Tail Spinners

Tried my hand at tail spinners for the first time this week.  These have the potential to be good lures for white bass and crappie.

Materials:

• LashMax Yarns in green chartreuse and white.
• Swivels, split rings, and Colorado blades in gold and silver.
• Flat wax threads in white and fluorescent chartreuse - 125 denier and 210 denier, respectively.
• 1/16-oz. darter head jigs with #4 gold Aberdeen hooks.

Crappie Prep

Just a few of the jigs that I tied today for spring crappie fishing.

All are tied on 1/16-oz. Arkie Darter Jigs with #4 gold Aberdeen hooks.  Used green chartreuse marabou and craft fur.  Dabbled in a bit of yellow chartreuse craft fur as well.  Krystal Flash was added to all but one of the jigs.  Designed the jig at the far right for a slow fall, as its craft fur fibers are matted somewhat densely.

More "Tubeless" Tube Jigs

Tied a few more to imitate tube jigs.  Most have painted heads.  Each of them weighs about 1/16 of an ounce and has a # 4 hook.

The style is simple and easy to tie.  Palmered eyelash yarn and chenille comprise the jig bodies.  I am really looking forward to fishing these. :)

"Tubeless" Tube Jigs

LashMax is my favorite eyelash yarn.  I cannot get over how useful this yarn is for tying.  Keep in mind that it has good action in the water and it can be used for a variety of different ties.  Pictured below are some jigs that I've tied to mimic crappie tubes.  An example of one would be the Creme Mini Tail.

Some jigs weigh 1/16 of an ounce and have # 4 hooks.  Others are 1/32-oz. and have # 6 hooks.  The heads are unpainted since I plan to fish these (i.e. there's no artistic contest here). ;)

There is a soft plastic crappie tube in the picture.  See if you can locate it.

Another Kreature From The Depths...

...of my yarn bin.

Used a stringy olive eyelash yarn in combination with a multi-colored one that is much like mohair.  The "claws" are olive-brown saddle hackles.  Copper flashabou accent provides an additional attraction for bass.

A Little "Jack Crawford" Style - I Hope

Felt like tying with feathers and came up with this little footballer.

Materials:

• Brown saddle hackles (4)
• Barred brown saddle hackles (2)
• Brown craft fur
• Number 6 bulky caramel-colored chenille yarn
• Number 5 dark brown chenille yarn
• Flat wax nylon thread (140 denier) - rusty brown
• A 1/8-oz. football head jig with a 3/0 black nickel hook

Did a little web surfing recently and found a discussion of hair jigs made by the Jack Crawford Tackle Company.  It was interesting to me.  If I can find some color plates of the jigs, then perhaps I can create some very similar paint, feather, and fur combinations.  Otherwise, you'll just be stuck with my stuff. ;)

A Newer Paint Mixture, Style, & Camera

Mixed a pretty nice orange color from the combination of hot pink and yellow chartreuse powder paint.  Here are some of my results.

The newer style that I'm referring to includes the jigs with short chenille bodies and craft fur tails.  I like the possibilities for fishermen who fish hair jigs during the cold weather months and like their jigs to have scent-holding capability.  It looks good to me too, but will it to the fish?  I need to field test this.

Here is a spider grub/kreature bait for Indiana rivers and creeks that contain walleye, sauger, and smallmouth bass.

It is a combination of green chartreuse/limetreuse and light brown colors.  I like it best for big sauger.  Took this picture using a newer camera.  My beloved Samsung D530 may be giving up the ghost.  I've taken hundreds of pictures with it.  It will be missed.  Admittedly, I do like the picture resolution better with the newer camera.  Also, it seems to adjust more rapidly and with better consistency to a variety of lighting conditions.

All jigs weigh about 1/8 of an ounce and have #2 bronze light-wire hooks.