Saddle-Tailed, Silicone-Skirted Jig

Materials:

•  Sportsman's Warehouse Wapsi Strung Rooster Saddle Long CSW141 - sculpin olive/white
•  FlyMasters Wapsi Sili Legs SF320 - olive/black flake
•  Hareline-Dubbin, Inc. Crazy Legs CL297 - Pumpkin/olive black flake
•  Kreinik Very Fine #4 Braid 009 - emerald
•  Lion Brand Suede Yarn (discontinued) - olive
•  Coats Trilobal Polyester Machine Embroidery Thread 444 40-wt. - olive
•  Eagle Claw 1/8-Oz. Ball Head Jig JB0018U
•  Experimental Powder Paint Mixture (Rosey's and Harbor Freight) - safety blue/red/yellow 1:1:1 ratio

More Chenille-Bodied Tube Style Baits

Added a couple of olive-colored tubes to my box recently.  Used Lion Brand Suede Yarn (olive) and Wapsi Sili Legs (olive/black flake) to form the bodies and tentacles.  Dotted the bodies with black Tulip Puffy Paint.

If the rain would ever end for a while, perhaps I'll field test them in the local river.

Chenille-Bodied Tube Style Bait

It's fun to mimic commercially-produced soft plastic baits like crayfish, tubes, and worms with fabric and, sometimes, silicone.  Here's one such bait, a bass tube, that I designed and tied the other night.

Materials:

• Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp Worm Hook L3001GK-2/0 - black pearl
• Hareline-Dubbin, Inc. Crazy Legs - pumpkin/olive black flake
• Bullet Weights Rubber Grip Sinker - 1/8 ounce
• Beadalon 7-Strand Stainless Steel Coated Beading Wire - 0.61 mm/0.024 in
• Tulip Puffy Paint - green
• Coats & Clark Trilobal Polyester Machine Embroidery Thread 40-wt. - chona brown
• Hobby Lobby Baby Bee Dreamy Super Soft Yarn - chocolate

Used hemostats to bend and form the beading wire.  Kept good tension on the yarn as it was triple wrapped.

JigCraft.com Jig Swap #29

Just finished tying these for the jig swap.  There are 18 participants.  Should be interesting to see the jigs I'll receive in return.  Will try to remember to post a photo of them here.

Black Sparkle Bug

Materials:

• Wapsi Saddle Hackles (2 @ 4-6") - black
• Danville's Flat Waxed Nylon Thread (140 denier) - black
• Spirit River Real Eyes Plus (7/32") - yellow
• Caron Glimmer Yarn - black
• Bullet Weights Rubber Grip Sinker (1/16 ounce)
• Bungee cord rubber strands (3) - white/off white
• Cousin's Cord Basics 7-Strand Beading Wire (0.3mm) - black
• Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp EWG Worm Hook - 2/0

Pepper Heads & A "Flying V" Trailer

Painted and tied several "pepper"-headed jigs last weekend.  Fine black glitter mixed with a clear powder coat works well for a "black spot" effect.  Fish likely won't care, but I think that it looks interesting.  It's simple and fun to do.  All jigs weigh 1/8 of an ounce and have #2 bronze hooks.

Next up is my "Flying V" jig trailer.  It's simply a "V" cut from a piece of supple brown leather and trimmed to form a tongue that overlaps the hook point.  Two projecting appendages provide action behind the hair of the jig.  Photos follow that should show you what I mean. :)

Used craft foam to supply the trailer a little 'lift' when wet.  Originally, I thought about gluing the two pieces together and then onto the leather.  However, the idea of using needle and thread seemed appealing to me since I would be gluing with Fabri-Tac which requires thorough room ventilation.  I did not want to leave the windows open, so this is my result.  Black upholstery thread works well if you are careful with your knots.  You might notice that I pinched a corner of foam off as I cinched down on my knot. :(  All in all, I don't believe that this trailer turned out badly for my first try.  Though, the fish will let me know one way or another... ;)

Winter Fishing In Indiana (Video)

A pretty nice video presented by Brian Waldman of Big Indiana Bass. It involves spoonplugging theory and hair jigs during a recent fishing trip (December 29).

This is how it looks and works, presently, in my neck of the woods. Except when I go, I don't catch nearly as many fish. :)