Chicken Feather Jigs

[Bream Reaper]

Anyone know what kind of chicken and which feather to get (location-location-location)?

Also.... How to tie one?

[shipahoy41]

I would tie them in a similar way as to tie a marabou or kip jig. I have posted basic tying steps in this forum. Another great source of pure white chicken feathers that are the perfect size for crappies is to look for downy comforters or downy pillows at flea markets and thrift stores.

You can also go to u tube and type in chicken feather jigs. Here is a quote from one site I found..................

That's fowl. Many people are familiar with marabou (turkey) feather jigs, but few jig fishermen have ever seen a saddle hackle (chicken) jig. These are the same long thin delicate feathers that are all the rage for everyone to use on the back of their topwater poppers nowadays.

The very best feathers are "strung saddle hackles" of the highest QUALITY grade (so important!). What that means is that the feather merchant sets aside the softest, longest, supplest feathers, which are then strung onto a long line by a laborer using needle and thread. You want the grade of strung hackles which are 5 to 6 inches long. You really only will be able to make jigs that max out with about 3 to 4 inches of dressing. This is because you will clip off and discard the fuzzy part, called the "hurl," which covers about one-third the length down near the butt end of the "quill." You will be tying only the neat, gauze-like webby filaments that cover two-thirds the length of the feathers towards the tip.

Only problem is that high quality "strung" feathers this long are darn hard to find. You will probably have to buy bulk if you can even find it - and it is expensive. You will probably want to go down and hand-pick the strings (which are rolled up into coils) that you will buy. But if you are a jig fishin' nut, it's definitely worth your while to find these good "strung" hackles. These high quality feathers plump up in the water like ballpark franks on a grill! The lure flattens into a streamlined shape as it shoots forward , then swells up as though breathing when stopped. They exhibit what I can only describe as a living, supple, fleshy kind of appearance and action when wet.

If you decide to take the easy way out and settle for the "loose" stuff that you usually see jumbled into plastic bags at flyfishing stores, you will still be able to wrap and catch fish with this stuff, but the "loose" feathers get rough, dull and brittle, and tend to lose desirable qualities (suppleness, fleshiness, sheen, glossy webbing, etc.).

To wrap, snip the center stem of about 6 to 8 hackles with a very pointy scissors. Snip right where the fuzzy marabou-like part of the feather gives way to the webbed filaments. You do not want to tie using any of the fuzzy, frizzy part at all...so use your fingers to strip any last fuzzy piece and/or strip a few webbed filaments off the stem, just enough to give you a bare stub of stem to wrap under the thread, okay? Now, start wrapping the longest feathers first. Right side, left side, right, left, right, left... for 6 to 8 feathers...wrap the longest ones first and the shortest ones last. Never wrap on the top or bottom of the hook..only the left and right sides. It is perfect if there a gap from top to bottom between the two halves - it creates water flow, enhanced movement and vibration. Overall, you are looking to wrap a pennant-shaped dressing.

What more do you need to know? Well, it would have been pretty sneaky of me not to say that the "inside" of the feather MUST BE WRAPPED FACING THE INSIDE of the jig. The final effect is called the "praying hands" method of feather-tying.

Colors are basically white. As far as the color of a feather jig, it’s really not too important relative to the other desirable qualities - action, shape, movement, water displacement, breathing. Usually, the color is neither the attraction nor the trigger, It is the material and tying technique that provides the allure, the attraction, the seductive come-hither.

At times I will wrap 2 or 3 pink or chartreuse feathers onto the jig first, then wrap over them with 4 or 5 longer white hackles. Just put the pink or chartreuse on first so that the whites kind of overshadow it. As with bucktail tying, a sparse dressing and less thread is always better than overdoing it with too many fathers.

Finished wrapping all the feathers? Now just put the slighest amount of sealant solution on the thread

[GregG]

The hackle bags you get at Gander Mtn. are just fine. You'll probably pick through the bunch and use only about 2/3rds of the package but, that's a ton of jigs for 3 bucks.

I tie the feathers much differently than the way mentioned in the post above.

I clip the feather before the "fuzzy" stuff but, I then continue to clip the quill about every 1/4 - 1/3 of an inch all the way to the tip of the feather.

