I figured I’d pick up tying jigs this winter to get me through the cold weather. With Christmas coming up, a tying kit seems like a fun gift for myself. I have some neat ideas for jigs that I can’t find on the market, so I want to try making them myself. What basic materials do I need? For reference, I’ll be tying skirted bass jigs as well as hair jigs and jig-flies for bass and trout.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bucktail - get natural, black and olive

Deer hair - get white and olive

Strung Marabou - get black and chartruese if you're targetting smallies.

Saddle hackle - get rust 

Rabbit zonkers - get black, olive and brown. Don't get crosscut.

Flash - get black, gold and chrome