Fallser

That's a good idea, dopey. There's a DD right down the street for me, but I make a pot a coffee every day. I'm sure not sure they use plastic straws in this area anymore. I have seen some large straws in the $1 store. I'll have to check them out. I did find a large fly box that will hold 20 jigs if I skip a row and probably 40 if I use the skipped rows. That may not sound like a lot of jigs to ya'll, but I fly fish about 90% of the time. Plus I can replace them if I lose them.

I'm do for a trip to Hobby Lobby. That might be a good solution. I have a large wallet with plastic envelopes that hold my large bait fish patterns and streamers. I might look into picking up one for my larger bucktail jigs. The other idea I'm thinking about is lining some of the compartments in my tackle box with 6 mm craft foam and stick the hooks in the foam to keep them from bouncing around or cut a slit or two in the foam to hold them.

I store mine in zip-loc plastic bags, usually the one they came in. I have them in a large plastic container with cedar balls in it. My problem is the bucktail jigs I tie. Normally, they're in compartments in my tackle box. When I cleaned up my tackle box, they were all bent out of shape. I managed to straighten some them by holding them under hot water then laying them on a table top till they dried. I'm open to suggestions on how I can keep them straight. The bucktail flies I tie are in foam slots in my fly boxes so I don't have a problem with them.

The last of my Clouser ties. These are heavy duty ones. Tied on a TMC saltwater streamer hook, size 2/0. I made up the dumbbell eyes with heavy wire used for spinner baits and large tungsten cone heads, thread, superglue and UV resin. They're made to imitate sand eels. They will hurt if you hit yourself in the back of the head when casting one.. I might tie up a couple for bass fishing using a lighter wire hook and lighter dumbbell eyes. Nice ties. I like the use of strung fuzzy fiber for the head. I think that's easier to work with than deer hair.

I can't help you if you're pouring your own jigs. Someone else will be able to do that. Tying jigs I can help you with that. I mainly tie flies. Been doing it for 30 years or so. Normally, if you were asking about starting to tie flies I would tell you to stay from tying kits mainly because though you get a usable vise and some tools, the materials that you get with them aren't very useful for tying flies, let alone jigs. I did a bit of googling. Take a look at Cabela's Deluxe Fly Tying Kit with Case. It's about $50. All it is, is a basic vise and the tools you need to tie jigs or flies. Materials to buy Thread: 210 Denier Fly Tying Thread would be a good choice. Stay away from sewing thread. Head Cement: This protects the wraps you make tying down material and keeps the wraps from unwinding or fraying. A lot of fly tyers use Clear Hard-as-Nails nail polish to protect the wraps. It's cheap and dries fairly quick. I use UV resin. I'm sure you'll get other suggestions on whether you need to coat the wraps or use epoxy or coatings on them. Tying Materials. Let's start with the natural materials Hair Bucktail: good choice of colors and length of material. Natural taper. A bucktail jig is your basic jig. It will catch fish by itself or with a trailer. Other hairs: Moose, bear, squirrel, goat, Yak, Zonker strips(rabbit fur). Again probably some I'm missing. Feathers Marabou: Lots of colors, good action. Can be wrapped or used as trailers or claws. I suggest Strung Marabou Saddle Hackle/Schlappen: Webby feathers that can be wrapped on the hook shank or used as tails or claws. Artificial materials Flash: Crystal Flash. I use it to add a bit of flash to my jigs. A lot of colors, larger size for bass and trout jigs. There are bunch of other types of flash out there Chenille: Regular, Sparkle, Ice or Estaz. I don't know how much it's used in bass jigs. You see it more in panfish and trout jigs. It's wrapped on the hook shank to add bulk or flash to a jig or fly. Artificial Hair: There are artificial hairs that could be used for jigs. I haven't seen any used on this board. Good color selection, decent movement. Very durable. Drawback- No natural taper. Though there is an artificial bucktail available. Spinner Bait Skirts: Plenty of styles and colors/color combination available. Easy to slide on jig and cement onto a jig. I tie one of my bass flies using a spinner bait skirt. Spinner Bait Skirt Layers: Make you own skirts, or use them to make jig with a slimmer profile. Good Luck with tying your jigs.