This will produce many "V" shaped feather pieces which I then stack on top of each other. I take the stack and tie the quill portion to the jig leaving the remainder of the feather loose. This results in the same visual appearance as a hair/kip jig but, is much softer and produces better "action" in my opinion than a kip jig.

Finish it up with some chenille to cover the body.

[SpeckWick]

Hey Greg G, could you post a pic of what the finished jig looks like. I'm having trouble visualizing it.

[shipahoy41]

Bream Reaper,

I'm an absolute amateur at this - but have tied a few - and I'm somewhere in between the two great previous posts:

On the type of feathers:
I think the loose feathers work fine; thousands of jigs have been tied with them and thousands of fish caught on them. Easy to find (Ebay) and very inexpensive. Usually $2 for 1/4 ounce and that will tie a LOT of jigs. Figure one jig per feather even after waste. So, $10 gets you enough feathers & color variety to just wear you out LOL!

On tying methods:
Skip's method is great, and a simplified version of his method of attaching them to each side of the hook is akin to the Popeye jigs that were quickly tied in mass quantities by a lot of old timers across Tennessee and Kentucky and sold from country stores and from the tailgate. Those simple ones (NOT SKIP's!!) had one feather segment on each side and quick tied with red thread and no glue.

GregG's method is in all likelihood the most common with feathers in our part of the fishing world, and makes a great looking jig. I use it myself a lot.

I'd like to also mention one more way to use them that works super:
Instead of clipping 'V's' (and you should practice that method for sure), try simply stripping the quill into little bunches (small, 1/4" sections) over the full length of the quill.
Next, with an appropriate sized little bundle held in between your thumb and finger, use the scissors to cut off the ends that attached to the quill - thereby making nice straight, even ends. Now just place the bundle over the hook shank and up against the head and you're ready to finish tying off.

This method is super cool for 1/32 ounce jigheads (and smaller..) - and for crappie in your eastern Tennessee lakes - no chenille required! No painting required either unless you want! Red thread for wrapping the head is the old standby for all feather colors, but tie as you choose.

Try em'; they're killer jigs. Tie them in black, tip with waxworms, and you've got a dandy bleughill jig too!! And in chartreuse, green, pink - white bass eat 'em up. You just can't go wrong.

Okay...one more method for these fine feathers (and oh so cheep) is to tie Palmered jigs - one color, two color, etc.. You can find more about this method if interested. Find Skip's sticky post for ton's of links to videos and web pages.

Know what? You really need to pound that Grousefly fellow about this topic; he's the Guru of feather jigs! He'll probably tell you to ignore everything I said LOL, but at least I'll have succeded in drawing him out for you.

Hope this helps,

-BleuGhill-

:D :D I'm "Ship" for Shipahoy 41. The other fellow is "Skip" for Skiptomylou.:D :D People get us mixed up all the time.

Ship

[GregG]

Hey Greg G, could you post a pic of what the finished jig looks like. I'm having trouble visualizing it.

[shipahoy41]

...that all my nails ain't drove down good and tight...:D

Senior-moment-and-crawling-under-the-rug-BleuGhill-

Not a problem. Actually Skip is a real friend on this board. I am sure people call him Ship sometimes too instead of Skip. What matters, is that the crappies know when we show up. Game on!!!:D :D :D

[skiptomylu]

I am Skip, LOL!

Anyway I kind of have my own way, but close to a mix of the others. I cut one feather tip long enough to be the tail and then cut the rest of the feather in the little V's. I use one full tip and two V cut pieces or more to get the look I want. I have at times just used two full tips as many other jig makers do and it is actually faster, but I like using both styles with the full tip and pieces together.

All you need do is buy some strung neck hackle for this and that is the best way to get what you want. You get about 1/4 oz. of feathers for under $2 for most. There are some I buy that are a little more, but they are better feathers and usually a variant color or kind of grizzly, sort of.

They look something like this...


Or this...


I have also been know to mix colors like this....

[shipahoy41]

Hey Skip,

I've been meaning to tell you that your camera really takes nice close ups. How many magapixels is it? Mine is 3.5 mp

[Buckeye Mike]

Check the Craft Stores in your area for cheap feathers.