I wanted to begin a new thread for my purposefully whimsical misadventures.
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I wanted to begin a new thread for my purposefully whimsical misadventures.
:popcorn
Let the whimsical misadventures begin
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I kind of like some of these.
My large supply of ready to tie heads has now dwindled down. They got their featherings and such and have moved into the jig condo.
Trying to experiment some with matching up colors to make useful combinations. Some of the combos I like are:
Silver-White-Blue
Pink- White- Chartreuse Yellow
Gold - Tan- ?????
Purple- White - Chartreuse Yellow
The Mardi Gras Colors- Purple- Gold- Green
A jig can be one color, two colors, three colors or four. I am showing one with more than four, but then the colors start to detract from one another. Too much Flu Flu. Head color, tail, body and a highlight, all working together.
My next batch of heads will have some rhinestones for eyes. That brilliant pop of color has got to be good. A hotspot that will mesmerize the devils and draw them in like flies on a road dead coon on a hot August day in Gainesville, FL. Maybe not, but I plan to make some anyways.
Some of these have a dark strip along the back, just like a minnow does, but it doesn’t have the same appeal that a bright belly has. Adding a belly seems to make more sense. Matches the profile of a real minnow so much better.
6:1 profile. For every length of width, as seen from the side, there should be six of those same lengths in overall length. So if the jig is 1/2” deep vertically, it should be 3” in length. So I am trying to keep my depths at 1/2” or less for minnow imitations. Shad imitations can be fatter of course as they have beer bellies.
The Mop Fly is said to be a killer on trout, and there seems to be a gaggle of them fly fishing types that can’t stand to see that fly being used. Proponents say it is because all it does is catch fish. After some study on the subject it would appear that the success is based on profile and movement. Slender and long like a minnow. It also waggles as it goes. Dry, the mop seems silly, but once submerged things change. It becomes a tail that has a movement that seems to work.
Mop Jigs are easy enough to assemble. There are several variations of how to fashion the Mop to the hook. Behind, onto, at the head, and with stripped fuzz. I looked about on Amzion and found some new colors of Mop by searching Microfiber Chenille. Not every color I wanted but enough to do up plenty of jigs. I also use regular fat chenilles, although they lack the waggle. I have never really given the Mop Jigs a fair trial before, but will begin to do so earnestly now that Fall has fallen upon the lakes. Water temperatures are dropping. Gainesville Summer has gone away. Nights are getting cooler. Soon we will see reports of snow and ice and other miseries being inflicted upon our Northern brothers. Good stuff.
Saw a young buck chasing our Mama deer around the back yard. Her baby thought it all a game and was leaping and spinning and having fun. Then all of a sudden, the buck took off. That was when the big buck entered the yard. He lowered his head and took straight after her. The two were gone in the woods in a flash. Just married.
Woke up bright and early with no place to go. Tossed and turned, and finally got up fed the dogs and started the coffee maker. Then I heated up the lead pot to pour some new heads.
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These are 1/16th ounce Big Eye Minnows. Lightly filed and prepped with shrink wrap. Ready for powder paint.
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These are a 1/16th ounce sized jig, with it’s lead bait keeper hook thingie stuff cut off. This removal leaves a jig that weighs in at 1/20th ounce. Flat head.
Now I have to choose my paint schemes and get to burning some paint.
I only made it to the coffee pot. Today is the opener for bow season but it’s too warm to hunt. Beautiful work…
Very nice. I like those big eye jigs. Nice mold
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Whites with a hot spot and then three from my metallic series- gold, silver and copper.
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Whites with a hot spot and then three from my metallic series- gold, silver and copper.
Can’t really see he copper though. The gold is very nice. Barlows Nova Stone color shift stuff. Looks kind of red when the light switches it.
Some very nice jig heads. Are you “double dipping” for that scheme?
Quote:
Originally Posted by BuckeyeCrappie
Yes sir.
I have tried every technique I have seen for painting heads. This one is a quick dip in the container of white, then gently dipping into a second container of color, but just down in so far and back out. This creates a Hot Spot effect that draws in your eye.
