The other day I was lucky enough to go fishing with a Bassmaster Elite Series Pro Angler while he was preparing for an upcoming event.  Like any angler, he had numerous fishing rods laid out on the deck of his boat, everything from topwater lures, swimbaits, to Texas rigged worms.  As he went along the shoreline casting and pitching at lay downs, every once and a while he would change lures, testing to see which one got the better bite.  In the end, one lure stood out among the rest.  Confident that he knew what lure to fish with when the tournament started, he began putting his fishing rods up and cutting off all the named brand baits throwing them on to the deck of the boat.  Grabbing my camera, I started taking pictures of all the lures.  Quickly, the pro snatched the hair jig up before I could take a photo of it.  Sheepishly, the pro looked at me and whispered in a hushed voice, “Lets keep this hair jig a secret between us, okay.”  Since the tournament is over with, I am going to let the cat out of the bag.  Anglers, especially professional anglers everywhere are secretly fishing with handmade, hand painted, no name brand custom built hair jigs. 

The biggest problem with fishing hair jigs maybe finding someone who builds a high quality hair jig.  A large number of anglers who fish hair jigs make them in the off season but it is time consuming and takes talent to make good ones.  One company, TrendSetter Tackle (www.trendsettertackle.com or phone (918) 269-6097) builds handmade, hand painted custom built hair jigs for anglers.  The owner, Mitch McClain from Broken Bow, Oklahoma, explains, “I started building hair jigs for myself at first because I wanted a hair jig with a strong hook for flipping,” McClain continued, “now, anglers are calling me to build jigs for them.”  TrendSetter hair jigs come standard with either a light wire or heavy wire Mustad Ultra Point 60-degree flat eye hook, with bucktail for hair and with a football, round, or Arkie style head.  The TrendSetter Jig comes in a variety of popular color patterns to choose from.  McClain hand pours, grinds them down on a finishing sander, powder paints, ties them, and installs the weedguard on each hair jig he makes.  “I make sure that every jig is flawless, I even make sure every eye is cleaned out with no powder paint inside the eye,” said McClain.

Many anglers believe that hair jigs only catch fish in the winter time; however, numerous anglers fish them year round. Why do hair jigs catch fish?  Hair on a jig has a subtle, undulating, natural flow, pulsating, blooming, and flaring out action compared to silicone skirts that collapses giving it an unnatural head first fall and falls faster than a slow falling hair jig.  No other material behaves like it when underwater.

Hair jigs can be fished any where you fish a silicone skirted jig.  McClain likes to fish the Arkansas River in Oklahoma with a 3/8-ounce black or black/blue hair jig with a black #11 Uncle Josh pork rind or the tail end of a soft plastic lizard in the springtime.  Other locations that McClain has been successful fishing a hair jig are on Gibson and Grand Lake in Oklahoma around brush, logs, and docks.  “A lot of times I can follow behind an angler fishing a silicone skirted jig and catch more fish than them with a hair jig,” said McClain.  In general, round head hair jigs are productive around cover or drops.  Football head hair jigs catch fish on rocky bottoms or pea gravel by crawling them.  Darter head or minnow shaped hair jigs are effective when fished in a pendulum swing action near bluff banks or swimming it through schools of shad.  “Another difference between a hair jig and a jig with a silicone skirt is bass seem to hold on longer, chewing on it,” McClain continued, “the strikes are a running type hit, not a peck, peck.”  Just like other jigs, scents can be applied to hair jigs without the fear of discoloration. 

Not only does McClain make hair jigs, he makes Hare jigs.  That’s right, Hare like that of a rabbit.  McCain’s “Hare Jig” is a hybrid of bucktail and two strips of rabbit zonkers.  The Hare jig has a one-of-a-kind action that looks like a crawfish backing up and when stopped the pinchers (rabbit zonkers) raise up; this gives the Hare jig its lifelike action enticing bass to strike it repetitively.

The secret is out: hair and Hare jigs can catch fish in any lake or reservoir and any time of year.  The subtle, undulating, pulsating, and blooming action just drives bass wild.  Angler’s way back in the 1950’s knew it and now you know it.  But do me a favor, “Lets keep this hair jig a secret between us, okay.”