Tying hair jigs

I have hatched a plan to spend some time this winter tying some hair jigs for walleye river fishing. Any fly tiers, musky buck tiers or jig tiers welcome to weigh in here. I got a vice ,bobbin, etc in kit form from Cabelas. Bucktail and craft fur. 1st any advice to a beginner is  welcome. My questions...can craft fur be combined with bucktail(overlay)? What thread would you recommend? Thread sizes confusing. One tier on Youtube suggested braid fishing line. Thanks

Tying hair jigs is a great way to create your own custom lures for fishing. Hair jigs are highly effective for catching bass, pike, and other predatory fish, due to their natural movement in the water. To make a hair jig, you will need some basic supplies such as hooks, marabou feathers, Best Hair Oil Australia, and a vice to hold the hook steady during the tying process. Start by threading the marabou feathers onto the hook first, followed by your choice of bucktail hair. 

Purple hair. WORKS!!

Hair... WORKS!

I got started tying some hair jigs. These are my observations as a beginer. The suggestions from LLinkers is spot on. Craft hair from Cabelas too short for beginners.  That said I would buy the longest bucktail you can. As a recent graduate of Youtube University I  recomend videos by ...Smalljaw and Mike Jensen. Have a tying station setup. Have all your supplies on hand...stay in sequence. Practice. It's neither hard nor easy. But you can do it! Thanks for advising.

I like to use a small diameter piece of shrink tubing, maybe 2 on the shank of the hook or treble. U can use super glue to help it stay put. Also Helps round out your base. Also tubing is somewhat soft, and will help your hair Flare, especially using the thicker hair near bottom of tail. D size thread or a topstich, nylon thread works. I know guys that use their old 6 lb mono for a base tie, then  thread at end for cosmetics. 

I use super glue sparingly on my ties instead of head cement. Then after tie is complete, use Nail polish to coat threads:)

 JD 

Not sure how much research you've done yet but make sure you wrap the hook well before tying on the bucktail, it will help keep the hair from pulling out. Also, starting with a "looser" wrap over the hairs and then progressively getting tighter on the wraps over those will help from cutting the fibers. I'm far from an expert but those are some tips I got when I was learning. 

I've also used some head cement after the first wrap of thread over the hair to help keep it secure but it's really not necessary.

Thanks for info Fishrun. I don't think it's mentioned enough that bucktail is hollow. This should increase the hang and glide of a jig.

Sorry fred. Didn't read your post close enough. Clousers are flies as in fly fishing not jigs. When it comes to materials I would still stick with bucktail. Craft fur is okay but hard to find long enough fibers. Marabou is okay too but not as durable as bucktail. For thread on jigs I would go with 3/0. Use to be able to get spools of Kevlar thread, that stuff was tough to break. 

Clouser minnow....are you pulling this on a 3way or Dubuque rig? Thanks looks good!

Check out Clouser Minnows. Been tying them for years. Catch bass northern and walleye on larger sizes. I use Mustad 3366 hooks size 2 with 3/16 dumbbell eyes and size size 1/0 with 7/32 eyes. 140 denier Ultra Thread is a good choice. 6/0 (which is 136 denier) is similar. Stick with Bucktail, it takes a little practice to tie on but makes a better profile than craft fur. This fall I've done well with two color patterns. Grey over white with some sort of flash material in the middle for a natural look, and one I call firetiger starting with White on the bottom followed by a little bit of red, then yellow then topped off with chartreuse.

Start by doing a search on how to tie a Clouser Minnow then search tying Bucktail flies to get some tips on what to look for in a good Bucktail, what part of the tail has the best material and how to tie it on. I've caught walleye and northern on the Oconto all the way into December on these patterns. 

Good luck.

Go for it! I took fly tying classes and one issue with super threads was they could be pulled tight enough to actually cut the hairs you are trying to tie on. He (the teach) used them for creating deer hair bugs where you pack the hair on the hooks and then shave it into a shape with a razor blade. They make all kinds of thread in all kinds of colors. I was told purple was a hot hair color and went to the fly shop in De Pere and they had five different shades of purple! I use metallic gold or silver fish rod builders thread over the base wraps on some of my bigger creations. Otherwise nylon thread has stretch that helps to keep things tight. The synthetic hair looked great for tying larger jigs or flies.