My first jigs (Scrapper)

These are the first set of jigs that I have made. I had already piddled with a few that Agrihawg showed...the little chartruse one making its debut in a mouth of a catfish....lol. My woolly boogers are looking a bit better...the tying is starting to come around a bit...you really start to learn where and how to orient things while you are tying. These are what I have so far...two to three of each...please let me know what you think as far as color combo's and the way I tie...please be tuff...I want to know where and how to improve my new hobby! Thanks alot to everyone for their sharing of information on this site...ecspecially skip for all his help with tools, materials, and knowlede... and now grousefly has been helping me along with my jig heads. Here they are!!! Thanks again!! :D




http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/P1010286.jpg


http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/P1010303.jpg


http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/P1010304.jpg


http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/P1010312.jpg


http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/P1010315.jpg


http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/P1010325.jpg


http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/P1010333.jpg


http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/P1010334.jpg


http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...g/P1010338.jpg


Thanks again!! Let me have it!! Critique away!! :D

Scrapper, they look very good for some early jigs: the tails are the right proportions and the chenille looks good, and they WILL catch fish as-is. But from aesthetic perspective, you need some practise in your finish, that is, the final thread wraps after you have applied the chenille. Continue the chenille all the way on up to the lead head, then while holding the material, secure the chenille to the hook with a few tight wraps, then cut the chenille close, then make another 5 to 10 wraps of thread, then use some head cement. The fish more than likely don't notice, but it just looks better to us. But other than that, they look fine. The colors look good, and as for the hackled jigs, I don't use them. But I recommend you use a smaller hackle. This applies to flies, esp. the Wooly Bugger: you should use a hackle that is no more than 1.5x the widh of the hook gap (hook size). There tools available called hackle gauges that help with that. I also recommend that you try including krystal flash in the tail. I believe the flash will does make a difference.

Nice. Now tie a few thousand more till you get the "perfect" one and then let us know how you did it! We are all still trying to tie our first "perfect" one also.:D:D

Seriously, enjoy the journey. Nice ties.

Scrapper

Overall they look good. your tails look good but as has been said you need to wrap your chenile bodies probably one more wrap at least and then work on your tie off. Two or three tight wraps and then a half hitch or better learn how to do a whip finish by hand or with a tool, it rally does make your jigs look good.

There is a sticky in this Jig tying area that shows three ways of tieing off, study it and practice it. http://www.crappie.com/crappie/jig-t...ys-finish.html

Keep up the good work and have fun. If you want more critiques tie em up and attach them here for us to look at

Fatman

I like em sometimes I use the wide collar sometimes I don't I believe the black and yellow might do better with a red collar I know it would here .put a white or chratruse head on the pink and black! look out!

i like the orange and the black and orange

Looks good now your hooked:D

Fatman and OKstate...I do wrap the chenille all the way to the lead head. I just have this thing about overdoing things...just ask agrihawg...lol...so when I end the chenille I worry that it will come ondone at some point so I make a collar over the end of the chenille next to the lead head. I will tie some with just a few tight wraps then use my whip finisher...I know that will look better...so you guys do not have trouble with the chenille coming undone with just a few wraps?? Thanks alot!! And yeah...I'm hooked...much better than most of the fish I catch!! lol :D

I think the thread wrap near the head is quite unique myself.
The "norm" is to take the chenille all the way up but if you like that style then make it your own trademark. Like Ship said in an earlier post the red and black near the head tend to resemble gills and bait fish. Those jigs look good to me. Keep practicing and by all means take them out and catch some fish with them. Looks like you've got the makings of being a bionified jig tying man.

TTT. Hey Skip, I saw you were back. I have been enjoying myself on this new venture you set me on. I'll have to get back to tying since I'm done with that boat now. What do you think of my first jigs?? I know there is ALOT of room to improve...I have caught my first fish on a hand tied jig though! It was awsome! Thanks again!

quick question what is the best hackle to use? strung, neck, saddle?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scrapper

TTT. Hey Skip, I saw you were back. I have been enjoying myself on this new venture you set me on. I'll have to get back to tying since I'm done with that boat now. What do you think of my first jigs?? I know there is ALOT of room to improve...I have caught my first fish on a hand tied jig though! It was awsome! Thanks again!

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Not bad and they will get better with practice for sure.

You need to re size your pictures though as they are too big. You want them to be like 640x480 pixels and not just so they fit. You are limited with the amount of stuff you can post here in pictures and such so some day the board will not let you upload or post a link of a picture so the smaller you make them the less of that space you use. I know this first hand and had to delete a lot of my older stuff from the web site.

Good to see you putting all that stuff to good use and I feel sure you felt the joy of catching fish on a jig you tied.

Keep tying and keep getting better.

Skip