These are the 1/20th ounce heads. Very thin and missing their lead bait keepers. I want to have some jigs for trolling high in the water column. I know I could drop down to 1/32nd ounce, but I can also just let out less line, too. These will go on my outside rods.
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Thanks for the explanation. Makes sense…
Made up some more of the 1/20th ounce and the 1/16th ounce jigs.
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Soon it should be time to start catching some crappie. Been a tough Summer for crappie fishing. Some have figured them out and caught a few, others, like me, not so much. Trolling in that hot Summer Sun is an ordeal. Compounded by my wife refusing to arise early. Been arriving at the lake at 10 a.m. and by then the fish are already down in the grassy bottom. The water is hot, but I feel it has more to do with the angle of the sunlight. In Summer the Sun is more directly shining down through the water column. As the Sun sides down the horizon, that angle changes. So without eyelids or sunglasses, they hide underneath stuff. That is why early in the morning is a good time because their eyes can tolerate things.
Also, the eyes on minnows do not adjust as fast as they do for crappie and bass. So they cannot see the ambush as easily as the killers can see them. So dark to light in the morning, light to dark in the evening, advantage crappie.
I just need to tell her she cannot go fishing. Take off early before she even knows I am gone. Refuse to answer my phone and stuff. Leave little notes about how the dishes need done and about the spot on the floor and stuff. Then I might be able to catch a few fish. Shame that it has come to this, but fishing is very very important.
My wife isn’t an early riser either..I patiently wait and fer sure don’t leave notes…maybe the notes are your way of getting her up to go with you…
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Not much time to piddle round today. Only managed these few.
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Those are sort of interesting.
This is something new.
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I wrapped the chennile, then lashed on some ostrich feathers, then topped those with mareaboo feathers. When held up to the fan the action is excellent. The belly takes on a minnow profile and waggles about some. I like it.
Been bike riding in the evenings after work. Probably can’t go fishing this weekend. My dog sill loves me and that ain’t so bad I guess. Been setting out dry corn cobs for the deer and hogs. Hope to get a fat doe before Thanksgiving. Break in that new riffle…..Weatherby Vanguard WeatherGuard in 6.5 Creedmore. The only interesting riffle is the one you got when the moment is upon you. Bang you missed has always been such a rarity for me. Other than with BB guns. Can’t remember but one time I missed a deer. Pair of does on an all out sprint trying to escape the drivers. We looked and looked but never found blood. I didn’t think I missed but maybe so.
There is an art to taking four deer in the woods. You line up that first one, making sure you got it. Then imagine swinging over to take the second one. Then bang, quick bang again, and now you are half way there. On your own of course because now they are going through the bushes like dolphins at sea. Here one second gone the next, then another pops up. We used to think that we would miss using scopes to shoot running deer. Nope, we hit them just fine.
This week flew by. Always does.
SlabSauce (or not) those jigs and they should hammer them. Beautiful work. I am about to start whitetail chasing myself. Good luck on your hunting adventures.
Here are some I made yesterday.
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Here are some without the chenille.
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And they look like this when wetted. Doesn’t look like chenille is even necessary to get a minnow profile. Keep in mind I’ll be trolling them.
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Nice ties !
Here are some I made recently. I got used to making jigs that looked good when dry, and now I am focusing on making them look good when wet. Makes sense to me to design and shape the jig for how it will look underwater, swimming past the fish. After wetting the ones I had been making, I saw that I needed more of a minnow profile. A nice fat beer belly. tapering back.
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I have several tail designs, and I add flashaboo, then a chenille body, then a feathery beard. The beard encounters the chenille and forms the belly shape. I have made some where I just use a hump of chenille to get the effect, and skip wrapping up the hook shank.
I also have been playing with a modified bucktail design. These are nice and very sleek. I have been using the 1/20th ounce heads for this pattern as it needs to be sleek. The light weight head, sleek feathering behind, will swim better. Like a small minnow lost at sea.
I feel that I am getting closer and closer to designing a jig that will be suitable for my local lakes.
