Sword Tail Jigs

Crappie stingers are one of my favorite soft plastics and thought those puff balls with tentacles would be perfect. Unfortunately, trips to three different Dollar Tree stores netted me zero. The last store did have a centipede toy with the rubber I was looking for so I got two colors of those. Tentacles are 1.5 " and really stretch. I tied up some jigs using the tentacles for the tail a couple of days ago and fished them the past two mornings. Didn't tear them up at the city cement pond but the Black crappie sure liked them. Caught a dozen crappie the last two mornings, only one small one. Biggest was 16.5" and weighed 2.67 lbs. These swordtails have better action than regular plastics and with it being summer they work very well. Ordered some glow in the dark puffer balls in six colors, can't wait for them to get here.
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Very Nice on both accounts

Those look great Jim. Awesome they worked out for you. Back when I bought and tied some up I tried finding the longer armed ones but could only find ones about 1” long from Walmart. Sort of short for what I really wish they were. Great action and feel to them though and they stretch a mile. My girls took them to play with and haven’t seen them since :Rofl

Those are some awesome fish and sweet ties! Thanks for sharing

Nice fish.

Might have to try that around here. I've got some stuff called Squirmy Worms that were tied up last year but haven't tried them.

Here's some on Amazon if anyone is interested:

Amazon.com

Nice jigs!

Those are one of my favorite jigs/flies. Like you, I found one in the toy isle, and then ordered many colors online. My favorite tail colors are Chartreuse, blue, and orange. On longer jig hooks I tie in some contrasting color rubber legs. Shorter hooks don’t get rubber legs, but I do like a hackle collar to add more movement.

I either use the countdown method, or fish them under a slip/fixed bobber. Opps, I mean strike indicator;-)

Link to a fly version - Squirminator - YouTube

Always amaze me Jim great work and congratulations on the catch


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Nice ties and catches.

Nice looking jigs, and Enginuity on coming up with the longer tails. I went on line and found the puffer balls I got at Walgreens Pharmacy in the toy section. Then checked if any of the local stores carried them in-store. About 6 of the 10 Walgreen's in town did so next time I went by one, I stopped and got a couple. Will probably get a third color, but two of them will be a lifetime supply of them tentacles for sure...

There was 84 tentacles on each centipede so cost for each tail was about 1.5 cents per jig. I dipped some tails with spike it dye so some have two tone tails but chartreuse tail was the ticket. Only caught one on the pink and it was the lone small crappie. Going to make more on the days too hot to fish and start making some in different sizes. This pill head is a custom mold made by Robert Howell of Crazy Angler Tackle in 2010 and head weighs 1 gram. It was designed as a pill spinner so can add swivels and blades to them. Definitely going to tie some with blades.