re: Bass Jig Preferences

Those Viper standup heads look a lot like the standup heads Barlow Tackle (out of Richardson, TX) sells. I have some, but I prefer the old original Arky design personally.

Just as a heads up, Barlow has the 3/8 oz standup heads on clearance in black, green pumpkin and brown for $.65 - $1.00 a piece depending on quantity (5, 25, 100).

I am not going to take the time to manage an e-commerce site or ship direct to consumers. Plus, just on general principle, I HATE when manufacturers do that to dealers. They sell their products direct and then expect dealers to buy and stock them. I would never do that and be my customers biggest competitor. If anything, not selling direct is a huge selling point to dealers today. Plus, I have relationships with a lot of dealers already.

Then I will just quit and try a different side hustle. I will not compete against dealers who are my livelihood. It is the same reason I offer to sell my samples to dealers instead of the general public, even though I could make more selling to the public.

I have toughly 60 dealers I regularly call on. Commission from their orders is what puts a roof over my head. I will not risk souring a relationship with any of them over a $3 jig.

Good luck with your business. I know how I will go to market. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. I think I will be able to move 1,000-2,000 jigs a year. That is all I am looking for. As stated, I have worked in the outdoors industry awhile, 22 years so far. Two of those as the national accounts manager at a tackle company everyone here would recognize. I appreciate your input on the business side of things, but that is what I feel most comfortable with.

What I am looking for input on is product. What did you think of the pictures? Eyes and colors? Agree or disagree?

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What did you think of the pictures? Eyes and colors? Agree or disagree?

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Eyes are fine as long as the heads have sockets for them. I use a ton on my spinnerbaits but I also epoxy clearcoat over them so they never come out. I dont use eyes on my jigs at all. Never saw the point. They do snaz up the product a little. Especially the swim head. Adds another 10 cent to the product and the labor to put them in.

Pics are hard to see but they look a little thin for my customers. I typically use 55-60 strands. I like the thinner jigs for deeper water. As the bait falls, it has a more consistent rate than a thicker jig. Both slow down the deeper they fall. For shallow water, I prefer a thicker jig. To be honest, I mostly use a brown living rubber jig 90% of the time. Just the perfect jig for me.

Colors look fine. Like I said before, jigs are very local products. Find out what your local guys like and stick with it. They will probably be the ones who will use them in the end.

Thicker skirts may sell better. But I know for a fact you miss more fish on them. I think 44-48 is the sweet spot. I know a guy who fishes professionally who thins them out even more and trims them even shorter than I do, just past the bend of the hook.

Again, 50+ strands may sell better. But so far, and maybe they just don’t want to hurt my feelings, no one who has used them has told me they wish the skirt was thicker. I have been making them off and on since the late 90s. Always just for personal use and giving them to friends. Skirt thickness has never really been brought up that I can remember.

I am not going to sell them with the skirt or weedguard trimmed, I will let the buyer do that if they want.

The stick on eyes cost $.08/jig. I use ‘Seal Coat’ over them. Two part epoxy is too hard to work with and super hard to be consistent with.

I usually use 1/4oz unless I’m trying to penetrate pads/weeds

Black/Blue
Brown/Orange
Green Pumpkin/Chart
White or Pearl

Swim jigs in 1/4 or 3/8

Rage bug trailer except the white with a short boot tail

Eyes not necessary

Oh and I prefer live rubber