The old man that I made the box of jigs for came by to claim his prize. Wife waiting in car, our conversation was brief. I said I didn’t like them, and he said your opinion will change when you see the size of the fish they will catch. Asking how much he owed me, I think I could have said most any amount, his fingers firmly grasping the box, fingers roaming around caressing the fluffy stuff. I said fishing trips, with me helping to launch and land the boat. I said that I could learn more in one fishing trip than I could acquire on my own in ten years of trial and error. He laughed and agreed to the deal, and back out to his wife he went.
Hopefully we will have some nice weather to schedule our trip. That lake produces large waves with just a 10 mph breeze. He said large waves make fishing tough. I will be watching the weather closely. I think he trolls his jigs.
not trying to tell ya how to tie jigs , but if you add some long flash to the tails it sometimes makes for a super KABOOM jig
seen an old timer use really long flash tails back when , his were twice the length of the jig or more , thought they were wrong till I dipped a few ....
bet if you are pushing or pulling them longer flash tailed versions they will attract some strikes :highfive
Well thank you very much sir. I will make me up some with the ultra flash tails. Any other ts you have, do share please.
I have used a little red flash with good results
Ooooohhhhhhhh……..
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That is a Magnum Flashaboo with some Lateral Flash mixed in.
I like that you shared that with me. Has me thinking about what the fish might want to see. Thanks again.
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Well they certainly are interesting. I ran the flash out the back and left it long as suggested. It will be interesting to see if my local fish like it.
Sometimes the Old Guys figure things out, only they don’t tell anyone. LOL. They take their best secrets to the grave and I have never understood why they would want to do that. I have always liked to share my stuff and have done so for many years. I was quite accomplished at surf fishing and had many accomplishments. I was always sharing with others and have helped thousands learn to become better. I watch videos now days and learn from others. I am appreciative when someone shows me something, and gives me ideas. I also enjoy creating new stuff no one has shown me.
This idea of running the flash long caught my attention because it was something new for me to explore, but also because of who shared it. It is a real shame because now I have to order up some new flash material to experiment with. My favorite hands down is Lateral scale. It just has that fish scale look to it. Thin and medium. I have copper, silver and gold colors. The Crystal flash looks nice when extended back. I kind of prefer the thinner stuff over the wider stuff for this extension.
I long line troll, so these may entice the devils. Thank you again Ketchum.
Looks awesome
Sunday morning I awoke early with no plans, so I poured some jigs. Filed, painted, cured and added eyes. I seem to be getting much quicker at it. Made a hundred heads.
I pour with a Rowell Ladle which works very well. I had a bottom pour pot but never really liked being unable to watch, and it clogged. Gifted away. The Lee Production pot and ladle system works pretty good. Wish I had a half pound ladle.
All jigs require filing, and I do this by leaning the file against something to give me an angle, with paper towels beneath to catch the filings. When done I just roll it up and toss it. When doing this I examine the hook eye as it exits the jig for lead build up. If there is any I trim it away.
Next I cut my shrink wrap into little pieces, just large enough to cover the hook eye, and attached. Ready for paint, I use a heat gun with a tunnel tip to concentrate the heat. 1800 watts, it heats to an acceptable temperature in three seconds or less. Then I dip into the container and hang the jig to cool along the rim of an old ceramic planter. Every so often I put the lid back on the paint container and rotate it to loosen the paint. Once cooled, I use my thumbnail to ease the shrink wrap away.
Next I add jigs to my aluminum and silicone jig holders that I made and into the tabletop oven they go. I know each powder has it’s own unique temperature and time, but I just do 350 degrees for 15 minutes and it seems to do well enough.
Then I attach the eyes with jig in hand. Squeeze to secure them and into one of my wooden jig clamps to hold it still. I mix BSI epoxy and use a small brush to cover the eyes and down onto the painted surface of the jig head. Not every bit of the painted surface, as I try to avoid the hook eye. Just to get an over coat over the eye and onto the paint so when cured, it has encapsulated the eye. Wait several hours until it is no longer tacky and done.
