Is there a specific name for this kind of jig?

[fishwizzard]

At some point last year (or the year before...) I bought some small tied jigs from someone on here.  They are little marabou jigs with a "trailer" of silicone stands.  I bought them on impulse and forgot about them for months, but I rediscovered them, fished them a little, and now I want a hundred more.  The issue is, I am not having a lot of luck finding more like them as I don't know what to google.  Is there a specific name for this kind of jig?

[J Francho]

Those look good!

[Gundog]

My bad. Didn't realize it was in tackle making section.

[J Francho]

It's in the tackle making forum

[Gundog]

1 minute ago, J Francho said:

It's in the tackle making forum

That's why there should be a hour delay from the time you wake up from a nap and when you get on the internet. 

[fishwizzard]

7 hours ago, J Francho said:

Those look good!

I know!  That's why I am so hot to ID them so I can try and buy/make some more of them.  

[fishwizzard]

I think I found them!

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/6-CUSTOM-1-8TH-OZ-SMALLMOUTH-BASS-WALLEYE-FOOTBALL-GRIZZLY-BUGGER-JIGS/253977203472

 

This guy calls them "woodly bugger jigs".  

[Paul Roberts]

Those would be cake to tie.

-Tie in the rubber tails

-Wrap saddle hackle butts (the soft marabou-like plumes at the base of saddle hackles) to the lead head. You do not want dry fly quality saddles -too expensive- but the long ones used for streamer flies and jigs.

-Tie off (look up "whip finish", or make a series of half-hitches and glue with clear nail polish).

 

Presto!

 

Careful! It's addicting. And you might just come up with something even better.

 

[Paul Roberts]

On 11/15/2018 at 1:09 PM, J Francho said:

Those look good!

Yes, and they'll catch just about everything. Bass, trout, panfish, carp, ...

[fishwizzard]

6 hours ago, Paul Roberts said:

Those would be cake to tie.

-Tie in the rubber tails

-Wrap saddle hackle butts (the soft marabou-like plumes at the base of saddle hackles) to the lead head. You do not want dry fly quality saddles -too expensive- but the long ones used for streamer flies and jigs.

-Tie off (look up "whip finish", or make a series of half-hitches and glue with clear nail polish).

 

Presto!

 

Careful! It's addicting. And you might just come up with something even better.

 

Making them might be the kick in the butt I need to start tying.  I have a vice and some supplies, but other then a few awful looking perch jigs, I have never really sat down and played with it.  

 

I love those little hairjigs, but I loose them constantly, which is a good motivation to tie them.  Thank's for the parts list, I will look around for some hackle butts, I think I can just borrow a few strands from my jigs for the legs.

[Paul Roberts]

18 hours ago, fishwizzard said:

Making them might be the kick in the butt I need to start tying.  I have a vice and some supplies, but other then a few awful looking perch jigs, I have never really sat down and played with it.  

 

I love those little hairjigs, but I loose them constantly, which is a good motivation to tie them.  Thank's for the parts list, I will look around for some hackle butts, I think I can just borrow a few strands from my jigs for the legs.

Oh, great! You have a vice. I'm quick to say that tying really is easy... but there are a few things that make it much easier:

-A vice. Doesn't need to be fancy.

-Proper thread. For jigs you'll probably want 3/0 monocord for thread. 6/0 for tiny jigs.

-And a whip finish tool is nice, if you are new to it. If you get one, get a "ball-bearing" type; I believe Matarelli came out with the first one. Now there are knockoffs. They aren't expensive.

-Don't need "head cement", clear nail polish works fine.

-Materials: You don't need to get too concerned about exact recipes. Nice to start with something you already have confidence in. Then you can tweak things. And start inventing our own. LOTS of things catch fish. Just bc someone else thought of something, doesn't make it holy. I've gleaned a lot of my favorite materials from fabric or hobby stores, hunting, roadkill, pets, ... small children... .

 

You know the Ned-Rig craze? Small jigs of many types are just plain killers too, as you've discovered. You probably know about bucktail for winter hair jigs. Cake to tie, and just killer. But LOTs of things work.

 

One of the very first I ever made -exactly 40 yrs ago now (hmmmm... hard to believe, actually, bc those memories are still fresh)- was a 1/32oz. scud tied from gray squirrel tail-base hairs (they are longer than body hairs and softer than tail hairs). I tied it, walked out the back door to the little creek behind my house, walked up to a little pool to get it wet, and caught a 17inch brown trout! It stayed in my bathtub until my dad got home to see it.

