Synthetic & Jig Fly’s

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Date: May 07, 2006 at 16:59:18
From: ken, [pool-70-109-217-38.prvdri.east.verizon.net]
Subject: Re: Some questions


Thank you David. The techniques you describe are important.

They are weighted flies and they are jig fly's too.

Weighted in the head is a common understanding of a jig. Jigs are great lures and always have been.
They have an action caused by the weight. They dive head first. Not all weighted flies do that but head weighted ones do. You can impart a jigging motion to weighted fly's in an up and down motion. That is called Jigging. So in that sense of the word all weighted flies could be called Jig flys. There is nothing wrong with stating that. I prefer to call weighted in the head flies Jig fly's because of the common understanding of a "Jig" which to most people is usually associated with a lead head with feathers or hair or some type of dressing including plastic lures. That description can be understood easily.

For years I have talked to people who could not understand how to drift a fly without movement or suspend one because the only "Fly's" they were familiar with were fly's with lead heads and they sank and could not be suspended.
I am not talking about people who came to fly fishing with broad knowledge but those who were educated only with modern techniques and weighted flies.

I have had scores of folks tell me privately that they could not understand what the hell I was talking about with presentation techniques because they had never used unweighted flies. They could not understand how the fly wold act the way I was describing to them. When I said FLY they pictured JIG.

So.. For clarity I know that there is a difference because it causes a functional confusion that would not occur if the difference between weighted, weighted in the head and unweighted was made clear.

To me the difference is very important for communication of ideas because not everyone knows the difference in function between weighted and unweighted and/or weighted in the head and I do not assume that they do any longer.

The term Jig Flies is not my term. It has been in use for a very long time. There is a whole chapter in Bucktails and Streamers the big fish flies by Bates on the different characteristics of them and many different ways to fashion them. It is not the first book to do that. Just one of many that have.

The meaning of words is not always shared in common by everyone. To call jig flies flys is misleading to those who do not know that there is a big difference between a fly that sinks head down on a slack line and one that suspends.

The function is not the same. The meaning of the word may be different. So..
A jig fly is a jig fly and a fly is a fly. They are different. If they were not different then there would not be two different ways of fashioning them and they would both function equally well and the same in a similar presentation. They do not unless you compensate with skill and savvy.

You have to add lead to the head to make a jig fly.

You do not do that to make a fly.
They are in fact different.

It is not about personal feelings.

I love the characteristics of Jigs. They do things that flys do not do and they do them incredibly well.

They cannot be what they are not they have their own unique identity.

If they were not different there would be no reason to use them or compare them with flies as theyre would be no difference in results when they were compared.

So your post states that you do recognize a difference and have shared your awareness of that difference. You have preferences for certain situations and those preferences are fluid and changing to suit the situations you encounter.

I am very interested in reading about those preferences and techniques but if you use the word fly I will become confused because fly to me is the classic definition. Unweighted and weighted fly is no necessarily one that sinks Head first. So Jig fly or Dumbbell eyed fly or Clouser type fly would be helpful for me to understand what type of lure you are using in your presentations.

I need that clarity in order to understand what you are writing about.

Tell us more about your techniques please?


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