I found some deer belly hair last time I was at Bass Pro and thought it looked pretty good. I was just curious if anyone ever used much deer hair for crappie jigs.
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I found some deer belly hair last time I was at Bass Pro and thought it looked pretty good. I was just curious if anyone ever used much deer hair for crappie jigs.
yes I do and we do custom dye work on the air. It is fantastic. Looking makes terrific looking jigs.
Do you use the bucktail or any part of the deer? I thought the belly hair would be pretty good since its shorter and I fish with primarily smaller jigs..
I find the belly hair is more hollow witch causes it to flair with little thread tension... I like bucktail on saltwater jigs and use them on occasion for crappie jigs.. I use the tips of the BT.
Haven't used much bucktail but have worked with squirrel tail and it seems nice, But yeah the deer tails are nicer to work with since they are longer.
I don't use but a little of the belly hair when tying with it. The body hair will make a nice looking jig and when it gets wet the jig will look more like a shad body. Makes a very nice jig and doesn't have a wire look to it. Bucktail jigs are very good jigs to use and has its place. Last time I fished I used some bucktail and marabou jigs. The marabou has been the better jig until that trip when the bucktail out fished the feather. It's good to have some different jigs with you as sometimes the fish gets picky at what they want.Quote:
Originally Posted by revtoby
I do not use deer tails I never did like them for tying but I do like the belly or the back of the deer they make excellent jigs and like I said you could die the for any color you want and it is awesome looking we get the hides for nothing and dry them out and precede to do dye work on them. We will try to post some pictures of this.
The single biggest thing fly tyers use that for is spinning deer hair and boy that is kind of an art in it self. Most that use buck tials fo tails on flies and jigs though. However there is nothing that says you can't use it for tails on jigs, but learn how to spin deer hair and make some jigs like that. I warn you thought that is not so easy to learn and even harder to trim right or at least that was my experience doing that. I can do it, but some guys are so good at that I can't imagine how they can be so specific with eyes and even multi-colors in and around the eyes. They make poppers out of that too.
If you want I can post some pictures for you about that.
Skip
Awesome, would love to see a pic of a finished jig with the deer belly hair... I was thinking about what Toby said in regards to the hair being hollow... Would this cause the jig to fall slower?
The belly hair will flare out and won't look very nice if you're not spinning it. Not very fun to try to use as tail material but if you like it, go for it.
Bucktail works but it's so much longer so you waste a lot for a crappie sized jig. I just use kiptail for hair jigs.
I've played with some chartreuse belly hair and gotten good results, but keep in mind a lot of my stuff isn't main stream. If you want it to lay flat, you have to tie it with less tension, which means using more cement during the tie so it doesn't pull out. Since doing all that I like it best on 1/8 and larger jigs cuz there's more room to work with without going out of proportion. Spinning is something I haven't done yet. I need to go to Texas and get a tutorial from Skip.
Here's a pic of a custom buck tail on a 1/32nd oz. And I agree a lot of waste on the small jig head....
Attachment 61757
Personally I prefer the kipail...
Attachment 61758
Okay a couple of pictures for you. Now I don't know if it's to early for me to think or what, but I can't find the best ones in a reasonable time so here are some. I have seen poppers and other flies tied like this and even the eyes would be done with the deer hair.
Skip
Attachment 61759
Attachment 61760
skip is this your work. I especially like the bottom picture, mousy looking I think that would be a terrific smallmouth Bass fly I will have to get some of the these. They are just fantastic. Looking I haven't tried to tie any of these yet but we do have the material to do so I guess I'm going to have to get busy and do some serious tying it will sure bring out a lot of old memories of years ago. We did not tie any large streamer type mostly for trout .Quote:
Originally Posted by skiptomylu
Not my work snake and the bottom one was called a swimming frog. I can do these, but not all that good yet as I have only tied a few, but will when I get time to work on it get this down. However if I could find the pictures I was looking for they would blow you mind. I have seen some like this and even the eyes were deer hair and how they get all the color changes so precise I don't know. Some guys can do this so well you would swear it's not what it is. You would think, okay he has used a marker pin or something else, but no they just use different colors of hair and it's really great!
It's best to buy the what they call Premo strips of deer hair for that and they cost a bit since they are over 15" long and maybe 1 1/2" wide, something like that. It gets a bit costly to have a lot of colors, but I have a good many like that in the Premo strips.
Bob Marriott's Fly Fishing Store - Detail1 - 000706297 - Premo Deer Hair Strips - Fly Tying Materials - Bob Marriott's Fly Fishing Store
Skip
I was hoping to use it on 1/80 oz - 1/64 oz... I will tie some as soon as my heads arrive and see how it goes... it might just frustrate me :) lol
Why not just mix it in with some hackle or marabou since you have it? You could also learn a bit about spinning it and even just make a collar.Quote:
Originally Posted by VaCrappieMan
Skip
I don't have any hackle yet... just some different colors of marabou and chenille... I had a question for you skip. I noticed in your tying video that you tye your chenille in from the head of the jig down to the tail then wrap up to the head and tye off. I have been tying it in at the top and wrapping down to the tail and then back up which seems fairly bulky and looks like a bumble bee... Do you always tye your chenille the way in your video? I am thinking if I tye it that way mine will come out looking alot better. I will try it that way as soon as I get some jigheads.
Oh, and I also have the deer belly hair and some kip tail (I'm not to fond of how stiff and wirey it is). I've tied a few with the marabou and chenille which I think would catch fish but they are fat up on the chenille part.
keep on following skips video on tying Chanel he is correct. This is the way I've been tying for many years you will learn real fast and you were improving rapidly just keep practicing and don't give up using hair is a little bit tricky, but you will get on to it. I'm happy to see you progressing. It's great to see new people learning you may even have a few tricks for us old-timers.Quote:
Originally Posted by VaCrappieMan
bob.
kip tail takes some getting used to. it doesnt undulate like marabou but sure does catch fish.Quote:
Originally Posted by VaCrappieMan
I wonder if anyone has ever tried using human hair, curious.
I have a friend that takes hair off his shizu's tail its sort of curly and coarse... when the jig gets wet its like a zig zag fly and believe it or not its pretty deadly... LOL... But, human hair I have no clue about
Yeah I googled it and found NOTHING at all about anyone ever using human hair for jigs lol, had no idea it would be taboo. :)
Australian possum is very curly and could be used the same way. Then he could leave his dog alone, LOL!Quote:
Originally Posted by VaCrappieMan
tied a few with the deer belly hair... meh... I don't like the way it looks when it gets wet... I am thinking about just leaving the chenille off my jigs that are 1/64 - 1/80 oz... Thats primarily what I used to use and I'm not sure I like the chenille...