Small Minnow Immitation Jigs

While I tie these for Bluegill, Crappie, and Tilapia, they also do pretty well attracting some nice bass, especially when they are looking for smaller prey items. I picked up a nice Mink fur hat at our local thrift shop so I decided to tie up some minnow imitation jig flies. I cut the Mink fur into 1/8" wide Zonker strips, tied them onto the hook, and palmered a hackle feather to the eye for the body. I prefer to use Mink fur for small Zonker patterns because it retains a fuller-looking body when wet as opposed to rabbit fur which tends to lay almost flat. I tie these on small jig heads that I make. These are tied on size 8 90-degree jig hooks. I crimp and epoxy a small split shot at the 90-degree bend, paint them with nail polish, add eyes, and give them a coat of epoxy. These little guys stand on their heads when at rest on the bottom with the hook almost vertical. They hop along the bottom when I do a retrieve of quick 2-3" strips of the line. This is an easy pattern to tie and very effective for big Bluegill, Crappie, and big Blue Tilapia here in Central Florida. When tied in browns and tans, they also make a pretty good crawfish imitation. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. https://gifyu.com/image/SIibS

Great pattern, James!Show us pictures of your Blue Tilapias! Those can get big! :)

Nice patterns
Rick

This is a typical one, but I've caught some a bit larger. The largest was about 6 lbs https://gifyu.com/image/SIi9T

Awesome! Thanks for sharing that. Beautiful fish! :)

jim, nice looking stuff. I tie something similar, I use small zonked pine squirrel for a tail and also take a couple raps around the hook shank for a hackle on larger sizes and loop dub pine squirrel on the smaller sizes. on the smaller sizes I use a 60 degree jig style hook with a slotted tungsten bead. I do the same on the larger hook sizes but use a longer shanked jig hook that Umpqua makes. keep up the good work john s

John, Thanks for the reply and the recommendations. I find these little jig flies to be very versatile and work well. Would you mind posting a few photos of the ones you tie? I'd love to see more of your work and get new ideas.Jim

jim, it will take me a while to photo and post so give me a day or two

Thank you very much! I've been using GIFYU to upload my photos and it seems to work okay.Jim

Very nicely tied Jim.

Thank you for the kind words. It's a simple pattern to tie and is very effective. I spend more time making each jighead than I do tying the pattern.Jim

Nice. I just started using jigs with my fly rod last year. Being basically lazy, I've been just using pre-made jigs in 1/32 and 1/20 oz sizes. Most are on a size 6 hook. I've just done bucktail and marabou ones so far. I'd post a couple of pictures but all my photos are on my PC. I'll have to give your style a try. I like the Zonker strip tail, but I wonder if you would get better action with a soft hackle body.

That's the beauty of tieing our own patterns. We can switch up materials and styles to see what works best for us in the waters we fish. I like to find ways to give the appearance of a larger prey item without adding too much bulk. The hackle seems to do that. That said, I am a huge fan of soft hackle patterns and have some very nice long Schlappen feathers that I will try on this pattern to see how they work as simple crawfish patterns.

jim. pm me your address and i will mail you some examples of my all fur jig style soft hackles my photo abilities are terrible