November

[Micanopy]

I used Mylar ribbon to wrap the shank of the hook. Not really excited about this.






Here I used grizzly hackle feather to wrap the hook shank and it gives the illusion of a body.





Old rubber legs still make a nice effect.





Hackle feather down each side is still my favorite I think.





This one is wrapped peacock herl feather. It is a nice effect however I suspect that a nice chenille would best this stuff. Be more durable and thicker. I still like the look of the herl extending into the marabou as a tail enhancer.

[DockShootinJack]

Some great looking jigs

[Micanopy]

I was piddling again this morning.

Bottom left is a 1/2 ounce head using the same favorite hook of mine. I made a few of these to run right beside and below the back of the boat. Tried to paint crinkle fashion but didn’t get much flow. When hit with the UV light they look very nice though. Reptilian even. I need to add some eyes. The tail has some peacock herl mixed in with the marabou.

The orange jig top left also has some peacock herl in the tail. The light dances off the stuff and provides a nice effect. Top right is my favorite of the bunch. Mr. Crappie told me that blue and white is one of his most favorite combinations. Well, in fact he told everyone that watched the video, but still I want to try it. Never fished that color combo before.

I am getting much better at limiting the amount of marabou being applied, both in length and in density. I want whispy thin undulating as it moves through the water column at a constant speed.

I got excited with this marabou material and have studied some regarding materials and ordered up some new to me stuff. A natural white Arctic Fox tail is the centerpiece. The rings they slice off a tail are almost $10, but an entire tail is but $20. Saw a few from Ukraine that looked awesome but of course actually getting the thing is a risk.

I also decided to try some rabbit Zonkers, again in bright white. Magnum size. These are supposed to be wrapped and dangled but I plan to trim the hair from the hide and lash it down. Looks interesting to me.

Carefully considered Buck tail but in the end decided to pass. The hair is stiff and durable but I think I want soft and fluffy. Read about deer belly hair and went for a swank of that stuff, again in bright white. It is said to be a better choice than buck tail and I plan to see what happens when I lash it down.

Got a patch of gray fox that looked very interesting. Similar in patterning to squirrel I guess, but I wanted to try it out. I also got some UV enhanced marabou in white to try out.

The pattern here is white tails obviously. White looks very nice to my eye and any additions to the tail are easily seen. In the picture you can see I used white marabou to tone down the blue marabou in the tail. This softens the color some and makes for a nice appearance. Once I decide the type of hair I like best, I will buy dyed versions and live happily ever after.



There is a huge hurricane over top of me right now. It is not one of the string ones we see in late Summer though. Rains and winds. I have seen a gust that was close to 30 mph, but really not much of an even. We are getting heavy rains from it though. Most workers have the day off. My beautiful wife has off today due to storm, Friday due to Veterans Day and the weekend. She thinks she is so smart. I have to work today and tomorrow. If I was starting all over all over again, I would get a government job. Any government job.


At least I will not have to see boats on the lake as I drive past. Ha Ha Ha……no one is fishing today. LOL

[DockShootinJack]

Never liked those really wet storms. Didn't take much wind to topple a tree when the ground is saturated

[MCG1]

Peacock herl is brittle/fragile but it's iridescence is amazing. You can make it more durable by wrapping it and your thread at the same time. Good luck.

[Micanopy]

I was thinking as I lay in bed last night. Imagining what I might make in the morning. I like the two tone look of mixed marabou in the tail. I like a slim skunk stripe along the length of the chenille. So…….




Wally Marshall says his favorite color combination is blue and white. Here I have two ways of showing blue and white. White body - blue tail - whisp of white marabou, with chartreuse stripe. White tail, whisp of blue marabou, blue body, white skunk stripe.






Wally also likes white and chartreuse and lime and chartreuse. I like purple and chartreuse and orange and chartreuse.





Pink and white is also a favorite of mine. That bottom jig looks really nice in hand. I managed isolate some whispy feathers and lash them in. Pink atop, white belly.


The peacock herls might be fragile and may disappear and falter in action, but boy do they look cool when you have the jig in hand. The light dances much like the flash of a minnow just under the surface. You see it but then it’s gone. My lakes are all stained tanic brown. The degree to which varies for some reason. Different lakes, different times of the year, etc. So a touch of flash might be attractive, might not, but it certainly cannot be if it doesn’t exist. The tinsels seem to provide good flash but I tend to add too much of the stuff. I go wild and end up trimming away once finished tying.


BTW- that bottom jig last shot has a different head. It has the same 6.5 mm neon rhinestone eye, but on a 1/24th oz head. The others are 1/10th ounce. Then there is this one at 1/2 ounce.



This is for dropping almost straight down beside the boat. I can accurately gauge the depth of the jig because the line is short and I can lift rod and gauge it. I like to run these just up from the bottom, maybe two feet up. My lakes are shallow affairs, average depth about six feet. So easy to run these at four feet deep.

I have no idea how well these will work, but imagine they will equal my best plastic baits.

