one on with a cork about 14" above it and went down to my bank. It was early March 2010 and I put it in the first spot and nothing after a minute I pulled it out to move, but saw a flash under it so I put it right back in. 15 minutes later I had 4 crappie and the smallest one was 14". Needless to say I was impressed and from that moment on I never said I didn't like kip tails especially when the water is a little cool still, like around 50 degrees. I normally just use marabou in spring, but I sure don't mind trying a kip tail jig either!
They work, nuff said really!
Skip
I tie with buck tail, have tried kip but had problems. This I do know, I fished in a lake in February, and again in March. Spider rigging same depth, line, six poles out. Three jigs were plastic, three of my own tied jigs. I caught three to one on my hand ties. I am going to go back to trying kip tail after I read a post here as to the same problems I am having in the kip don't stay on the hook. I pulled it right off thought I did something wrong. When I tie with buck tail I do make it long tails and not a lot of material in the tail. My tails are my own cured and dried. (Off a friends kill). So maybe they are different in the water. I will be back out testing more jigs in a week.
For many years a good friend of mine use hair on his little shad dark hair was molded into the jig head he painted the body all black with a little white stripe down the side he uses black hair and called it is little skunk head. and 1/64oz. it was deadly on all warm water game fish he had the mold made specially to do this I tried to get a few from him now and then it is hard to get him to make a few very seldom ever used them unless I really get desperate.
I prefer hair over feather in all water temps. It will profile better presenting the fish with what appears to be a bigger meal. Kip tail under a rattling bobber is very deadly. It also makes a great vertical jig especially if you are getting bites on a pendulum. Ball heads for pendulum fishing and minnow heads for pure vertical applications. All of my tied big jigs for long pole fishing are all tied with hair. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...89a8a0e636.jpg