Found some snelled daiichi bait hooks in the local Florence sporting goods store. Question? Do you bend the hook eye to make the jig shape for tying? Bill had nothing in the book in the daiichi line that had that shape. Thanks for the info. Mike.

I'm pretty sure that Chad does not have to bend his hooks. I know he orders them online but I'm not sure where he gets them. I know captainhookswarehouse has a good selection of jig hooks online.

They are pre made aberdene jig hooks. The Daiichi bleeding bait jigs hooks are the best you can get in my opinion! They are very strong for their size and we have not had one bend out on us yet and they have held every fish hooked as well!!

Roger that! I'll search the internet. Many thanks, Mike.

Found the hooks in bulk at jannsnetcraft.com. Appreciate the help. Hope to tie a few this weekend and post. Especially one we used on very large leopard rainbows on the Kenocktoc River in Alaska. A kinda/sort green butt skunk with rubberlegs jig. Mike

Sounds interesting, looking forward to seeing it.

ive always used siwash hooks. i put the bend in them myself with little problem... works excellent for me!

Yes, yes, show us a picture of one of those!! I like jigs and patterns that no one else fish, they work.

heres a few that im currently using on the river's around here. im not a pro, but they turned out pretty good. and they work just as good as anything ive ever bought. i used plain old siwash hooks, i believe they're #1's. i twisted the eye to align with the shank, and did the bend myself. some people say this will weaken the hook, but ive never had any problems with breakage or straightening. although it does make the jig a little shorter than if i was to use a true lead headed hook, but ive had a problem finding good strong lead headed hooks up here and the shortness doent seem to effect their effectivness. i used the "downe" portion of the feathers rather than the veins. they have incredible action, almost like they're floating through the water. i like 3/8 oz. for higher/off colored situations. it keeps me from having to use additional weight on the leader in order to keep the jig down. thoughts or critiques welcome!

I thought you might like these skyfisher!! They are to big for what we use but I think they would work for your rivers (http://store.rvrfshr.com/product_p/rvrsticker.htm). No bend needed

thanks for the link hollywood! ive used rvrfshr spinner bodies and blades in the past and i really like em. but ive never used their jig hooks. i gave up on everything else ever since i started using gamakatsu siwash hooks. ill give them a try!

im curious... what do you mean when you say they're to big for what you guys use, but they may work in our rivers?

thanks again!

I meant that most people 90% fish jigs on 1/8oz up to 1/4oz jigs for steelhead. And that works on most river, I just figured the rivers around you had some size to them and that you use those size of jigs. Even on the small coastal rivers here people use big jigs. We use jigs that are 1/64oz down to 1/128oz micro jigs for some of the coastal rivers around here. So the rvrfishr jig heads are way to big for our type of approach!

wow!!! 128th oz???!!! thats way small dude!!! what keeps a hook of that size from straightening out? and how do you rig your setup for using those small jigs? id like to give it a try sometime.

you're right, i usually fish 1/4 or 1/8 oz jigs. the photos i posted earlier just happened to be 3/8 oz because the water around here is still really cloudy and i like a big profile under those conditions. most of the rivers i fish are medium to small. but i prefer the small ones that run down through the foothills over all others. pocket water, riffles, pools and tailouts are just what im lookin for!!!

It is a very deadly technique for sure, but you have to be setup just right or it won't work. I tie up all of our jigs using the daiichi bleeding bait jig hooks and they are extremely strong. We use 9'6, fast action, light weight (4-8lb test rating) rod with 10lb braid mainline. We use between 4lb and 8lb leader and with small floats. If you have a setup like this you can land big steelhead in a reasanable amount of time and it gives you a definate advantage in low clear water. Plus, with this setup you won't bend out hooks and once one of these small hooks is burried its not coming out period! I'm sure it would work well on small to medium rivers where you live just don't tell anyone you are doing it or it won't be as deadly!!

wow!!! sounds remarkably close to the setup i run now. other than the size of the jig. with jigs i typically run my 10 foot loomis, mod-fast, light action, 6-10lb spinning rod. at least when the water is on the lower/clearer side. its like a buggy whip. the whole thing turns into a big teardrop when playing a fish. i love going light!!! so on this rod i never run more than 8lb mono, even when tossin spinners. ill have to give this micro-jig thing a try. with regards to your leaders, how do you keep such a small jig down in the face's of the fish?

and yes, i am very secretive about my setups!!!

thanks for the info!!!

I use a sliding float rig and use two small split shot on my leader down to my micro jig. I also tie in some lead into the body of the micro jig to get it down a bit faster. Of course they work best in walking speed runs with a little chop but I'v also caught fish with these in many situations.