For the past 40 years, the area around Ludlow and Plymouth Union. My sister had a place in the area. I fished the Ottauquechee River, Black River, Williams River, the lakes along RT 100, the White River and numerous brooks. She sold that a couple of years ago and brought a house in Waitsfield to be near my niece and her grandkids. Now I have a whole new area to explore. The Mad River for starters, Blueberry Lake.

A lot of people fly fish for bass. I use a fly rod most of the time when I fish for bass, both smallmouth and largemouth. I fell into the "you can only fly fish for trout" trap when I first started fly fishing. It took a couple of years before I finally realized I could fly fish for bass in fresh water and bluefish and stripers in salt water. It's been downhill ever since. volzfan59 is right. My spinning tackle has been gathering dust for years. I break it out once or twice a year when the situation requires it. It can be frustrating at times, but it is relaxing for me and it's fun. You can catch largemouth like this. or like this or smallmouth

Still tying some Clousers. These are panfish size, tied on a Daiichi 2461, size 6. Should be able to catch some bass on them.

Nice, guido. Did you use all bucktail or is the head deer hair?

Many years ago I was between college and a real job, and was staying at my sister's place in Vermont. I was just getting back into fishing using spinning gear and had seen folks wading in the local river. Being short on cash I picked up a cheap pair of stocking foot waders at a flea market. I went down to the river, put on the waders over the sneakers I was wearing. No one had told me I needed boots. I waded out and after about 30 feet. I slipped and found myself floating feet first with my butt bouncing off rocks downstream in the spring run-off, my sneakers sticking out of the legs of the waders. I was lucky the current pushed me toward a gravel bar and I was able to stop my ride toward a deep pool, and crawl out. With my fishing rod, but no nightcrawlers. There was a bridge about 50 yards downstream from me. I climbed up the bank crossed the bridge to the other side and walked back to my car. Dripping water all the way. That didn't stop me from wading streams. I brought boot foot waders and converted an old ski pole into a wading stick. Once I got into fly fishing, and had a real job, brought myself, good stocking foot waders and boots to go with them. Kept the ski pole for the wading stick. These days after three knee replacements and one hip replacement, my sense of balance isn't what it use to be. I don't wade streams any more. I will wade along the shores of some lakes but that's it.

I use Sampo Ball Bearing Swivels w/Coastlock Snaps when I'm casting lures or trolling. They're a bit pricey but strong. The smaller ones don't add a whole lot of weight to the lure and it's easier for me to change lures. Arthritic fingers and blurred vision in my right eye. As far as split rings on lures, I usually just leave them on.

It looks like they do. I'm looking at Barlow's catalog. The Mustad 32833 NP-BN. It listed as Steelhead & Salmon Jig hook, heavy wire, round bend. Another one you might want to look at is the Eagle Claw 570H which is a medium wire hook. There's also a bunch of Mustad and Eagle Claw and VMC light wire jig hooks that might work for you.

I'm pretty sure some of my spinning reels are older than yours. I still use them but they're getting a bit old in the tooth. I have several Penn reels. I live about 10 minutes from where they build/built them and I use to able to drop a reel off and have it rebuilt or refurbished and they would call me when it was ready. Now you have to pack it up and mail it to them. The one problem around here is there doesn't seem to be anybody who rebuilds or refurbishes them. If you got someone in your area that does it that would be the way to go. I use spinning reels and I don't see that much difference between the newer ones and older ones other than price. I used to be able to buy reels that came with a spare spools that doesn't seem to be the case. When you come down to it, a reel is just a line holder as long as the bail works and you have working drag, why not use them.

When fishing locally with my buddies, usually a metal stringer. Since most of the lakes we fish are electric motor only, we leave them in the water when we move unless we're in a weedy area. When I was doing more salt water fishing, we always had a large ice chest, with a couple of bags of ice in it. We'd put a bucket of salt water in it and make a slurry. The only time I've used a live well, I use the term loosely, since they don't have anyway to oxygenate the water, is when I go up to NE Ontario. Just have to remember to add fresh water to it every couple of hours. I'd have to check but I don't think there is any rule in PA that you can't fillet the fish and just bring home the fillets. I usually wait till we get back to where we're staying before I clean them.

