Hair

[redear]

Skip. I remember that story well! It didn't surprise me either. the man that turned me on to the kiptail jig started using them in the 60's, they were popular back then and were called pinkie jigs. several mom and pop operations produced them. these jigs in 1/64 thru 1/16 are a killer under a float and we always put something on the hook. we used to put a piece of redworm on there for redears or bream and hook it thru the end and it would trail at least an inch behind the jig. or we would use a small minnow hooked thru the lips for crappies. nowadays we find that crappie nibbles work real well, we like the silver sparkle the best as of late but all the colors work. I have never trolled with them or cast and retrieved them so can't speak to that.

[redear]

Another thing is this, these are big crappie baits, I tie some for a guy and his father, they crappie fish while spider rigging, they are very secretive as to their crappie fishing but being the guy that supplies them with their jigs, they confide in me as to their effectiveness. I know of maybe 4-5 crappies over 3lbs. and countless over 2lbs. they have taken on these jigs tipped with a small minnow. then there was a crappie that looked to be close to 4lbs. they lost at the net. they use the colors that have proven to catch sizable crappies and the colors can change from year to year. they like the heads painted and a green head with green hair is one of the favorites, I'm talking Kelly green hair and the head may be a little brighter, then there is the one with a fl. yellow head and purple hair, and if the water is muddy orange and fl. yellow hair with an orange head and thread. there it is I have spilled my guts, my personal fishing partner tries to get me to keep quiet about them but that just isn't my way, especially since I know they have no source for them lol.

[redear]

when tying these jigs for myself and my fishing buddy, I leave the head unpainted and use two contrasting colors on the hair, the thread is always red on my own jigs. I used to paint all the heads but in water with some clarity the flash of the leadhead seems to work better, the crappie nibble is also part of the color scheme, so for my own use in ponds the unpainted head works better but if I was in big water with some color then yeah I would use a painted head. I tend to use vinyl liquid paint on these because trimming the hair with a razor blade by pushing against the back of the head will chip powder paint pretty bad but vinyl with clear overcoat will withstand it better. unpainted head I don't have to worry about it.