Tying Steelhead and Salmon Jigs

[brichards44]

Hi Guys,

Thought I would take a crack at tying my own jigs. It looks pretty fun and how cool is it to catch fish on a jig that you made. I hit up craigslist and found a DH Thompson fly tying kit for $20. Came with everything except the material.

I was wondering what material I should use and where to get it from.

I found 1/4 and 1/8 oz jigs with Mustad hooks on E Bay for $5.00 + $4.95 shipping 50 Count about 20 cents per jig. Unpainted

I've been looking at Strung Marabou. Is one better than another?

What other material should i get?

Thread? What Size? What kind?

Jig head Paint?

Any other help would be nice!

[Cougeyes]

Cableas has all you need for reasonable price.  Use kevlar thread and strung marbou.  Its not to expensive so buy a variety of colors.  I mainly use the black, white and pink.  Buy powdercoat for your jig heads.

[twinners]

We buy the bare hooks and squeeze on some split shot style weights.  You can make whatever size hook however heavy you want.  And agree on the powder paint, the liquid is a pain.

[uplandhunter870]

cant help ya on what materials but ill +1 for the powder coat of the heads. i bought some jig paint to repaint some of my jigs this year after the factory finish chipped off from being bottom bounced and eaten by steelies. the paint was easy enough to do but after hanign them to dry it dried in the shape of an egg and had a real rubbery feel to it. suffice to say i didnt catch any fish on my re-painted jigs

[Button Nubbs]

I was tying some jigs the other day and took a whole bunch of pics to do a tutorial here. I just have to find time to post it up. Marabou rarely finds its way onto my jigs. I use rabbit and schlappen most of the time. As far as thread, kevlar can't be beat. I use powder paint to color my jig heads. Give me a couple days and it will all be explained in detail.  

[MtnMuley]

Cableas has all you need for reasonable price.  Use kevlar thread and strung marbou.  Its not to expensive so buy a variety of colors.  I mainly use the black, white and pink.  Buy powdercoat for your jig heads.

 

Looking forward to your pic tutorial, Button Nubbs.

[7mmfan]

I've been tying jigs for a long, long time. Here are a few things that i've figured out over time.

- The quality of your hook is more important than anything. Gamakatsu 2x Heavy wire hooks are decent hooks that don't cost to awful much. I generally use 1/8 or 1/16 oz. jigs. If that is not enough weight for where I am fishing, i will add some split shot to the leader. I've found that for most steelhead, a jig much bigger than 1/8 oz is just too big of a bait. I generally pour my own jig heads because finding good hooks pre-poured is kind of difficult and usually pretty expensive.

- As far as paint goes, yes, powder paint is quicker and easier than vinyl paint, but when vinyl paint dries, it is almost bullet proof where as powder coat, even when baked, chips like crazy if you fish them correctly (near the bottom, where the steelhead are). I stick my hooks into the side of a box or piece of styrofoam so that the paint will drip over the eye of the jig when it dries. Then you can easily remove the paint with a pair of snips.
 
- For tying materials, I use some marbou but mostly I use fat steelhead yarn, chenille, schlappen, and rabbit fur. Chenille bodies with schlappen hackle and a bunny fur tail or simply a chenille body with a yarn tail are great options.

There are some great books out there. I forget the name of the author but I'm sure they can't be too hard to find.

[brichards44]

Thanks guys. Everything helps. Looking forward to the tutorial.

[steeleywhopper]

I use the powder coat myself. I also mainly use yarn for the tails of my jigs and a piece of colored pipe cleaner for the body. Extremely inexpensive and unbelievably effective. Pipe cleaner can be found at the craft store in many different colors and very cheap I might add. I have caught more steelhead on these jigs than I have on store bought jigs. Don't skimp on the jig hook! Good luck and have fun, it is really cool to catch fish on something you designed.

[BigGoonTuna]

i don't bother painting my jigs usually, and if i do it's with nail polish.  very rare for them to last long enough to worry about chipping.

most of my jigs use palmered rabbit strips(for big profiles) or just simple yarn and chenille.  i hate marabou because it's messy and i never seem to get good stuff that will palmer worth a damn.  i don't think the fish care all that much to be honest.