I would like to ask if next spring when the crappie go shallow can I fly fish using a 1/64 oz. jig? Are not some flies as heavy as these? I ask because I just don’t know the answer since fly fishing is new to me right now. In this pic I have put a 1/4 oz. jig head next to the 1/64 to show size. Here is what they look like…
Thanks,
Skip
Skip,
You can use a 1/64th oz jig, but I normally use 1/80th oz. The lighter ones are a little easier to cast with the 4 wt rod that I use most of the time.
Steve
IMHO, you can fish whatever you choose to fish with. I have hooked live hellgrammites and crayfish onto a bare hook and fished for smallies with my fly rod. I called it fly fishing, but some would call it bait fishing with a fly rod. At the end of the day, it only matters to the purist, and he may not have the full creel that YOU do. :lol: :lol:
Since getting into rod building this past winter, not only have I built 7 fly rods, but I have also built 3 UL Spinning rods, and have begun fishing with one this summer. Life is too short to not have fun, and I really don’t care what people think of that. Fishing is fishing, whether it’s with a fly rod, spinner or bait caster. I fish, therefore I am!
Funny story: A friend and I went to a meeting last week and returned to my house to retrieve his car. I was in the poorly lit garage and showed him the spinning rod I had built (leaning on the lathe for turning reel seats and handles). He saw the sparkles on the butt section and asked what type of finish I used to get the effect. I laughed and told him “emerald shiner scales.” He looked funny at me, and I said those were scales from minnows from my last perch outing where we landed 120 perch, and I didn’t have time to clean the scales off the rod. He just shook his head and left. 
Joe
That was just too funny! 
However I am not so concerned with the purist as much as I don’t want to overload my rod, but I guess with a 6wt. it will handle it fine huh?
I fish with casting, spinning gear all the time, but now am adding in the fly fishing gear and all I want is something to stretch my line if you know what I mean, LOL!
One thing I know is these will be crappie catching go getters!
Thanks,
Skip
It has been argued that the famous clouser is merely a fly rod jig. Bob Clouser disagrees with this, and so do I by the way. Tied with larger dumbell eyes they can be quite interesting to cast, especially with lighter weight rods. I manage to cast ones with what are commonly called “medium” dumbellls with a 6 weight. I do find that the “small” dumbells are easier to cast and still turn the fly into the right orientation, and sink pretty quickly on clousers tied up to about size 4 hooks. I don’t know what the actual weights are on these dumbells, but I am sure somebody here has that info.
I am not a big fan of fishing flies that are weighted externally (beads, dumbell eyes, beadchain eyes, etc) because of the potential to do serious damage to high modulus graphite rods if you strike the rod with the fly. In my neck of the woods we don’t call it fly casting, but rather it’s “chuck-n-duck.” This is very popular with steelhead fishing where some people put more weight on the line than I use when perch fishing in 55’ of water with a spinning rod. Then they top it off with a bobber to tell them what’s going on down "in the zone."Oops! I mean a “strike indicator.” I keep forgetting the proper fly fishing vernacular. Silly me.
Joe
Skip what happens if you catch a monster crappie on your jig with a fly rod?
According to the below article it doesn’t count as being caught fly fishing. I don’t know if the article is correct or not. Just found it interesting.
Tim
I would guess that it all depends if’n you’re going fishing for a line class record or if’n your going fishing for dinner. Seems them Louisiana folks is a might purist. Their State…Their rules!
Joe
I have lived on the TX/LA border all but the 11 years I was near Corpus and I can tell you the the LA people are great and love having a good time. However they definitely play by their own rules and you better play by them as well when in LA, LOL!
I love the place, people and that first class food.
I tied a fly that looks much like the beadhead version of that Fluff Butt, just kind of dreamed it up and looked for the name and someone showed me that fly. I guess many I should tie me up some with the colors I like for spring crappie.
Skip
Skip
Don?t know if this will help, but here?s a rough guide for weight/size of lead dumbbell eyes used for fly tying to compare to your jig heads. (Tungsten eyes are heavier)
Midget 1/16? 1/200 oz
Micro 3/32? 1/120 oz
Mini 1/8? 1/80 oz
X-small 5/32? 1/60 oz
Small 3/16? 1/40 oz
Medium 7/32? 1/30 oz
Large ?? 1/20 oz
X-Large 9/32 1/10 oz
I throw flies in salt water a lot, and use the small 1/40 oz on size 6 and 4, but you could easily tie down to a size 10 or so with the Small 1/40 oz. I use Medium 1/30 oz on size 4 and 2.
