Felt good to tie a few tonight. JungleJim very kindly sent me a handful of the new herring jigs to play with. Painted them up a little while ago and decided i needed to tie a couple.
Just by the looks, the first try (white/grey/black) may be too full to allow the blade to spin. I laid down a thick base of wool roving (doll hair) all the way around the shank and then tied in clumps of craft fur on to the lead collar of the head. Result is a nice full tail, which is exactly what i wanted. Then i attached the blade and can see it is likely going to hit the full tail and not spin correctly. I don't have any willow blades at the moment, but don't even think that would help. Just too full of a tail. So on my second try (white/chart) i decided to pretty much leave the bottom side of the jig blank to allow room for the spinner. Still tied in roving on the shank, but only to the sides and top. Only thing actually tied to the bottom was some flash and left a nice long red thread tag. Then added the craft fur to only the sides and top of the lead collar. I think i have a winner! That seems like it left plenty of room for even my indiana blade to spin.
Did tie one other after thinking about shaping jigs by using the roving under body. The last one on the bottom i tried to make the shape/profile of a taller body fish........ ie: bluegill. I added the wool roving only to the top and bottom of the shank. Then added flash to the sides. Finally stacked on the craft fur to the top and bottom. Seems like it worked pretty good. Thinking i just may get to throw some of these at the walleye/saugeye sometime this weekend.
Took 2 different pictures to hopefully show the shape a little better.............
View attachment 1
Just by the looks, the first try (white/grey/black) may be too full to allow the blade to spin. I laid down a thick base of wool roving (doll hair) all the way around the shank and then tied in clumps of craft fur on to the lead collar of the head. Result is a nice full tail, which is exactly what i wanted. Then i attached the blade and can see it is likely going to hit the full tail and not spin correctly. I don't have any willow blades at the moment, but don't even think that would help. Just too full of a tail. So on my second try (white/chart) i decided to pretty much leave the bottom side of the jig blank to allow room for the spinner. Still tied in roving on the shank, but only to the sides and top. Only thing actually tied to the bottom was some flash and left a nice long red thread tag. Then added the craft fur to only the sides and top of the lead collar. I think i have a winner! That seems like it left plenty of room for even my indiana blade to spin.
Did tie one other after thinking about shaping jigs by using the roving under body. The last one on the bottom i tried to make the shape/profile of a taller body fish........ ie: bluegill. I added the wool roving only to the top and bottom of the shank. Then added flash to the sides. Finally stacked on the craft fur to the top and bottom. Seems like it worked pretty good. Thinking i just may get to throw some of these at the walleye/saugeye sometime this weekend.Took 2 different pictures to hopefully show the shape a little better.............
View attachment 1