They'll fish as is. They look good. As far as the buck tail goes, I'm looking at it from a fly tying perspective, the buck tail jigs I tie are sparser than many commercial jigs I see in shops. For salt water, a lot of the bait fish, like silversides and sand eels have narrow profiles. You're not that far off. The top one is closer to the amount you need to use. The bottom one, to me is a bit over dressed. I would use just the amount of white buck tail that shows above and below the pink buck tail for the top and bottom, then a few pieces of flash on either side, under a similar amount of pink buck tail as you used for the white buck tail on the top and bottom. You've got 40 jig heads left. Tie some the way you did and tie some sparser and fish them. The fish will let you know which ones they like. Jig Man mentioned a guy who was fishing a sparse jig. These are Clouser Minnows, not quite a buck tail jig. The weight balance point is different. The originator specified between 15 and 20 pieces of bucktail to be used on top and bottom. I don't have the inclination or patience to count out 15 or 20 pieces of buck tail. I just cut a bunch larger than I need, hold it by the tips and start removing pieces by holding the tips and pulling on the butt ends. Then I put the buck tail in a hair stacker which will even out the tips and remove shorter pieces till I get what looks like 15 or 20 pieces then tie them in. If I were tying jigs I would tie the same amount on the sides as I would the top and bottom. By the way, Chartreuse over white and Olive over white are good producers in salt water.

I would think Michael's is more suited to fly fishing. I buy craft foam and permanent markers mostly. The only thread I buy, at any craft store are some metallic threads, Gold, Silver and Copper and a clear polyester thread. I do use the clear polyester thread when I'm tying buck tails and bait fish patterns. I plan to use it when I tie some jigs up for my fishing buddies over the winter. If I'm doing a two tone jig, for example brown over orange, the colors show through the thread all the way to the jig head. It's less bulky than regular thread. I would keep away from the sewing threads. Pick up some fly tying thread, like the 210 denier already mentioned. There are other types that can also be used. Forget about the feathers and marabou, it's just a waste of money. You need marabou feathers(strung marabou)to tie jigs and I haven't found any feathers useful for streamers which means you won't find any that could be used for jigs.

I've been tying up some Clousers for my SW club's table at the NJ Fly Fishing Show in January. Not quite bucktail jigs. The balance point is different than on a bucktail jig. If you tied the dumbbell eyes right behind the hook eye you'd have a bucktail jig.

I plan on tying up some marabou jigs for the guys I fish with over the winter. I have more than enough marabou, not to mention bucktail from my fly tying. Plus a few unidentified patches of hair. On the fly fishing side, jigs have become acceptable to tie flies on, but most of the jig hooks used are size 12 and smaller. I picked up some 1/32 oz Moon Eye jigs, size 6 hooks. They were in the bargain box at a local sporting goods store and tied up a couple using the unidentified patches of hair. My color options are limited though. I also have some 1/20 oz fishhead jigs and Ned jigs to play with. Definitely some nice work on here. A lot of good ideas.

With conventional tackle top water. But the best for me is hooking a 3 or 4 lb smallie on my fly rod with a top water bass bug. I use a 6 wgt, which is the light end of what most fly fishers use for bass.

I've actually never thought or had a term about how I set the hook. From reading the posts, I use a sweep set. I've found that with moving lures, particularly with treble hooks, the fish hooks itself and the hook set just reinforces the hook-up. It's bit different when I'm fly fishing. If I'm stripping in the line and I get a hit, I just hold the line and do a "strike set" with the rod. It works. When talking about how much force it takes to set a hook depending on size of the hook and the thickness of the hook, one thing that didn't come up, and it's something I picked up from fly fishing is do you need a barbed hook. All my flies whether for trout, bass or saltwater are barbless, either the hook is made that way, or I debarbed them. An argument can be made that a barbless hook of any size or wire gauge will penetrate better than a barbed hook. I tie flies on hooks from size 32 to 4/0. All debarbed or barbless. I do buy into that argument. Anyway it took a couple of years after I took up fly fishing to realize I was getting tired of digging a couple of treble hooks out of the fish, the fish and the net, my fishing vest or jacket. Now all my treble hooks are debarbed. I'm still working on my jigs and spinner baits. If I'm using soft plastics, I'll debarb the hooks. Advantages, easier on the fish when releasing, easier on my clothes and nets, and definitely easier on me if I end up with a hook imbedded in a body part. Disadvantages. I haven't notice much of a difference when using lures with treble hooks on how many fish I lose because the hook is barbless. With single hooks, I've lost fish I might not have lost if the hook were barbed. More losses are just me not paying attention to how I'm fighting the fish.

