Use of jig hooks for ALL nymphs?

[SpokaneDude 0]

Is there any reason why I can't tie any nymph pattern on a jig hook?

[Flicted 0]

You can tie a nymph on a cane if you want to. Depends on the look you are trying to achieve. Only drawback may be the angle of hook set but you could get arguments either way.

[flytire 0]

no reason at all. be creative. experiment

 

however, nymphs like a prince nymph or with a wing case should be tied up side down and even then its tyers preference

 

 

copper john

 

 

http://www.flyfishfood.com/2013/08/tying-on-jig-style-hooks.html

 

these days its permissible to tie anything on any kind of hook and call it a reinvention of the original

[SpokaneDude 0]

flytire: great suggestion... I would never have thought of that... thank you!

[mikechell 0]

Yep ... as flytire pointed out ... the fly needs to be tied "upside down", since the hook eye will keep the hook point up.

 

I would add on caution. In fast flowing water, or on fast retrieves, jig hooks may spin when a standard hook style won't.

[flytire 0]

however, when tying nymphs "in the round" it doesnt matter how the fly is tied. the fly looks the same all around the hook

 

examples

 

 

[mikechell 0]

Kind of hard to tie an "in-the-round" fly upside down.

 

Although, if you wanted a split tail look, the hook itself would definitely separate the tail if you tied it that way.

[tjm 0]

I'll agree that you can tie any pattern of materials on any hook, how ever to me a jig is a jig regardless of the materials involved and a nymph is not a jig. A nymph is not a bead head either, imo, a bead head is more jig like than fly like or nymph like; they are fished as a jig.

I will concede that to many people a nymph without a jig head is odd.

(my curmudgeon may be showing, sorry)

[xvigauge 0]

I fish for trout here in the Smoky Mountains almost exclusively with nymphs. I tie the nymphs I use myself and I tie them with a bead head about 98% of the time. I don't consider them to be "jig like" and I don't in any way fish them like a jig. They are simply a bead head nymph and the bead head serves to get the nymph down faster than a nymph tied without a bead head and is not fished any differently than a non bead head nymph. So, is a weighted nymph; i.e., a nymph tied with a bit of lead wire wrapped around the hook shaft to make it sink faster fished any differently than an unweighted nymph? It is not, and neither is a bead head nymph.

Joe

[whatfly 0]

Of course you could, just not sure why you would want to. In most cases it is still cheaper to use conventional hooks, and it bothers me that jig hooks are on average lighter than many conventional hooks. You are also going to have a hard time finding jig hooks #20 or smaller, if you fish those sorts of patterns. Furthermore, in the smaller sizes, the eye crowds the gape a bit too much for my taste, so I tend to only use them on larger patterns. Finally, jig hooks have a very limited range of styles, so for my tying anyway, there is no single hook that is going to cover all the patterns I tie.

 

As an aside, I must say I find it amusing that some insist you have to tie nymphs upside down on jig hooks -- as if the fish care which way is up on a fly, or as if nymphs do not tumble in the water column anyway. I guess some tiers just like to make things more difficult than they need to be. Of course a fly tied on a jig hooks can be "jigged" but then so can any weighted fly, and it can be dead drifted the same as any other wet, so not sure why this issue keeps coming up as well, except perhaps as reflex.

 

Curious why the OP restricted the question to just nymphs? No reason why you could not tie all your streamers on jig hooks as well. Jig hooks have nearly complete supplanted conventional hooks for striper and bass fishers in our Delta region, for example.

 

Personally I feel no need to limit myself in terms of hooks choice, although inevitably I tend to fall back to my standbys after playing around and discarding alternatives. YMMV.

[planettrout 0]

F.Y.I. - Wingcases, shellbacks, and wings: To invert or not to invert ?

 

http://devin-olsen.squarespace.com/blog/wingcases-to-invert-or-not-to-invert-that-is-the-question

 

 

PT/TB

[FIN-ITE 34 0]

I fully agree with Devin Olsen as pointed out by PT.

[mikechell 0]

As an aside, I must say I find it amusing that some insist you have to tie nymphs upside down on jig hooks -- as if the fish care which way is up on a fly, or as if nymphs do not tumble in the water column anyway. I guess some tiers just like to make things more difficult than they need to be.

But what if you AREN'T fishing the nymph as a free tumbling, mid water column nymph? If you're fishing the fly as a crawling, feeding/searching-for-food nymph, then the jig hook would keep the hook point from digging in better. Also, the wing cases, etc. would be visible ALL the time.

For those who fish super fine tippets, because you think the fish can see the line ... don't you think the wing cases and other body features would also be visible to the fish, and would make a difference? Tying those features on the hook point side of the jig hook would present those features to the fish as a healthy, upright and moving nymph. No?

[chugbug27 0]

Personally I bought about a dozen jig hook flies at a shop in Bishop, CA over the course of two different wintertime trips a few years back, on the shopowner's repeated suggestion that it helped you keep the nymph on the bottom without getting caught on the bottom as often (the shoptyer / shopkeeper let me know it was the shopowner/ guide's latest advice). He tied his in the round. I was sold on the idea immediately, and when I got back home I bought a pack (size 18), thinking I'd tie some up in a smaller dimension. But I never did tie them up, and I never did catch any bottom feeding trout on a jig hook. I've tried a bunch, under lots of different conditions. And they do get caught on the bottom. (Branches in particular.) I've only got one or two left...

 

My own conclusion is they are jig hooks, designed and best used to fish jigging patterns with a jigging style.

 

Out here they're also used in something called a balanced leech, with a shorn-off nail tied off the top to balance the weight of the hook so it rides horizontally mid-depth in lakes. I haven't tried those, but I also hear (from another guide's postings) that they also are the fashizle. I suppose I'll have to try them if I go lake fishing from a boat...

[planettrout 0]

Personally I bought about a dozen jig hook flies at a shop in Bishop, CA over the course of two different wintertime trips a few years back, on the shopowner's repeated suggestion that it helped you keep the nymph on the bottom without getting caught on the bottom as often (the shoptyer / shopkeeper let me know it was the shopowner/ guide's latest advice). He tied his in the round. I was sold on the idea immediately, and when I got back home I bought a pack (size 18), thinking I'd tie some up in a smaller dimension. But I never did tie them up, and I never did catch any bottom feeding trout on a jig hook. I've tried a bunch, under lots of different conditions. And they do get caught on the bottom. (Branches in particular.) I've only got one or two left...

 

My own conclusion is they are jig hooks, designed and best used to fish jigging patterns with a jigging style.

 

Out here they're also used in something called a balanced leech, with a shorn-off nail tied off the top to balance the weight of the hook so it rides horizontally mid-depth in lakes. I haven't tried those, but I also hear (from another guide's postings) that they also are the fashizle. I suppose I'll have to try them if I go lake fishing from a boat...

 

chugbug27,

 

I have tied a lot of different jig patterns and they have been used by both me and my son Michael in the Eastern Sierra, on the Madison and Yellowstone Rivers and on rivers in the East including the West Branch of the Croton, The Delaware, Esopus Creek and some other waters. This is a Brown my kid recently took on the West Branch of the Croton:

 

 

...on this Jig pattern #16:

 

 

 

I used this jig pattern, as an anchor, last Fall on the East Walker River up in Bridgeport, CA:

 

 

The EWR...

 

 

...and it enticed a bunch of fat Rainbows. I have never purchased any jig pattern in a fly shop on the Eastside or anywhere else. I trust the patterns I tie...because they work... Finally, this stonefly jig pattern, tied with micro polar chenille, is just plain deadly anywhere we have used it...

 

 

 

 

 

PT/TB