school me on hair jigs

[thinkingredneck]

I tie flies and Crappie jigs, so I am confident that I can tie hair jigs for bass.

1.  What style jighead do you use?

2.  Do you tie with a weedguard?

3.  What weight?  It seems that this could be finesse, or not.

4.  When do you decide to use them over a silicone jig?

 

I saw A J's post and think those look fishy.  However, is this a clear water bait? It seems that they would work where Crappie jigs work.

I have some Uncle Josh pork frogs I was going to try wit them..

[smalljaw67]

Hair jigs can be very different from person to person. A member here, WRB, likes using a larger type hair jig with a pork chunk just like a silicone or rubber skirted jig. For me it is a finesse tool for cold water smallmouth and largemouth and mostly 1/4oz and under. The wild card is the preacher jig, the 7" long version made of bucktail and/or synthetic material along with longer hackle feathers which act as a tail and are fished without a trailer. I do well in clear water on hair jigs, and I do make a hair jig I call my "dirty water hair jig" but dirty water is a relative term. My dirty water hair jig is still small, usually 1/4oz to 3/8oz with a 2/0 hook but the water has to have a minimum 1' of visibility for me to fish it because I find a silicone or rubber skirted jig usually yields better results in dirty water. I do fish a finesse style hair jig in warm water and it is normally for smallmouth and is either marabou or craft fur and I use them when there is some type of adverse condition like gin clear water with sunny skies or too much pressure but the one common denominator is clear water. The biggest reason is they don't have a ton or action or move a lot of water so it is pretty much a visual bait. I'm only giving you some general information as it is hard to go into specifics not knowing what you are trying to learn about because as I previously mentioned, they can differ a lot from person to person.

[Crestliner2008]

I mainly use bucktail for smallie jigs. Usually 1/4 oz. ball heads with black bucktail. Will take anything. But, you have to fish it slow and barely off the bottom. Probably represents a leech more than anything else, but they work just fine. Sometimes I don't have the patience anymore.

[Obi_Wan]

I'm planning on tying up some with the 1/5 and 1/6 oz Z-Man Power Shroom heads.  I think a mix of hair with some rubber legs with a TRD Hogz should be a great smallie bait.

[Hower08]

I catch tons of largemouth on smaller sized hair jigs.  They just flat out work. My dad on the other hand fishes big 3/4 oz hair jigs swimming them shallow like under 10' shallow. Like most bait certain people shine at certain techniques. I recently tied up a few of my own that I think will rock giants

 

 

The one on left is black and white feathers hard to tell against black background. 

[papajoe222]

I fish hair jigs in shallower water, under 15ft., so I rarely go over 1/4oz. ball head, no weed guard. Although I do tie a few black with either a few strands of white, or red hair, the majority of mine are white, or light brown with a white head.  I can add stripes with a Sharpie to imitate a perch, or fish them as is to imitate a minnow.  I start out with compact 2in.-3in. jigs in cold water and work up to 4in.-5in. in the summer.

[WRB]

If you search "Old School Horizontal Jigging" on this site near the end of that thread a few photos of my hair jigs are posted. 

The jig head design style should allow you to fish any jig where you fish it. Siebert Outdoors sells pain jigs in several styles. GYCB also sells plain football and Hula grub jigs Owner or Gamakatsu hooks, both premium hooks, with and without weedgards.

Tom

[thinkingredneck]

Thanks

[onthewater102]

On 3/18/2019 at 11:41 PM, Hower08 said:

I catch tons of largemouth on smaller sized hair jigs.  They just flat out work. My dad on the other hand fishes big 3/4 oz hair jigs swimming them shallow like under 10' shallow. Like most bait certain people shine at certain techniques. I recently tied up a few of my own that I think will rock giants

 

 

The one on left is black and white feathers hard to tell against black background. 

Those are some awesome looking baits. I like the way you used a wire eye in the bottom of the pony head jig instead of a swivel as the mold calls for - that ball bearing blade has to be fantastic. 

[Hower08]

Those are Casey Ashley heads I don't pour any of my own led just tie all my own 

[Munkin]

Smalljaw67 and I fish a lot of the same type of river conditions. For me a hair jig is 1/8-3/8oz jig with a lite wire fished in cold water 40 degrees and under. I have used a lot of different materials but nothing beats bear hair for the cold water. 

 

Allen

[Hopalong7]

AMEN on the bear hair.  Has much more action than bucktail, especially in a small jig.  I tie lots of bucktails, but with a longer profile, mostly for Stripers.  My go to smallmouth river bait is a small profile 1/8 - 1/4 oz bear hair jig.

Walt

[bh91]

Is a clouser Minnow a Weightless hair jig?

[OkobojiEagle]

3 hours ago, bh91 said:

Is a clouser Minnow a Weightless hair jig?

Pretty much... however without the weight you've got a "fly" rather than a "jig".

 

oe