 

I extended that scud in length to come up with a crayfish pattern that, to this day, is one of the most consistent fish catchers I've made. Originally it was a jig, but I also adapted it to a fly pattern and it was, and still is, one of the most successful fly patterns I've made. It is just killer on trout, smallmouths, crappie, big bluegills, and, unfortunately, interested a few too many carp -trouble on UL tackle. I'd see a big wake coming, and say, "No! no, no , no!"

 

There were quite a few years that I considered myself a "light-tackle jig fisherman" (a la Charlie Brewer), and I invented nearly all the jigs I fished. Good luck with your tying. It certainly created lures, and memories, for me that have stood the test of time.

[J Francho]

Nice demo:

 

 

[fishwizzard]

Thanks for the info @Paul Roberts!  I have a small pile of assorted material from the perch jig project, I will look through it in a bit and see what I have. 

 

Unfortunately, the whip finish has been a stumbling block for me, I cannot do it either by hand or with the tool. It’s absolutely infuriating as I’m generally very good with knots and even worked as a rigger for a while.  There is something I am not getting about it dispite watching a hundred videos over the last year or three. It’s been a few months since I last gave it ago, I will have to give it another go this weekend.  

 

Any week now I’m about to embark on the winter “clean and re-organize” project in my little man cave a lot and I’m actually going to take the time to make a little tying area instead of just trying to work with the vice clamped to whatever open corner of my bench I can find.  I am about at the point where I cannot reasonably claim to “need” to buy anymore tackle, so the only logical thing to do is start making my own.  

[Paul Roberts]

Keep at it, it'll click. Once you get it, it's really fast. But, everyone's different. Some people have a tougher time with certain things than others. I used to teach fly-tying. I'd even go to the big shows and teach one-on-one to literally hundreds of people, one after the other. Interesting thing was, it was impossible to tell who would have an easy time and who would be challenged. Worse comes to worse, you can always use half a dozen half-hitches.

 

It's snowing pretty hard here now, so my man cave(s) are getting a going over too. And I have to buzz up some hair jigs myself.

 

Cheers. Sounds like you've got a fun winter ahead.

[smalljaw67]

I don't think they are marabou but I could be wrong. To me it looks like the silicone strands are tied in and then some new age chenille for the body with soft hackle palmered on like a wooly bugger. What size is that jig? I'll look at me hackle as I may have some grizzly soft hackle and if I do I could tie one up for you.

[Paul Roberts]

I think you are right, smalljaw67, that that's either palmered hen hackle, or marabou. Looks pretty darn soft, so I think it may be marabou. It's NOT likely saddle butts, as I had suggested -the most expensive of the three that could give that effect.

[fishwizzard]

On 12/6/2018 at 4:34 PM, smalljaw67 said:

I don't think they are marabou but I could be wrong. To me it looks like the silicone strands are tied in and then some new age chenille for the body with soft hackle palmered on like a wooly bugger. What size is that jig? I'll look at me hackle as I may have some grizzly soft hackle and if I do I could tie one up for you.

It took me a bit to find them, they were filed under "Hard Baits, Finesse" rather then "Jigs, Finesse".  I really got to clean the tackle hoard up.  

 

They weigh .102oz, so I assume they were built on 1/16oz heads.  I think I prefer them on 1/8oz heads to get a bit more casting ease and so they move slower in current.  In any case I would love to buy a few more as it will be a while before I get my stuff in order to try my hand at them.  It seems like our year of weekly rain is almost over and I think one of my wading spots might be low enough to fish in a week or two.  

[Arcs&sparks]

Thanks for posting this,  something inside me needs several of them.  I have a feeling this will make a great bait for my fishing style,  Hard and soft water. ?

[MickD]

Maribou feathers are killers for SMB, and are about like the feathers recommended above, are fairly inexpensive at fly shops or on-line materials dealers.  Get a medium sized whip finisher for jigs, smalls are too small to easily clear the jig head.  I'd go to a fly shop with a jig head and ask the expert there to sell you a whip finisher that will work well for the jigs, AND ask him/her to show you how to use it.  Keep trying with the whip finisher, as stated, once you get it, you got it.  And there is no better way to finish the final wraps. 

 

There is a Sally Henson hard clear nail topcoat that is supposed to be UV resistant, dries almost instantly, not expensive and is better than some of the fly head products on the market. Some of them are pricey and they don't seal really well.

 

The on-line jig images look to me like they have rabbit zonker strips, too.  Rabbit is also very good for the same reason the saddle hackle/maribou feathers are-it never stops moving in the water.  Olives and blacks are very good, white also for very clear water.  Barred strips seem to have some magic in them.