Making Jigs

[RLinc07]

Hey all, I'm new to this site, but not to fishing, and want to start learning how to make jigs. Does anyone make their own jigs? Do certain materials work differently in the water than others? Could anyone give me tips on the best, most efficient way to make jigs? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I fish for largemouth in particular, but smallmouth as well! Thanks!

[Chattahoochee]

I would ask this question in the Tacklemaking subforum. Those guys are great and almost allways willing to help.

[smalljaw67]

There are a lot of different head designs and skirt materials for both smallmouth and largemouth. First you need to decide how deep into it you want to go, for exampple you can buy unpainted jigheads and then paint and put skirts on them, you can also make your own skirts or buy those already made also. I pour, paint and make my own skirts, I have a lot of different molds to use and I make spinnerbaits and bladed jigs in addition to bass jigs. I also tie hair jigs so when you say you want to make jigs you need to be a little more specific. If you want to make your own skirts, and pour the heads you'll need a mold, a melting pot, a small file to smooth the sprue, lead, hooks, paint, skirt material, a skirt tool and some hot mill gloves as well as safety glasses. To make 50 jigs you're looking at around 200 to 300 dollars for start up costs so if you are planning on saving money, this isn't what you want to do. There is a website called, tackle underground, you can go there and learn the basics as well as places to get your materials from, good luck and if you have any questions I'll be more than happy to help you.

[Jig Man]

Like smalljaw stated unless you want to get into some serious money, you can buy premolded jig heads either painted or unpainted and skirt material. Then you can put them together yourself and see how it goes.

Check places like Cabelas, Bass Pro, Stamina Inc, Barlows, Jans Net Craft, Lure Craft, and Fishing Skirts for supplies.

For example: Barlow's has football heads for around $.60 each and skirt tabs in a kit for around $.30 each. So you could put together jigs for $1.20 per jig.

You can make the a whole lot cheaper once you have you lead pot, fluid bed, powder paint, lead, etc. But unless you buy hooks by the 1000 and skirt materials by the 100 you won't have a lot of savings.