Most of the time this is with an 8wt, so if you are using 1/64 oz jig heads on a size 12- or 10 for Crappie, which are close to the X-small size dumbbells, you might be pushing it a little on a 4 wt, probably be ok on a 5 and fine on a 6 assuming you?re not aiming for the far horizon.
To be on the safe side, try tying up and throwing a few of the 1/64 oz on the rods you use, open your loop a little if you need to, and see how it flies before you tie up a bazillion… unless your planning on chucking them with a 7 or 8 for bass too. If that?s the case, start tying.
Hope this helps. I always look forward to what you come up with. You have some awesome pics.
peregrines
Thant is a huge help, thank you!
I do have a question on this though, is that for the lead dumbbells and is Brass less? Where do find this info? Also do you know how much heavier the Tungsten ones are?
I have a few Clouser’s tied up too and one crappie candy fly which I plan on adding more of the crappie candy ones in different colors and this info will really help.
Thank you also for the really nice complement and it’s always good to hear people like seeing your stuff.
Skip
Wow
I have some 3/0 “surf crabs” of my own design that carry the XL lead eyes
No wonder they hurt so much! Ouch!
:lol:
As has been mentioned above, it depends on how and where you are fishing. Although each state has it’s own rules for what constitutes “fly fishing” for use in restricted areas they do vary from state to state. If you’re fishing in unrestricted waters it makes no difference. Here in PA the state describes flys as having materials tied to or wound about the hook in a “traditional” manner. That leaves some room for the individual discretion of the officer, but I would interpret that as meaning that jig hooks with lead molded to the hook would not count as flies.
If you’re just fishing for fun or food and you’re within the legal definition, who cares what it’s called. Have fun and catch some fish.
I use to run a state pay-to-fish facility
All state fly fishing regulations were enforced
A large percentage (80% ?) of the regulars used a 1/80 oz. marabou jig under an indicator.
Perfectly legal
Yup that?s for lead, I cut it out of an old catalog a while back and threw it in with my tying stuff.
Brass is lighter, and it weighs about 40% less than lead, or roughly half as much.
Tungsten is heavier, and weighs about 40% more than lead. or roughly 1.5 times as much
Bismuth, which is often used as a non toxic substitute weighs about the same as lead.
So a new chart. thanks to Excel, would look something sorta close to this using 40% difference for lead. It?s kinds interesting to see how the different size dumbbells compare.
Diameter Brass Lead/Bismuth Tungsten
Midget 1/16? 1/333 oz 1/200 oz 1/140
Micro 3/32? 1/200 1/120 oz 1/85
Mini 1/8? 1/133 1/80 oz 1/57
X-small 5/32? 1/100 1/60 oz 1/42
Small 3/16? 1/67 1/40 oz 1/29
Medium 7/32? 1/50 1/30 oz 1/22
Large ?? 1/33 1/20 oz 1/14
X-Large 9/32 /17 1/10 oz 1/7
I suppose actual weight will vary a little between manufacturers depending on the purity of the metal and machining (some might be in mm instead of inches) and whether it?s plated with nickel etc, but it?s a rough guide.
As far as regs go, it?s always wise to check. Some waters may ban lead of any kind, especially water on land managed for waterfowl and the list seems to be expanding. l
Some special trout areas around here ban weight of any kind, though that?s often unclear as to whether that includes small beadhead nymphs or just split shot on the line. But using something like a clouser there is likely to might get you in trouble.
peregrines
PS Sorry the formatting screwed up. Looked good in the editor, but got scrunched when posted. You could probably cut and paste it into a Word doc and reformat with the space bar to make it more legible.
Beadhead, Jig head, Fluffbutt, Royal Coachman, silly rubber crappie jig, or like Joe V. said “bait fishin with a fly rod”. I figure it this way… On the one hand ya got… Fishin’. One the other ya got… Not Fishin’ ,
For my two cents worth…I’ll take Fishin’ ever time, and not make a big deal out of it, long as it’s legal.
Jeez ! I even got a couple spin rods :shock:…ModocDan
Just awesome! Thanks a bunch!!!
Oh and when I made this response the outer made it back to separate them so I copied this from that to keep.
Skip
I tie alot of bugs with the 124th oz. and they are perfectly leagal…as are those jig’s that are also known as beadheads…brass…lead…so long as the metal in question is leagal…so are the flies. Also I like beadheads tied on jig hooks as well…I think they fish much more naturally in certain situations.
Is there some way that we could get this added to the tying tips section of the board so that it will be easier to archive in the future?
Thanks,
Ed