New to fishing P4 this year. Seeing a lot of talk about hair jigs and what style and type people prefer. What I am not seeing (even when doing a search) is why people are using hair jigs. Obviously they believe it is a producer. My question is what about them makes them effective? What types of conditions are they most effective in? I am a traditional lake guy using a jig and a minnow. Never would of dawned on me to use a hair jig minus any bait.
Great question, I am not an experienced river fishermen, but the only times I have fished hair jigs has been spring or fall simply to present a bulkier bait then plain jig and minnow, I am very interested in the responses from the resident gurus. I’m sure it is along the same lines as maribous for smallies.
The fish eat them is the reason. Hit them a lot harder than a jig/minnow.
Are you always fishing straight hair? Or bulking it up with minnow or plastic?
The fish eat them is the reason. Hit them a lot harder than a jig/minnow.
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Just hair jig 99.9% of the time, but for me I do occasionally bucktail with a mini paddle tail to fish high water current seems. I have done with some good success I must add.
BTA you have a PM
The fish eat them is the reason.
Pretty hard to argue with that 
If the walleyes hit the minnows as hard as hair jigs I might fish more minnows. Hair jigs come in more colors than minnows. The hair flairs in and out on a good jigs as you fish them. Think some days this is really what triggers the fish to bite. Cooler water temps seem to get the fish really going on hair but I know some guys that fish them year round. Couple of the main conditions I like to fish hair jigs in are late fall and into winter vertical jigging for saugers and walleyes. Spring high water pitching to current seams. The next couple of months pitching to the deep tips of wingdams during the day.
If the walleyes hit the minnows as hard as hair jigs I might fish more minnows. Hair jigs come in more colors than minnows. The hair flairs in and out on a good jigs as you fish them. Think some days this is really what triggers the fish to bite. Cooler water temps seem to get the fish really going on hair but I know some guys that fish them year round. Couple of the main conditions I like to fish hair jigs in are late fall and into winter vertical jigging for saugers and walleyes. Spring high water pitching to current seams. The next couple of months pitching to the deep tips of wingdams during the day.
Thanks this was the type of info I was looking for. Thinking I am going to pick some up and give them a try. Going to be hard for me as I am such a jig and live bait guy
A hair jig is a more compact presentation than a jig and plastic, and the hair has a differnet action in the water. Those combine to be more of a finesse technique that works great in both cold water and in cold front conditions.
Going to be hard for me as I am such a jig and live bait guy
A good way to get some confidence in hair [or plastic] is to have your bait along and if the bite is a great bite with bait, omit the bait and go to straight hair.
Something else to consider is to carry each hair color in several sizes and different degrees of bulk. Lots of hair can help slow the drop. Lots of hair at times will get hit while sparsely bulked jigs go un-touched, or vice versa.
Trumar makes some synthetic jigs too that should be considered as the action of the fake hair can be a lot more productive at times.
I’ve been a fan of bucktail for over 50 years and its my experience that a “soft” hit is almost non-existent. Get hooked on hair and bait money will become bucktail money.
2nd pic…06/16/2012 Pool 4 High water current seam at Evert Resrot on a 3/16 Patriot bucktail !
Believe me they just plain WORK !
I have been known to use them year around when conditions are right.
First pic.. dead mid summer Winona area, got my PB Sauger @ 3.25 lbs on a custom colored Bucktail.
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I think one significant part of the tools we use that a guy shouldn’t be without.
What made a believer out of me was standing on the ice, marking a crap load of fish, and the best I could do was have a fish follow up a jig rap and laugh at it. Along comes a guy with a simple 1/4oz hair jig in chart./white. (no plastics or meat) Asked “you mind?” as he points to a hole right behind me. Laughing to myself “go for it”. The magic show began 
Why? I’ll never know exactly why. As mentioned above, the hair has a very different appearance and presentation than everything else. Could be slower or faster, could be color, could be the tight quiver of the hair in current or a “pulse” in the hair as it is jigged. Does it mimic a dieing or darting minnow – probably. But considering how many guys and how many years they have been around and used, you can’t argue with the facts. They produce.
But like all baits, some days they shine and others they don’t do as well. For me, they serve that “in-between presentation” where cranks are too aggressive and plastics are too slow. I look at them as more of an alternative to blade baits. Usually if i have a good blade bite going, hair either does a little better or a little worse. Again, that is how it fits into my presentations and everyone fishes them a bit different.
Don’t over look them for lake applications either. Too many people think they are a “river bait” 
Not the case at all. Most of the old timers that I know of having boxes of hair jigs are from Canada and “up-norht” trips. Those old guys knew a few things! 
i have no idea. i know they work though. my first experience with “hair” was fuzz-e grubs. i didn’t think there was any way this was going to outfish a tail or paddle. the hair just sat there. this is preposterous i thought. it was spring and we were elbow to elbow on shore just a few fish on stringers and it was pretty slow. i through on a fuzz-e grub and proceeded to pull in sauger after walleye after sauger. i only had 3 of these grubs. gave one to my dad who was about 15 yds away…he started putting on a clinic till he snagged and lost it. we caught our limits in about 45 minutes. sold on fuzz-e grubs and moved up to hair. there are times where i think the subtle wave of hair triggers them more so than plastics.
I did really good with them in November on the Mississippi snap jigging them on wing dikes. 3/16 was my best size. I’ve done a lot of research on this and it sounds like 3/16, 1/4, and 5/16 are the best sizes. Never heard of guys going heavier or lighter than that.
They work for finicky bass, too. A couple years ago, early fall, I was fishing in pool 6 backwaters and my bass bite was absolutely dead. I looked in the rod box and noticed I had a black bucktail on a rod and out of shear boredom I pitched it into a weedy edge that I had just pounded and holy smokes did I ever get into a LM bass bite. They wouldn’t touch typical bass baits, but that little black hair jig was kriptonite.
1/8 and 3/16 are my 2 favorite weights to use on pool 4, not often to feel a need to use anything heavier.
I have learned that they really shine in cold water, especially buck tails.
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