The Hair Jig Perfected

The hair jig has been a proven means of catching fish for longer than most of us have been alive and there are plenty of manufactures that make hair jigs, so why is it you see top pros tying their own when it comes down to tournament day? The simple answer, no one makes them just right.  Well, until the Rabid Baits hair jigs.

What makes the perfect hair jig

So, what is it that makes these Rabid Baits hair jigs just right? To fully understand that question we need to understand everything that goes into fishing a hair jig. In my personal experience and many top pros can agree that a hair jig needs to be thrown on a long moderate action rod with light line. Typically, when you pull your hair jig out the fish are in some type of funk, be it pre spawn, post spawn, or even in the winter months. These situations call for very long cast to get your bait out away from the boat. To obtain that you need a 7 foot to 7’6” spinning rod and really light line. I will typically throw a hair jig on 12lb braid down to a longer 30-foot 6lb fluorocarbon leader. With light line, long casts, and smallmouth you’re going to need a moderate action rod for better hook up ratios and to ensure they stay pinned!

Think about that set-up for a minute, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? The hook! You can ty the best hair jig on the planet but if it doesn’t have a quality hook you can be rest assured that you’re going to lose many of the fish you hook. For a while now it’s been well known between lure crafters and hair jig fanatics that the Owner super needle point jig hooks are the premier hook for crafting the best hair jigs. That’s why the Rabid Baits hair jigs are crafted with just that hook! It’s a light wire hook with a laser sharp point that’s able to get a good hookset on fish despite the long casts, light line, and moderate action rods required to properly fish a hair jig.

The Hair

Well it isn’t called a hair jig for just any reason. There are dozens of types of hair, fur, or feathers that are typically used in crafting hair jigs. Most commonly you see them made with Marabou, bucktail, synthetics, zonker, or rabbit fur. Coming from a company that specializes in fur we have had the opportunity to test literally every material you could think of and there isn’t a material that we like better for a hair jig than artic fox fur. Here are some of the advantages that we’ve found with Fox over some of the other materials. The first being its body retention in the water. Unlike Marabou which can be very compacted in the water, fox fur maintains the majority of its size in the water without sacrificing action. It is also naturally buoyant and has a much slower fall rate than marabou or bucktail jigs. This allows you to throw it on a slightly heavier jig head and achieve longer casts. I will admit, the marabou jig has its time and place but you can be rest assured that I will have a fox fur jig tied on nearly every day of the year as its versatility is simply unmatched.

The Craft

Hand Poured, Hand Painted, and Hand Tied. Yes these jigs are hand tied right here in the United States! To get That perfect jig head the Rabid Baits hair jigs are hand poured with Do-it Molds and Owner Hooks. Next they are hand painted with ultra high quality pearl paints to give them a little extra shimmer and pop in the water. Finally they are hand tied with artic fox fur and sealed for long lasting durability.

If your looking to start fishing hair jigs or you’re a pro looking for the highest quality jigs on the market the Rabid Baits Fox Fur hair jig is your jig!