Dropper loop tying jig

I decided to throw together a dropper loop tying jig today when I sat down to tie 25 rigs.  My normal rockfishing rig is a Tactical Anglers Clip up 18" to a 3" dropper loop on a 36" leader with a barrel swivel at the top.  My normal surfacasting striper rig is similar, except with the dropper loop 24" above the clip.  I also like hi-lo rigs if bait fishing, which I tie with a surgeon's loop at the bottom and 2 dropper loops on a 48" leader.  With these rigs in mind, I came up with the following jig:



I start with tying either a surgeon's loop or a clip at the end of my leader material.  If it's a surgeon's loop, then i loop it around the lower dowel portion of the upper right pin to protect against abrasion/creasing.  If it's a clip, then I put it around the nail portion.  I then route the leader around as seen by the red and blue lines.  If I want the 18" dropper loop, I then loop around the triangle and back all the way to the binder clip and secure it there.  Then I can add my 8 twists to the dropper loop, pull the end of the loop off the peg and feed it through the hole and replace it on the peg for tightening.  Once it's tight, I can loop the leader around the appropriate total length peg and back to the clip/loop end.  Add a few inches and cut there to tie on the swivel.

Very interesting.
I love to see a video of your tying a loop using this jig.

Paul

That’s a cool idea. Thanks for sharing.

Very interesting.
I love to see a video of your tying a loop using this jig.

Paul

So, what you're saying is... my description is terrible.     I couldn't agree more!  I'll toss together a quick video and share later this week.

Very interesting.
I love to see a video of your tying a loop using this jig.

Paul

So, what you're saying is... my description is terrible.     I couldn't agree more!  I'll toss together a quick video and share later this week.

No, I am just a slow learner. 
You might have to take me fishing to show me how to use them too. 

Paul

I agree, would love to see the jig in action... its hard to try ad follow the directions.

Here is a video of me tying a dropper loop at 18" from the loop end.



Towards the end, I loop around the 18" peg and back towards the loop and mimic cutting a 36" total length leader with a bit of a tag end to tie the final knot.  If I wanted a 30" total length, I'd use the peg to the right, if I wanted a 48" leader, I'd use the far left peg.  If I wanted the dropper loop at 24" instead of 18", I'd use the triangle of pegs to the left side of the board.

Does that clear things up or should I edit the video to have annotations?

Hi Ted

Thank you for the video.  I can see how handy your jig is.

Paul

Very cool! Thanks for sharing. Would you mind sharing the distance between pegs?
Best,
David

Very cool! Thanks for sharing. Would you mind sharing the distance between pegs?
Best,
David

Sure thing!  Each dropper loop is an isosceles triangle.  The pegs that form the horizontal line across the front for total leader length are sized for the leader length and user comfort in creating the twists.  The distance between the two lower left pegs in the triangles are what determine the spacing between each dropper loop.  The far pegs are what form the length of the loop itself.  In my case, they happen to all be 3" since I wanted 3" dropper loops and I wanted 6" increments for total length.

Hopefully this helps explain the above, just keep in mind that the measurements can be changed to suit your needs.

Excellent, thank you !!

Nice! I need to figure out how to adapt this idea for tying the twisted dropper loop rigs I use for lake trout fishing.

Nice! I need to figure out how to adapt this idea for tying the twisted dropper loop rigs I use for lake trout fishing.

Based on your images, it looks like you have a jig tied at one end, a loop tied at the other and a dropper loop at some point in between.  Am I correct in seeing that you cut the dropper loop to have a single tag end for tying a hook?  If so, then here's how you can lay this out:

- Measure the length of the cut dropper loop before you tie the hook and divide by 2.  This is your loop size.  (Black line in the measurement photo)
- Measure from the tied loop end to the dropper loop and this is your distance to loop. (Red line in measurement photo)
- Measure the total length of the leader and if it's not exactly twice the dropper loop to loop end (i.e. the dropper loop doesn't fall directly in the middle of the leader), then add a peg to account for the halfway point for total leader length via looping back over itself (seen in the video)

That's cool. Look like one of Hippo's contraptions back at Hi's.

Nice! I need to figure out how to adapt this idea for tying the twisted dropper loop rigs I use for lake trout fishing.

looks awesome, but also looks like it would be prone to fouling up no?