Riley Daniel holds proof that his hand-tied jigs (RD’s Jigs) can produce some big results.
Small Business, Big Crappies
by Brent Frazee
Mom & Pop hand-tied jigs lure customers
Fearless Jigs
For a guy who was a late bloomer in fishing, Zac Church never could have imagined he would one day be selling homemade lures as a part time job.
Today, Church ties his own hair jigs and sells them under his Fearless Jigs label. His baits have proven so popular in Kansas that he can hardly keep up with demand.
That’s pretty impressive for someone who didn’t really get into fishing until he attended college.
“I grew up hunting,” said Church, 38, who lives in Newton, Kan. “I love to waterfowl hunt. But we would go after turkeys, quail, doves, a lot of different things. We never did much fishing.”
But Church eventually got to the point where he needed something to do from late January when the duck seasons ended until September, when the dove season opened.
He began fishing for white bass from the bank, then started crappie fishing.
Making his own jigs became a necessity when he became disillusioned with some of the baits he bought from the big box stores.
“The hair jigs I would buy weren’t durable. They would fall apart after a few fish,” he said. “And I couldn’t always find the colors I wanted.”
To come up with something different, he started by using feathers and fur from some of the game he shot during hunting season.
“It came full circle for me,” Church said. “I started using some of the feathers from ducks, turkeys and pheasant I shot, and I came up some nice patterns.
“Then, some friends of mine asked me to make them some specific color patterns, and I bought hackle and chenille to tie those. It just exploded from there.”
Church certainly isn’t alone. Many other anglers have a similar story. What starts as a hobby turns into a side gig to supplement income from their fulltime job.
It’s labor intensive—Church hand-ties each of his jigs—and you certainly won’t get rich by doing it.
But for Church, whose fulltime job is delivering high-end wheelchairs, it brings tremendous pride when anglers catch big crappies on the lures they created.
“It’s all been social media and word-of-mouth,” Church said. “I’ve never gone out and promoted myself. But it’s fun when someone contacts you and tells you about all the crappies they caught on one of the baits you made.”
“It’s fun when someone contacts you and tells you about all the crappies
they caught on one of the baits you made.” ~ Riley Daniel, jig maker
RD’s Jigs
Riley Daniel, another Kansas fisherman, knows the feeling.
A small-town police officer, he discovered the fun of tying his own jigs in his youth when his great uncle took him under his wing.
“He knew I liked to fish, so he invited me into his man cave to show me how to tie jigs,” Daniel said. “After that, I went out and bought my own vise, some feathers and chenille and started experimenting with tying my own.”
At first, it was just a casual hobby. But when he saw a fisherman using a small hair jig to catch big crappies off the dock at Melvern Lake Marina, a lightbulb went on.
“I thought, ‘I could make jigs like that,” Daniel said. “So, I started making my own and I found success right away. I was pumped.”
Word got out, and soon Daniel was tying jigs for other fishermen. By 2021, he got his business licenses and started tying jigs on his days off.
It wasn’t long before a Topeka shop, Don and Tom’s Bait and Tackle, started carrying Daniel’s hand-tied jigs. Daniel also gets orders from as far away as Mississippi, Texas and Oklahoma.
“A lot of fishermen used hair jigs in the winter when the bite was finicky,” Daniel said. “In cold water, crappies don’t want a lot of movement on baits. That’s why hair jigs are so good.
“They’ll still move when you hold your rod still. That subtle movement can get them to bite.”
Rockhill Jigs
For Jay Terry, tying jigs was a way to diversify his own crappie-fishing techniques.
He started by fishing with mostly minnows on Truman Lake. But when he was encouraged by a guide and tournament fisherman to try artificial baits, he started experimenting.
“I tried some plastic baits and did OK,” said Terry, 45, who lives In Leeton, Mo. “Then I started using some small hair jigs and I really did well.
“That got me interested in tying my own baits.”
After Terry watched several YouTube videos, he was ready. He bought some premium saddle hackle and chenille and even began pouring and painting his own jig heads to supplement the ones he bought.
He was on the water constantly and often caught limits on his homemade baits. Then he started marketing.
“I gave away the first 2,000 to 3,000 jigs I tied,” he said. “When fishermen got back to me and told me how many fish they caught, I knew I was onto something.”
Terry got his commercial license last year and decided to name his business after the old rock quarry and strip-pit country in west-central Missouri where he grew up.
His fulltime job is serving as a sales manager for Hiland Dairy Foods. But he ties jigs in his spare time.
“I’ll tie 1,000 jigs a week,” he said. “I get a lot of feedback from fishermen who buy them. When I see someone post a picture of a big crappie they caught on one of my jigs, it’s fun. I know I must be doing something right.”
(Brent Frazee is an award-winning writer and photographer from Parkville, Mo. He was outdoors editor of The Kansas City Star for 36 years before retiring in 2016. He continues to freelance for magazines, newspapers and websites.)
