Thread: Jig Maker ……. Jig Maker

1\10th ounce heads.






These are a tad heavier than my “regular” weight of 1/16th ounce. They will tend to run slightly deeper.


With long lining it is all just a crap shoot anyways. If you ask someone how much line they put out, they will tell you a good cast’s worth. Well that ain’t much help. I do not want to start using line counter reels as that is way too much hassle. If you put out more line the jigs will run deeper. Less line they ride higher. Go slow they run deeper. Run fast they run higher. More weight they run deeper.

So there are at least three variables involved, until you start figuring the amount of drag the jigs has. Well it is far too complicated for me to try to figure. The depth charts that get posted every so often are very specific, and will never match up with me, crank baits aside.

The saving grace for me is that my lakes are shallow affairs. Average depth I am trolling over is about 6 feet. I toss the 1/16th ounce jigs out a “good cast’s length”. Then I set out the heavier jigs which tend to run at a much different angle, not quite straight down but maybe 45 degrees. These get very little line.


I have a 2d sonar and only rarely glance over at it. I like to see bait balls, but pretty much everything else is weeds on the bottom. Like a giant salad bowl. No structures to dip, no docks to cast to. Just vast areas of weeds with bait balls here and there. So for me, it is all just a crap shoot. No. need to buy me no Death Scope. The fish hide in the weeds down bottom. Side scan might be of some use, but I suspect staring at the screen would annoy me. So I kind of point the boat and ride.

My thinking is to have baits at different depths, and different distances out and away from the boat. I mix things up some if they don’t seem to be biting.

I have six planer boards, the minis with the Sun logo on them, and they do fine for taking the jigs out and away from the boat. I thought that the boat would be scaring the fish and chase them away. Maybe so, but I no longer concern myself with that. I have caught too many fish right against the side of the boat. An old man told me he would hook them right next to the running outboard engine while he trolled. I suspect they do not flush as much as fish in deeper lakes because there really is no where to go.

I imagine that if I were a crappie, I would be pretty dumb. They have a lot to contend with actually. Water turkeys swimming round trying to bite them. Large bass and gar roaming around. Gators. There is a lot to be weary of if you are just a little guy.So they learn to dodge down into the weeds when attacked. Maybe try to out distance the predator. Look out- osprey. Like I said there is a lot to be weary of. It would be best to find one spot and learn it well and hide out. Problem is you got to eat, so you have to leave that safe area.

There are fat head minnows, bull minnows, various gamefish minnows, freshwater shrimp, lake fly larvae, and of course shad. In the weed shorelines a crappie can find both safety and food. One might think they would stay put back in there, but they don’t. I find fish scattered all over the lake. I have seen days when going from 5 feet deep to six feet deep made a huge difference. How so you ask, well I really don’t know why, but it is a thing I assure you.

I watched the game commission shocking fish for a survey. Their boat was parked right in the weeds and they were shocking right next to it. So my local fish don’t seem to be too frightened about boats over top of them.

So I have been making jigs in 1/20th oz, 1/16th oz, 1/10th oz, 1/8th oz, 3/16th oz, and 1/4 oz. I have to try to develop a method of organization and deployment that works

Made some more.I have three jig boxes for hand-ties.There is room to squeeze in a few more. LOLI tie a few in the morning and over time it adds up.I gave that old man his box of jigs and he had invited me to go fishing, but it was on a day I had things. I really can’t wait to get out there on his boat and start observing things. I hope he is a cranky old curmudgeon that will yell at me and stuff. That would be cool. “Your not doing it right”. Just like my father used to do it.My next project involves organizing my plastic baits. What a mess. I have baits in bags that haven’t even been opened. I poured up about a hundred jig heads just for these additional plastic baits. These are all short shank hooks as it makes it easier to penetrate the plastic body in an easy and accurate way. More of the bait material hangs off the back of the hook for a livelier action. I chose the NovaStone Sunrise powder paint and 3D eyes for these. Of course various colors are always nice, but gold kind of goes with most baits, too. Golden Shiners are a favorite food item of most gamefish in my local lakes. So a small amount of gold is probably a good thing.I have a box full of eyes but found a need to order up some new ones. Needed to replace the Super Pearl eyes I used up, and saw some interesting ones I wanted. They always look better on the jig than in the pictures, so I am hoping to get some cool looking jigs out of them.I want to have roughly equal amounts of hand tied jigs and plastic bait jigs. Seems that they each catch about equal to one another. Surely the fish will prefer one over the other. I will have a vast selection of color combinations to present. Plastic baits are very nice and are probably my favorites. Confidence wise that is. LOLI plan to pour them all out onto the dining room table and try to organize them somehow. This will either be by color or style. Have to see them laid out before I decide. Then I will select some and place them in a pile ready to be assembled into lures. The baits with beer bellies don’t do too well with underspin heads. Kind of crowds them. I also want to have a nice supply of Beetle Spins readied as well.Sometimes the fish……he goes away. Sometimes the fish….he not go away. Same Same with bladed lures in my opinion. When they want it they want it, and when they don’t they don’t. My wife stole some of my tying feathers.Halloween pumpkin contest at her government job. Her team won first place with a prize of 4 hours off, any day any time. She made the owl and you can see my feathers. I hate it when she helps her self to my fishing line, too. She dared pluck my grizzly saddle thingie thing.

Wow you both have been busy! Thanks for sharing

Great displays by you both, WTG! It’s hard for fishermen and fish to not be attracted to such a colorful “bug buffet”. Wish my trays looked that way. lol Hope you and your wife have a happy Halloween.

Those are very nice. Love that black and white feather…if that’s what it is

Grizzly they call it.

Fox hair, flash, and some duck. One has chicken feathers for a collar.

The wrap around on the duck is gonna require a little more practice for me. Jungle Jim uses a lot of duck and I like how his jigs look. Well of course I do. I like the way the duck lays against the fox to create a shad like appearance. The golden head adds to the look I feel. I just need to practice Palmering some more.