What are then key factors to concider when designing and tying a jig?
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What are then key factors to concider when designing and tying a jig?
Confidence -color-profileAND ORIGINALITY
Donald is for sure right about the confidence and who ever is using it had better be confident in what they are using or they will not stick with it long enough. They will also work it better because they will have patience in it.
Colors are really important and the water color and clarity will have a lot to say about that. A little experience helps a lot too.
I'm from a brown trout fly background (somber colored flies) and after looking at crappie jigs in this forum, the thing that stands out is the gaudyness of the color combos used for crappies. With crappies, is the most important thing to make the lure so it is easily seen?
I'm sure there are many other key factors, such as size, shape and the impression of live prey.
I dont tie, but I'd have to say "yes". Seems anything with chartruese works pretty good most of the time.Thumbs Up
I wondered about the difference in the number of rod and cones in a crappie eye compared to a trout eye and found this:
Dr. Keith Jones, Pure Fishing Research Director and a world renowned expert on fish behavior, provided this insight into color: “Different fish species differ considerably in what colors they can see, and hence what colors they see best. Fish like bass, bluegill, crappie, walleye, and perch are mostly limited to the spectral range of red-orange and yellow-green. They have very little if any color vision in the range of blue and violet. Their best color vision (i.e. the area where they have the best discrimination between fine differences in color hue) typically peaks in the range of red-orange, with a secondary peak in the yellow-green range. Fish like trout and carp have a broader range of color vision.
Well the good doctor is going to miss a lot of crappie by not fishing with the colors of black, blue (dark and light), pink and purple. My knowledge comes form catching crappie in different colors of water, light and the temperature range of the water and along with all the others here that tie and fish crappie jigs here on Crappie.com. I agree that red has its place in tying jigs but I don't see it as one of the best colors for crappie. The orange, yellows and greens would fall into the top colors to use on a crappie jig but not always the best in different waters. It's amazing what a little color change will do for catching crappie that are not wanting to bite, say change from a orange head to a blue or a chartreuse tail to a purple. And we have not even talked about White.
Have to agree with Stump Hunter on this one. One of my favorite color combos in spring once the water clears here a little is Silver/Blue/White and it will cats them by the boat load. Also Silver/Silver/Blue is very good at the same time. Before it clears this much my favorite is Chart/Blue/Chart. Then another great color combo is Black/Blue/Black which about 3 weeks I could a 16" crappie night fishing. Have some customers that buy lots of Black/Blue/Black and aware by it!
Courage and plenty of it !
Don't overthink it. Just tie a chartreuse wooly bugger without the hackle. That'll catch crappie anywhere in the country.Quote:
Originally Posted by troutingintas
I also will have to agree with the above dark colors such as black blues dark green work extremely well at times probably one of my favorite colors is black.
I tie with an Array of colors, and will fish a body of water with the jigs. I keep a journal of what did best of each lake etc. In my experience what does good one outing , does not produce the same the next outing...
Crappiehappy, do you examine the stomach contains to also put it in your journal. If so, is the any correlation between the array of jig colors and the color of the fishes stomach contents?
I tend to use proven color combinations like chartreuse and black, chartreuse and white, chartreuse and pink or chartreuse and orange. That will just about cover any water condition. I make sure the tail is not so long as the crappie cannot bite the metal hook and I usually tie with flat waxed red nylon thread to give a little gill simulation. Add some krystal flash to imitate scales and take along a boatload of confidence that what you have created is what the fish want to eat.
troutingintas Yes I personally know the good doctor Keith Jones and you have to remember the he does most of his work in a Lab. He in my opinion does a better job on scent than color.
My way of thinking which is my own is to make the jig match the bait fish that the fish are currently feeding on. Keep a bait fish profile and Remember sometimes they will take a attractor pattern over every thing else.When you get these fish figured out please let all of us know. Most of the time it is a educated guess at best.
Redman
Find what works, tweak it, try it again, tweak it again and again and again........ It is personal preference and what catches fish along with a healthy dose of confidence. I have patterns I have fished for years that never fail me but I spend a lot of time tying them slightly different to see what might get more bites at different times.
My biggest discovery was a salmon fly I use that has always worked really well. Fished it and tied it the same way i was shown for many years. I then decided to try a shorter hook and improved my success quite a bit. Even the smallest tweaks can make a huge difference. Adding some flash, leaving it out, tying a short body, adding eyes, removing eyes, adding another color in the tail. Most of the fun in tying, for me, is making small changes and seeing if they work. Once in a while you hit a great pattern and find all the tweaks. Then you get out another pattern and do it all again.