Is everybody but me tying their nymphs on jig hooks? Are they catching all the fish and not leaving any for me? Seems like all but the slender mayflies are being tied on these hooks.I would enjoy being able to fish heavily weighted flies and not catch the bottom.Oh, and do you tie a stonefly nymph on these, and do you then tie it upside down?
Yes, we have been catching all the fish and just not telling you. You are surprised? But seriously folks, you can tie anything you want on a jig head, and it does has some advantages in certain applications, but you are just as likely to catch the bottom as a regular one, in my experience. Absolutely no reason why you cannot tie a slender mayfly on a jig hook (i.e. European style “micro nymphs”), nor a stonefly. All the hooks I use are fairly short shanked, so I have yet to come up with a stonefly pattern, but will probably work something up for next season.
The answer is yes. I tie on 1/132 oz. jigs and they work fine, don’t hang up as often. I mostly tye copper johns, prince nymphs, PT. I do tye them upside down. I think I will try some 1/80 oz. this year. The heads can get beat up from hitting rocks, etc.
I tie various nymph patterns on barbless jig hooks. Tie the stonefly nymphs articulated - to achieve the desired length on the shorter shank jig hooks.
Dennis
Could we get some SBS s on some popular ties?
Here’s the one that got me thinking. http://loren.teamfreestone.com/tutorials/nymphs/lw-s-bugs-revenge
Pt posted it on the sulky thread thread.
I was feeling left out too until I took the plunge and bought some jig hooks several months ago. When paired with a tungsten bead, they make a dandy lead or anchor fly. They seem to work especially well for slim, fast sinking flies that are tied “in the round”. A personal favorite of mine is this wire bodied variation of the Pink Squirrel.
I also like the jig hooks. One caution though. I have a number of times cast a dropper right off the bend of those jig hooks. I really don’t understand the difference, because i never have the dropper slide off of regular hooks, but for some reason, I have had a number of droppers slip off the bend of the barbless jigs. I now incorporate a small loop of mono lashed to the shank of the jig before I tie the fly. Then attach the dropper to that.