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The eyes is a 6mm Super Pearl. The paint is special from Barlows called Nova Stone in Sunburst. It is a color shift paint, so when jig is in hand you can move it and see new colors appear. The gold color you get has small flakes in it and is rather brilliant when in direct sunlight. The eyes are also color shift and will change as you move them. Reds, blues, and purples all come at you when the jig is in sunlight. I used just this one paint and one eye.
The top left jig is a Free Style shape in 1/10th ounce, with a Mustad Skipjack hook in size 1/0. These are what I will use to tie jigs.
Under it is nifty little 1/16th ounce head with a short shank 1/0 Eagle Claw 571 hook. This head is flat and I have chosen not to add eyes so it can emit more of the color flash at the fish. Because the hook has a short shank it is great for plastic baits. Less error with misalignment and more of the plastic is left free to produce action.
Top right is the minnow head in 1/16th ounce with that same short hook. Again, these are for rigging plastic baits.
Bottom right is a 1/8th ounce with an open swivel jutting out of the bottom. This allows me to take a blade, add an open eye swivel to it, squeeze closed, then attach to the jig’s swivel and close it. This works much faster and easier than fiddling with little split rings. It also allows the blade to hang a little better so it spins much easier than a Road Runner. Spins at slower speeds. Again, the short shank hook means they are meant for plastic baits.
I have a pile of ready made jigs with plastic baits. Problem is they are unorganized and if I catch a fish on one, it will be near impossible to sort through to find it’s twin. LOL. So I am going to lay everything out on the dining room table and try to come up with a way to have some sanity to the mess. There are some plastics that I really like, but have no idea how many of them are actually ready to go.
Most fishermen use bags of plastics and root through those to add to loose jig heads while on the water. I tried that but my bags of plastics easily became unmanageable. Because I make my own jig heads, I can add a plastic to the head and super gel glue it on, then store them in lure boxes without having to buy a bunch of heads. This is what I have to organize if I can.
Your ties are top notch! Dipped in da sauce and it’s on.
1\10th ounce heads.
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These are a tad heavier than my “regular” weight of 1/16th ounce. They will tend to run slightly deeper.
With long lining it is all just a crap shoot anyways. If you ask someone how much line they put out, they will tell you a good cast’s worth. Well that ain’t much help. I do not want to start using line counter reels as that is way too much hassle. If you put out more line the jigs will run deeper. Less line they ride higher. Go slow they run deeper. Run fast they run higher. More weight they run deeper.
So there are at least three variables involved, until you start figuring the amount of drag the jigs has. Well it is far too complicated for me to try to figure. The depth charts that get posted every so often are very specific, and will never match up with me, crank baits aside.
The saving grace for me is that my lakes are shallow affairs. Average depth I am trolling over is about 6 feet. I toss the 1/16th ounce jigs out a “good cast’s length”. Then I set out the heavier jigs which tend to run at a much different angle, not quite straight down but maybe 45 degrees. These get very little line.
I have a 2d sonar and only rarely glance over at it. I like to see bait balls, but pretty much everything else is weeds on the bottom. Like a giant salad bowl. No structures to dip, no docks to cast to. Just vast areas of weeds with bait balls here and there. So for me, it is all just a crap shoot. No. need to buy me no Death Scope. The fish hide in the weeds down bottom. Side scan might be of some use, but I suspect staring at the screen would annoy me. So I kind of point the boat and ride.
My thinking is to have baits at different depths, and different distances out and away from the boat. I mix things up some if they don’t seem to be biting.
I have six planer boards, the minis with the Sun logo on them, and they do fine for taking the jigs out and away from the boat. I thought that the boat would be scaring the fish and chase them away. Maybe so, but I no longer concern myself with that. I have caught too many fish right against the side of the boat. An old man told me he would hook them right next to the running outboard engine while he trolled. I suspect they do not flush as much as fish in deeper lakes because there really is no where to go.
I imagine that if I were a crappie, I would be pretty dumb. They have a lot to contend with actually. Water turkeys swimming round trying to bite them. Large bass and gar roaming around. Gators. There is a lot to be weary of if you are just a little guy.So they learn to dodge down into the weeds when attacked. Maybe try to out distance the predator. Look out- osprey. Like I said there is a lot to be weary of. It would be best to find one spot and learn it well and hide out. Problem is you got to eat, so you have to leave that safe area.
