To fish hair, or not to fish hair, that is the question - Wiegmann

To fish hair, or not to fish hair, that is the question





The question is do you fish a hair jig in the summer months? It’s hot and the majority of crappie have migrated to offshore, deep water habitat feeding on schools of shad that are aimlessly moving from place to place. It might surprise you what we learned about fishing hair jigs in the summertime.



Professional crappie angler Dan Dannenmueller is on the side of fishing a hair jig during the summer months. There are several favorites when it comes to hair jigs. He likes the Team Crappie Slab Caller that comes in 1/32-, 1/16- and 1/8-ounces and numerous popular color patterns. Another is Tiny’s Hand Tied Hair Jigs that come in custom color patterns and sizes. “It’s hard to beat custom color patterns when the crappie are biting them like Tiny’s,” said Dannenmueller.


“In the summer months I don’t cast a hair jig like I would in the colder winter months,” Dannenmueller continued, “Instead, I vertically fish a hair jig to what depth the crappie are biting or I will bounce it off the bottom. It takes patience to fish a hair jig as it’s a slow presentation to get crappie to bite.”


Not to fish hair jigs is Mitch Glenn’s answer to the question. His rationale behind the answer is hair jigs don’t match the activity level of summertime baitfish. “Baitfish are very active in the summer months compared to in the cold of winter,” Glenn continued, “A crappie is a cold blooded creature looking for a natural, active baitfish to eat that will be moving a lot in the summer time.”

To his credit, Glenn noted that PICO Lures Bunny Butts and Marabou were not his best sellers in the summer months. “Crappie anglers tend to be fishing too deep to present either one of these lures to consistently catch them,” Glenn went on, “Personally; trolling PICO Crankbaits is the best way to catch lots and big crappie during the summer months.”


Hair jigs are a hot commodity in the crappie fishing. So it shouldn’t surprise you that there are several well respected individual hand tiers building hair jigs. It seems like everyone from tournament crappie anglers to weekend anglers have requested hair jigs that are custom built with custom color patterns.



Kenneth Urbahns owner of Tiny’s Hand Tied Hair Jigs has been building hair jigs for years as anglers and pros demands high quality, custom color patterns. “My custom hair jigs have a bigger profile than other hair jigs,” Urbahns continued, “This makes them easy to see with live sonar and actually make a quieter splash when casted out. The hair can also be trimmed to different sizes if the crappie wants a smaller profile without cutting it off your line.”


To fish hair, or not to fish hair, that is the question. It seems like during the hot summer months anglers may want to fish with something that is moving quicker than a hair jig, but you just never know. The guy sitting beside you might be catching the fire out of crappie on a hair jig while you aren’t getting a bite.