I do some work during the season. Usually replacing flies, or in-line spinners that my fishing buddies lose or replacing a damaged guide or tip on the rods we use. My main maintenance/replacing/building time is from just after the holidays through late spring. This winter I have a new spinning rod to build, rebuild 2 spinning rods and one standard rod. I'm going to be replacing guides, reel seats and grips on them. In-line spinners to make, plan to try making some spinner baits, and always as flies to tie.

Nice ties. The classic woolly bugger. The proportions of tail and hackle are spot on for the hook size. Great idea for the Ned Rig jigs. I brought some 1/20 oz NR jigs with the idea of tying up some "Ned" flies. I was working on the idea of a TRD shaped body using either chenille or mop pieces. Didn't turn out the way I planned. I tied one and decided it wasn't worth the effort to tie more. I haven't had much luck with Woolly Buggers, mainly I'm a dry fly snob, and prefer to fish top water for bass. When I was up in Ontario at the end of August/early September. The smallies were sitting in 8 to 15 feet of water on mid-lake humps and shoals. Weather wasn't conducive for fly fishing, very windy. I caught one on top, and a half dozen on crayfish patterns and small buck tail jigs. Fortunately, I'm not fly fishing snob, and had a good week with soft plastics, bait and lures. I spent a lot of time during the lock down tying flies, but I can always use a few more. I like to add a couple of new flies each season to my fly boxes, replacing ones that didn't work as well as liked or thought they would. Now a new, to me, pattern to play with. Marabou and Zonker strips can both be a PITA to tie with. I'll probably tie a few with each material. I like the idea of using marabou as a split tail though I do have 1/8 inch Zonker strips that should also work. Tying preference, I use either sparkle or ice chenille for my bugger bodies. Not sure whether that makes a difference or not. Again, great job.

Bump. Put my fly rods away till spring at the end of October. Time to start tying flies for next year, building or rebuilding some spinning rods. Give a shot at making some spinner baits. I'll be making some more of these patterns over the winter. Subsurface bass bug. Still needs a bit of tinkering. It's tied on a 2/0 hook Jig hooks have become popular in fly tying. Most of the hooks used are too small(size 12 and smaller)for my purposes and can be a bit pricey. These are fly rod panfish/bass hair jigs tied on 1/32 oz Neon Mooneye Jigs. Size 6 hook.

Last time I did any fishing was over Columbus Day weekend when I took my great niece fishing while visiting my niece and her family in Vermont. She's 3 years old and she got bored after about 20 minutes. I plan to do a little squirrel hunting over the next couple of weeks. Deer hunting is out. My shoulder can't handle the kick of my .270 anymore. I've got one spinning rod to repair, one to rebuild and another one to build over the winter. Make up some spinner baits, in-line spinner and hair jigs for my fishing buddies. Since I mainly fly fish, tie up a bunch of flies for next year's warm water season.

I'm fully vaccinated and boosted. I lucked out getting my first shot. It was back in March and it was difficult to get an appointment even though I was over 65. My sister called me and said she had heard on the local news that the VA was giving the vaccine to all eligible veterans. She gave the number and I called and they told me to bring my DD214 and ID and come in so they could determine if I was eligible and to schedule an appointment. I showed up early Monday morning, the first day they were doing the vaccinations, with all the information, and after about 20 minutes of answering questions I was deemed eligible, but the clerk couldn't make the appointment. I had to go to the third floor where they were handling the vaccinations to make one. There was a short line and I got in it. A VA employee handed me a sheet of paper to fill out. I asked are if this was where I make an appointment. She looked at me and said, "Don't say anything." After a few minutes, I found myself in a cubicle and instead of making an appointment, I was getting the vaccine. I didn't have any reactions to the first two, other than a sore arm. I just got my booster last month at the local CVS. Maybe it was because I got my flu shot at the same time, but the next day after going out for a couple of hours. I got home feeling like I got hit with a truck. I was tired, and all my aches and pains that normally hurt individually started hurting at the same time. Took an industrial strength ibuprofen(800 mg) watched a couple of football games and was feeling fine by dinner. I still where a mask when I go into stores, out of paranoia and courtesy(it's also required here in Philly). Getting the first two allowed me to spend a week in the Poconos fishing with my buddies(all vaccinated) and make a trip to Canada for a week of fishing. Life is getting close to normal.