Why are jigs so expensive - ideas on saving money?

[Verdi]

How are those working out? That's somthing we've talked about for years but never actually built.

They are my go too jigs for deep water lings, and halibut. For halibut i tip with bait, herring or pc of octopus.
The lead and copper make a battery that give off a current that drives them crazy. They also have very little drag and sink fast.

 

[tubber]

I have Do-It 3/4 and 7/9 molds and a bunch of other jigs and tails, usually bought on sale.
I catch most of my lings in less than 100 ft.
If I really wanted to save money, I'd hang one of these on a pair of hooks above a spark plug, spike or an old slip weight, then I'd hang whatever I caught (or a herring) on some bigger hooks on a different rod, and maybe up the weight.

I just fuelled up the boat and bought a pair of downrigger balls for my first trip, so come to think of it...

Gibbs Curly Tails 8" - 25 Pack

Marine & Fishing Experts since 1985! Largest chandlery on Vancouver Island. Boating & fishing products along with friendly staff for a pleasant experience. 🌊⚓🎣

harbourchandler.ca

 

[Foxsea]

Notwithstanding market dynamics and retail theory, has anyone ever wondered how and why larger jigs and lures are so expensive? I appreciate a market charges what it can, but I’m surprised a manufacturer has yet to exploit the vastly inflated and artificially high price of small chunks of extremely easy to manufacture metal we buy. A large lure can cost well over $30 these days and the cheapest 10+ oz ones I can fins tend to start at $20, which is silly when you consider what goes into making them. I even saw a trendy-looking Norwegian cod jig in a local store recently that was $50. Expensive loss when bumping rocky ground…!

So does anyone know of a manufacturer that’s said ‘these cost a dollar to manufacture so I’ll sell them for ten and make a killing’? I know it’s not that simple but if I owned some fairly simple tools dedicated to the job I could probably bang a hundred out a week and sell them at that margin to make some decent pocket/gas money (no, I’m way too busy to fit that into my life).

Thoughts? Ideas? They obviously don’t need to be hand-painted and carefully crafted like maybe spoons (and even that’s pros manufacturer myth). Big lingcod and rockfish will tend to go for anything annoying and shiny…

Thanks. Anyone working for Gibbs here ?

Those things are, by far, one of the cheapest parts of fishing. Buy lots and don't worry if you lose 1 or 2. It's like Lucky. If you buy the 24 box, it sucks but you barely notice if you drop one. There's still 12 more.

 

[brutus]

Those things are, by far, one of the cheapest parts of fishing. Buy lots and don't worry if you lose 1 or 2. It's like Lucky. If you buy the 24 box, it sucks but you barely notice if you drop one. There's still 12 more.

Yup, jigs are cheap, compared to what I spend in a year on fishing related stuff, 500$ in jigs in a season is where I am at, my wife likes jigging for lings and really good at catching them and the bottom too,few years back she hung up on a windy day, went to hand me the rod and let go a bit quick, rod is in the bottom at seabird island lol, mr2 and hmx rod, so the 10$ jig was cheap, one thing for sure, jigs are not the most expensive things fishing related I spend

 

[bcbassfishing]

Buy some molds, lead, 1$ a hook, brass eyes, get a respirator, melting pot, big turkey fryer burner, propane, powder coating paint, toaster oven to bake paint in and spend an nature afternoon pouring them, re melting defective ones, paint etc….

all of a sudden 10$ seems cheap! Plus no worries about the effects of lead on your body

This takes an afternoon

Yep seems about right. The only reason I go threw the trouble is because I can't get any quality gear in my area. That and I get bored and its kinda fun making stuff. It's like tying fly's but for real fish lol

 

[Fixit]

area I was referring to is by flora islets

 

[ziggy]

I’ve been buying the Savage swim jigs that come with an extra body. So far I’m building up a real store of extra bodies while leaving most of the heads hooked in the bottom of Oak Bay. Will be looking for new four ounce replacement heads or a scuba course

 

[Dan The Man]

I’ve been buying the Savage swim jigs that come with an extra body. So far I’m building up a real store of extra bodies while leaving most of the heads hooked in the bottom of Oak Bay. Will be looking for new four ounce replacement heads or a scuba course

PNT sells just the heads now.

 

[Captain PartyMarty]

I am curious about the assist hooks where are the instructions for making them?

 

[tubber]

Sorry, in rush to pack and get to ferry.
Search amazon.ca for assist hooks and solid ring.
Choke the loop on the assist hook (or 2 hooks)to the solid ring, attach the solid ring to a strong split ring( I often reuse the one attached to the treble I'm removing), then attach the split ring to the top of the jig.
If you're lucky with snags, you can switch to many different weights and style jigs while using the same hook.
Split ring pliers make it fast.

 

[tubber]

YouTube to make your own from old DR braid, simple knot and some shrink tube.

 

[ziggy]

PNT sells just the heads now.

Thanks. Last couple of weeks more heads were lost off Oak Bay than were in the entire French Revolution.

 

[ValorFish]

Was mentioned in another thread about jigging, but Peche Sud is a great Canadian fishing tackle site, good prices for jigs and assist/stinger hooks.

 

[RiverBoy]

There is a guy who makes jigs locally and sells them cheap in Saanich on Facebook. The cheapest are lead head and swim baits and they seem to work for me.

I've also had a lure maker, I think it was Critter Cove contact me about trying to hire lure-making people. We had a nice chat but we really don't headhunt anyone for customers unless they pay more than $30 an hour and they weren't offering anywhere near that.

I think making, packaging, and selling lures is just labour intensive. Even if you manage to get workers for $20 an hour when construction pays $25, your cost of molds, equipment, paint, land, and opportunity costs are high.

I'm getting into slow pitch jigging and it is going to be costly.

Katherine from CC owns Tomic plugs and they are having a hell of a time finding plug painters. There’s gonna be a shortage soon me thinks. good thing i have at least 100 plugs

 

[big rock]

Was mentioned in another thread about jigging, but Peche Sud is a great Canadian fishing tackle site, good prices for jigs and assist/stinger hooks.

Thanks for the this info I think! Just put an order in they have some really cooling looking gear.

 

[Zakalwe]

Just wanted to thank everyone for such thoughtful and informative replies. Cheers

 

[BCROB]

Can I be first on your list? I like 2-3 oz jigs, if you just punch them out, I'll paint them.

can you or someone post a pic of jig preference of what guys are wanting/using..........jig sizes/hook size

 

[Local Hali Hunter]

can you or someone post a pic of jig preference of what guys are wanting/using..........jig sizes/hook size

I personally like the Jenson Perkins, 60 gram or 2 oz. I have yet to find someone who can create a knock off of them. I personally only like to use fish (herring) type jigs. If you start making these, I'll buy them all perhaps

 

[tightlines]

Buy plain unpainted jigs on Ebay or elsewhere and then add your own assist hooks to the top eye so they don't get hung up all the time- Buy 200 at a time and the cost goes significantly down. If you watch too many instagram fishing videos you might think that groundfish only bite swim baits with special paint! Fish aren't bright creatures. Lingcod will grab onto another rockfish with no hooks all the way up to the gaff in the head....

 

[ziggy]

I personally like the Jenson Perkins, 60 gram or 2 oz. I have yet to find someone who can create a knock off of them. I personally only like to use fish (herring) type jigs. If you start making these, I'll buy them all perhaps

I think I saw some on used Victoria that a local guy was making.