Hi Folks,

I'm wrapping up some bucktail jigs for the coming season and I'm curious as to what people have had the most success with in terms of a finish to seal/protect the threads.

Thanks in advance for your help and sharing your experiences!

-Brian

Sally hansens hard as nails... I've done clear epoxy, but to me... seeing I pour my own jigs.. it's just not woth the extra bother...

Not sure about the brand but I have been using clear nail polish as well.

I use fly tying head cement. I forget the brand but it comes in little bottles that are about1 1/2 inch cubes. It also is sold right along side its thinner. I usually add one bottle of head cenment and one bottle of thinner together right off the bat.

For large jigs , you need to put some head cemnt on as you tie. Lets say for a 4 OZ jig you may use 4 bucktail hair clumps. I wrapp a few times around the hook shank and add a drop of cement there 9I use a thoothpick to apply it. You just dip the toothpick in the cement and what clings to it gets dripped and rubbed into the thread and hair.) I then add a bunch hair and wrap about 5 wraps and add cemnet , same with each clump of hair. Then you wrap the whole bundle until no color shows through and then saturate the whole tied area. I like to let it sit a short time 9dries fast as hell with the thinner in it) then drip a few more drips on to get that glass like epoxy coated look. That's it!

If you don't add cement as you tie , you need to really saturate everythng at the end. Even that will not work as good as adding cemnet as you go.

Remember its little cube like bottles , all the fly tying supply places carry it. There are several brands. Do not make the mistake of buying one cement brand and a different thinner brand. Be sure both are the same brand.

One last thing. Mostly I use bare jigs , no paint. When I do bucktails , I dip the heads in Ristoleum either white or black. I usually dip them twice but 1 will do. Now I'm mostly making canal jigs whose life expectancy is measured in hours , not months so the paint job is not critical.. I have never seen a need for powder coating a canal jig whose face gets smashed in in 5 minutes and gets lost to a snag in an hour or two.

30 minute epoxy for me. Gives me time to seal up a good dozen plus at a time and the epoxy usually outlives the razorlip attacks on my jigs.

i powder coat all my jigs use zap a gap while tying in the hair and 5 min apoxy to coat the thread figure if im gonna take the ime to make em might as well do em nice

Not sure about the brand but I have been using clear nail polish as well.

I've been using a stolen bottle of the wife's nail polish for this batch. I've put three coats on the jigs so far. I noticed she spent a day in the water with the kids last fall and her nails stayed nice all day.. :)

So among the guys that use nail polish, how do you find it holds up in the salt water, and how many coats do you normally use?

Saltheart, I like the idea of light applications as I wrap, because (as you say) I'm usually using at least 4 clumps of bucktail as I go. I'd thought to do that, but wasn't sure how it would be wrapping the rest of the jig. I'm going to try that on the next batch.

When you dip in rust-oleum, do you put any sort of primer over the bare lead? Most of the jigs I'm making are for fluke fishing, but I will probably use them in the canal too. I'm wondering if it chips off easily..

Most of the jigs I'm making are for fluke fishing, but I will probably use them in the canal too. I'm wondering if it chips off easily..

fluke don't care.

I sometimes use a drop of superglue. At WM you can buy the cheap Superglue something like 4 tubes for $1.

Once dry, I'll use a colored nail polish over it.

I use clear nail polish, whatever is on sale at job lot or dollar store. I havent found a difference.

I put 3 coats on mine, no issues.

Like saltheart stated for big jigs add some in between wraps. and my jigs not seem to last that long so I dont stress over the paint or coating.

Ive tried powder coating and paint, it all chips eventually.

I like using the vinyl plastic dip stuff too, my dad does all his fluke jigs and sinkers in it.

The rustoleum dip is with a bare jig. Now the jigs are not all corroded. Even if they were , i would just dip them. It does not chip at all. It does get scraped and if the area gets bashed in , that arae of the jig will also lose paint.

I set up an old wire rack. I dip the jigs and hang them on the rack. When we were goinmg nuts on jig making we might have 200 drying at once , all just inches apart on each wire of the wrire rack. Put newspaper under it cause they will drip no matter how long you hold them over the can after dipping.

The paint does not crack. It will get scraped off and the jigs certainly dent if you smash into a rock ntu I don't think it matters. No matter how bad they get , just dip them again if you want. Powder coating takes a long time , you need to bake them (not in my food oven!) and then if they get wacked good , even the powder coated ones will chip off. I doubt you can recoat them easily where as with paint is just another dip in the can.

The faces of the jigs get all smashed in at the canal do to the current and the fact they are often tumbling on the bottom at 4 to 5 knots. I never felt fish were not hitting it because the face was smashed or the paint got scarped a little.