My 1st Hair Jig

[socialbasser]

I made my first hair jig. I will appreciate your comments and advice please.

[jmgravenor]

Looks lekker. Another question for the other guys.
IF a jig doesn't have a weed-guard, when the bass hits it the first time, won't he feel the point of the hook and spit it out? :blue-question:

I've seen a few people use jig heads without weedguards and an exposed hook, and they still catch fish(In small dams though so the fish are quite stupid)

[Frogstar]

Breede smallie has started a craze. I dig it. :blue-biggrin:

That looks really good socialbasse.

@jmgravenor, You have a "point". When i fish for smallies with the fly rod the hook is exposed and I have never had a smallie hit the lure twice. If you miss the fist strike hi wont hit it again. Possibly because he felt the hook, or he quickly realized that deer hair isn't very nutritious.

Im keen to get some blank jig heads with weed guards as I would love to fish them at mofam and other spots with lots of timber. I fear that without a weed guard they gonna get stuck often.

Im keen to replace all my rubber jigs with hand tied jigs. Firstly a nice cost saving, but also the joy of creating your own baits.

[breedesmallie]

Weed guards or no weed guards makes no difference for the bite. The big reason the Americans chance to rubber and silicon skirts was cost. For them hair jigs became to expensive and a nother reason was that they used to fish their jigs with pork rind trailers. That trailers used to be a messy business and it ruined the hair jigs.The old timers sticked to hair jigs till this day, there must be a good reason for that :blue-biggrin:
Gents your hair jigs are looking very fine. I've got 130 jigs, only 15 of them are the rubber and silicon ones, say no more :blue-biggrin: The only reason I keep them is when the bass wants a bigger profile jig then I throw them and that happens very seldom.

[socialbasser]

Thank you for the feedback. Hopefully it catches something. It is extremely relaxing for me to tie the jigs. Me and my wife sit around the table in the braai lapa, she with her painting and me doing hair jigs. Good quality time. It taps into one's creativity and I suppose bass knowledge, but that I have too little of at this stage. Its big time trail and error for me.

[socialbasser]

If I may ask another question. If I ask what hair colors, which colors jump to mind first?

[breedesmallie]

Socialbasser, wait till you catch your first bass on one of your creations and we will talk again. I see that you are from Pretoria, I used to fish the quarie many many moons ago, ultra clear water with huge bass in it and they are so damn difficult to catch, use one of those hair jigs and we talk again. This bait is deadly in such clear water.

[socialbasser]

Yip - thats a great idee. I'll tackle the quarry. Test the hair jigs there.

[breedesmallie]

Do you guys still fish the quarrie as I understood it from someone that it is nearly impossible to fish there during weekends cause of all the water sports and stuff going on there.

[socialbasser]

I had the quarrie between Waterkloof and Monument Park in mind? Have not been there in a long time. used to stay next to it. Backthen it was not used for anything. The skelms hid away there before and after breaking into the houses. Are we talking about the same quarrie?

[Q]

Thank you for the feedback. Hopefully it catches something. It is extremely relaxing for me to tie the jigs. Me and my wife sit around the table in the braai lapa, she with her painting and me doing hair jigs. Good quality time. It taps into one's creativity and I suppose bass knowledge, but that I have too little of at this stage. Its big time trail and error for me.

I tied all my flies when I was fly fishing and is the one thing I missed when I stopped with fly fishing. And I enjoyed it also for the same reasons you do. So, it was very enjoyable to pull out the old tying kit again.
And, like BS said, wait till you catch something from what you've made. I've only caught bass on my own flies (and how I got hooked on Bass fishing ).
So, I'm also looking forward to catch something on my own hair jigs.

[breedesmallie]

Socialbass that's the one I am talking about. We used to go there and braai and fish from anything that could float, nothing fancy as I was doing my army training there in the mid 70's. I did my camps in Pretoria till mid 80's and revisited those quarry every time to fish it. Those days it was a popular place to go to. We used to catch big bass there. The water was gin clear. Don't know what it's like now. As I said that was in the mid 70's to mid 80's many many moons ago. I never revisited it since, would like to know How it look these days.

[socialbasser]

The water is still cristal clear. The safety is quite an issue. I must go check it out again. The bass must be huge by now - not much natural enemies for them in there. They are probably at the top of the food chain.

[Frogstar]

I've got 130 jigs, only 15 of them are the rubber and silicon ones, say no more :blue-biggrin: The only reason I keep them is when the bass wants a bigger profile jig then I throw them and that happens very seldom.

I feel I'll be going the same route!