The club called my boss and demanded that he let me attend the next meeting. I thought that was very nice. I wonder what they need me to do. LOL. I plan to carry along a pile of my jigs, both hand ties and plastics to gift away to the old todgers that can barely walk. Let them grope a handful for themselves to take home and imagine fishing with. Sucks to be 97 years old. You might think otherwise but at some point a man gets trapped inside a useless body. The young girls no longer notice, and if they do they just giggle. I am telling you it ain’t for everybody.

A long long time ago a very wise embalmer told me something. He said don’t go jogging around the neighborhood. He said flatly, you will live longer if you sit in the shade and drink beer. Good advice of you live in Florida. If I get to 75 I will be happy with my lot and have no grievances when I meet the maker. I might change my mind once I get close, but being in pain and such all day everyday isn’t for this boy.

[DockShootinJack]

Those aches and pains creep up on a fellow and have a way of adding up. Lord knows I have my share

[Micanopy]

[Micanopy]

Went out yesterday shopping for a shed. Not happy to be spending that kind of money, but it will be worth having access to storage. She has lots of junk to store and I listened carefully as she explained that the $6,000 shed was what she wanted. Only I know her and ain’t now $6,000 shed made that can hold her junk. I want the $ 8,000 shed as I see the smaller unit as being a waste of money if it can’t do what we need done.

I learn from others pretty well and I see plenty of folks that have small sheds. Usually they have a pair of them. LOL

12 x 20 is $ 8,000. Typical construction for our area. It will withstand hurricane strength winds for five whole seconds, and that rating is so helpful. Delivery and setup included, tax is additional. YUCK…….

The plan is to get shed, and fill it with all the stuff that is in our extra bedrooms, and the garage. The garage is a finished garage in that it has finished drywall. I plan to remove the garage door, and build a wall in it’s place with windows and a door for entry. This will add 600 square feet to the size of the house and make back every penny spent on the shed.

The garage will be our studio mostly. I will move my tackle stuff in there, and she her art stuff, and other things. The garage will be open to the main house and have a/c and heat. The heat pump unit we have now is too small to manage the extra space, but the good news is it is also twenty years old and needing replaced anyways. I have a good friend in the a/c business and he can get me a large unit and air handler and all for about half what I would pay otherwise.

Then I will add a lean to roof extending out over the new wall and over the concrete drive. She can pull up and hide under the roof while it is raining and take her time opening the door. She is excited to organize her stuff, and I am excited to absorb the garage space into the home. The floor height does not match the main house as it is a tad lower, so a step will be there.

The sales creature at one place seemed to be ambivalent about his hot customer on the lot. At another she had us in the office seated at the desk ready to go. I backed away from her and we left before she could run my credit score. I don’t like being lead about when it involves my money and my home. She seemed to know exactly what to say to my wife, and did her best to somewhat acknowledge me in between commentary with her.

I plan to call about one shed we saw and liked. I pay $500 over the phone, and they come and install and I pay remainder. My gate is 14” so I am limited in width, with 12 feet being max. The wife was trying to pick a shed that match the color of the house. I told her that the shed is always going to look like a shed and will never match the house. Even if it could, we plan to paint the house a different color anyways. She doesn’t care for the mold that grows on the walls that are shaded by the grand daddy oak trees. I think they make a mold resistant paint for that.

The inside is wood studs and I can add plywood shelving fairly easily. It will be expensive to outfit it, but it can be done. The sheds we saw were all wired for a light, but I have no plans to run a hot wire to it. I think some windows will work out just fine. The one we liked had a ridge vent that ran the length of the peak. It will be set back in a shady area so heat is not going to be excessive. Power wash it every year when the mold creeps up on it.

I told her I had no plans to store my zero turn mower in it, so we didn’t need a garage style roll up door, nor double doors that are doomed to fail. They use cheap stuff to build these things. I worked as a carpenter for a period of time and could build a very nice shed that would match the house, but SHE CAN”T WAIT FOR ANY OF THAT. I understand lumber costs are high now anyways. I can always build a shed later and make it a shop with a concrete floor. Man Cave style. That would cost about $20,000 to do right. Currently she has spent that money on her plans to install a metal roof, gutters, tile floors, and new paint and shutters, and landscaping stuff.

I am telling you that girl is as expensive as she is cute. Oh and now she is ready for me to get a dog. Oh joy, a replacement for my little buddy that died a few months back. I cringe because I know all my hard earned training will be utterly destroyed with her spoiling. I know she will do that and I will have to live disappointed in a dog that begs. House training I have down pat. I pee outside and the puppy pees with me, and after a few trips outside he will have it down. “This is where us big dogs go to pee”. This has worked six times in a row BTW.



Anyways, I have been experimenting with various materials and designs and ideas for tying jigs. Attempting various techniques has been both fun and challenging. Dubbing is not as easy at it looks on videos. I need three hands, six thumbs and seventeen fingers to manage everything. Still I shall endeavor to persevere. I plan to gift my experiments to the crappie club members who may not have an hand ties of their own. Put them in bags and let the club sell them to members for $ 1 a bag. I also plan to dump a few pounds of jigs with plastic baits attached, and some jig heads unadorned.

Caught up in the fever of life I am.

[JUNGLEJIMJIGS]

I like the belly stripes on the jigs. I tie mine using braid, not as bulky as chenille and it's flashier and resembles scales. Good stuff..