There are fat head minnows, bull minnows, various gamefish minnows, freshwater shrimp, lake fly larvae, and of course shad. In the weed shorelines a crappie can find both safety and food. One might think they would stay put back in there, but they don’t. I find fish scattered all over the lake. I have seen days when going from 5 feet deep to six feet deep made a huge difference. How so you ask, well I really don’t know why, but it is a thing I assure you.
I watched the game commission shocking fish for a survey. Their boat was parked right in the weeds and they were shocking right next to it. So my local fish don’t seem to be too frightened about boats over top of them.
So I have been making jigs in 1/20th oz, 1/16th oz, 1/10th oz, 1/8th oz, 3/16th oz, and 1/4 oz. I have to try to develop a method of organization and deployment that works
Made some more.Attachment 473865Attachment 473866Attachment 473867Attachment 473869Attachment 473870Attachment 473871I have three jig boxes for hand-ties.Attachment 473873Attachment 473874Attachment 473875Attachment 473876Attachment 473877There is room to squeeze in a few more. LOLI tie a few in the morning and over time it adds up.I gave that old man his box of jigs and he had invited me to go fishing, but it was on a day I had things. I really can’t wait to get out there on his boat and start observing things. I hope he is a cranky old curmudgeon that will yell at me and stuff. That would be cool. “Your not doing it right”. Just like my father used to do it.My next project involves organizing my plastic baits. What a mess. I have baits in bags that haven’t even been opened. I poured up about a hundred jig heads just for these additional plastic baits. Attachment 473879These are all short shank hooks as it makes it easier to penetrate the plastic body in an easy and accurate way. More of the bait material hangs off the back of the hook for a livelier action. I chose the NovaStone Sunrise powder paint and 3D eyes for these. Of course various colors are always nice, but gold kind of goes with most baits, too. Golden Shiners are a favorite food item of most gamefish in my local lakes. So a small amount of gold is probably a good thing.I have a box full of eyes but found a need to order up some new ones. Needed to replace the Super Pearl eyes I used up, and saw some interesting ones I wanted. They always look better on the jig than in the pictures, so I am hoping to get some cool looking jigs out of them.I want to have roughly equal amounts of hand tied jigs and plastic bait jigs. Seems that they each catch about equal to one another. Surely the fish will prefer one over the other. I will have a vast selection of color combinations to present. Plastic baits are very nice and are probably my favorites. Confidence wise that is. LOLI plan to pour them all out onto the dining room table and try to organize them somehow. This will either be by color or style. Have to see them laid out before I decide. Then I will select some and place them in a pile ready to be assembled into lures. The baits with beer bellies don’t do too well with underspin heads. Kind of crowds them. I also want to have a nice supply of Beetle Spins readied as well.Sometimes the fish……he goes away. Sometimes the fish….he not go away. Same Same with bladed lures in my opinion. When they want it they want it, and when they don’t they don’t. My wife stole some of my tying feathers.Attachment 473936Attachment 473937Halloween pumpkin contest at her government job. Her team won first place with a prize of 4 hours off, any day any time. She made the owl and you can see my feathers. I hate it when she helps her self to my fishing line, too. She dared pluck my grizzly saddle thingie thing.
Wow you both have been busy! Thanks for sharing
Great displays by you both, WTG! It’s hard for fishermen and fish to not be attracted to such a colorful “bug buffet”. Wish my trays looked that way. lol Hope you and your wife have a happy Halloween.
Those are very nice. Love that black and white feather…if that’s what it is
Grizzly they call it.
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Fox hair, flash, and some duck. One has chicken feathers for a collar.
The wrap around on the duck is gonna require a little more practice for me. Jungle Jim uses a lot of duck and I like how his jigs look. Well of course I do. I like the way the duck lays against the fox to create a shad like appearance. The golden head adds to the look I feel. I just need to practice Palmering some more.
You sure have been busy. :ThumbsUp:ThumbsUp