Can you combine bucktail, marabou or living rubber with TPE and traditional plastisol on the same jighead? Absolutely. And we think anglers are only scratching the surface of what’s possible.
Quick Answer
A jighead doesn’t have to be exclusively a bucktail jig, a marabou jig, a living-rubber jig or a soft-plastic jig.
Why not combine them?
| Material | What it contributes |
|---|---|
| Bucktail | Profile, movement, flare, taper, natural-looking transitions |
| Marabou | Breathes, pulses, collapses, expands and quivers with almost no input |
| Living rubber | Strands flare, pulse, separate, collapse and vibrate with retrieve speed |
| TPE trailer | Durability, stretch, tear resistance, buoyancy or sinking options |
| Plastisol trailer | Softness, enormous selection, excellent low-speed action |
Imagine white bucktail + a little chartreuse or green flash + a solid white ChatterSpike-style trailer.
Or marabou + a small TPE minnow.
Or living rubber + a craw or paddletail.
Now you’ve created a hybrid lure where different materials contribute different movement, profile, vibration, durability, buoyancy and color.
But there’s a problem with many conventional jigheads: the bait keeper occupies the same area where you want to tie your materials.
That’s one of the reasons we designed The Upgrade Multi-Purpose Jighead differently. We moved the tapered bait keeper farther down the hook shank toward the belly of the soft plastic. That leaves open shank immediately behind the jighead. You can tie there. Then rig a soft plastic farther back.
That means one jighead can become bucktail + TPE, bucktail + plastisol, marabou + TPE, living rubber + plastisol, or almost any combination you can dream up.
That’s what Multi-Purpose was supposed to mean.
And where we’re heading next may take that concept considerably further.
Why Do Most Jigheads Force You to Choose?
Walk through a tackle store and most products are organized into categories.
Bucktail jig. Swimbait jighead. Hair jig. Ned head. Weighted hook. Rubber jig.
But fish don’t know what category your lure belongs in.
And anglers shouldn’t necessarily have to choose only one material.
A bucktail jig doesn’t stop being useful because you add a soft-plastic trailer.
A soft-plastic jighead doesn’t stop working because you add marabou.
The question should be: what do you want the lure to do?
Then build it.
Why Combine Natural and Synthetic Materials?
Because different materials behave differently underwater.
Bucktail doesn’t move like marabou.
Marabou doesn’t move like living rubber.
Living rubber doesn’t move like TPE.
TPE doesn’t move exactly like traditional plastisol.
That’s the opportunity.
Instead of asking which material is best? Ask: what does each material contribute?
What Does Bucktail Add?
Bucktail has been catching fish forever.
And there’s a reason.
It creates profile, movement, flare, taper and natural-looking transitions.
It can look substantial while moving naturally through the water.
And depending on how it’s tied, bucktail can produce a very different profile from a molded soft plastic.
Bucktail + TPE
This is one of our favorite combinations.
Bucktail creates the hair profile.
TPE provides the replaceable soft-plastic body or trailer.
Now you can potentially get natural hair movement + elastic-plastic durability.
For stripers, we’ve had excellent results starting with white bucktail, sometimes adding a little green flash or a small amount of chartreuse-green bucktail, and then adding a solid white ChatterSpike-style trailer.
Simple.
Bucktail + Plastisol
There’s absolutely no reason the trailer needs to be TPE.
Traditional plastisol gives you an enormous selection of paddletails, minnows, grubs, craws, worms and trailers.
And some very soft plastisol baits have incredible movement.
If that’s what the fish want? Use it.
Aggressive Fish May Not Need the Trailer
We saw this firsthand while fishing striped bass.
When the stripers were actively feeding? Bucktail alone worked fine.
We didn’t need to add more.
The fish were moving, chasing and committing.
So why complicate the presentation?
Lethargic Fish Changed the Answer
When those stripers became less aggressive?
Adding a solid white ChatterSpike-style trailer to the bucktail became the better presentation for us.
Same general fish. Different mood. Different presentation.
That’s an important lesson.
A hybrid jig gives you the ability to add or remove components as the fish change.
What Does Marabou Add?
Marabou is completely different.
It can move with very little input.
In the water, marabou can breathe, pulse, collapse, expand and quiver with extremely subtle movement.
That’s why it has remained so effective in hair jigs, crappie jigs, smallmouth presentations, cold-water fishing and finesse applications.
Now add a soft plastic behind it.
Things get interesting.
Marabou + TPE
Imagine a subtle marabou body with a durable elastic minnow or finesse trailer behind it.
The marabou creates movement even when the lure isn’t traveling very far.
The TPE trailer can add body, profile, additional action and durability.
And depending on the TPE formulation: buoyancy or sinking behavior.
That’s an enormous amount of presentation control from one jig.
Marabou + Plastisol
A soft plastisol trailer can also pair beautifully with marabou.
Especially when you want extremely soft movement, a subtle tail, a different fall rate or a specific profile.
Again: we’re not trying to declare a material winner.
We’re building a lure.
What Does Living Rubber Add?
Living rubber adds yet another movement profile.
The individual strands can flare, pulse, separate, collapse and vibrate depending on retrieve speed and water movement.
Bass anglers understand this well from skirted jigs.
But why limit it to a traditional bass jig?
Living Rubber + Soft Plastic
You could combine living rubber with a TPE craw, plastisol craw, paddletail, minnow, creature bait, worm or finesse trailer.
Now you’re creating a hybrid between a skirted jig and a soft-plastic jighead.
That’s exactly the type of experimentation we want anglers doing.
What About Combining All Three?
Why not?
You could potentially create bucktail + flash + TPE, marabou + flash + plastisol, bucktail + living rubber + soft plastic, or even bucktail + marabou + flash + replaceable trailer.
At some point you can obviously add too much.
But that’s what experimentation is for.
Don’t Turn It Into a Christmas Tree
More material isn’t automatically better.
This is one of our general rules.
If white bucktail + white trailer is catching fish? Stop.
Don’t add four colors of flash, three types of hair, rubber legs, feathers, rattles and a disco ball just because you can.
Every component should have a job.
Why Conventional Bait Keepers Can Get in the Way
Here’s the design problem that originally interested us.
Many soft-plastic jigheads put the retention system directly behind the jighead.
That can include molded lead collars, wire keepers, screw locks, springs and barbs.
Many of those systems work extremely well for their intended purpose.
But they occupy valuable hook-shank real estate.
That’s exactly where a lure maker may want to tie bucktail, marabou, feathers, flash or living rubber.
So now the retention system and tying material are competing for the same space.
Why We Moved The Upgrade Keeper
The Upgrade Multi-Purpose keeper sits farther down the hook shank toward the belly of the bait.
That was intentional.
And it solves more than one problem.
Reason #1: Leave Open Shank for DIY Tying
This is the obvious one.
By moving the keeper farther back, we preserve space immediately behind the jighead.
That gives anglers room to tie bucktail, marabou, feathers, flash, living rubber or whatever else they want.
Then the soft plastic can be retained farther down the hook.
That’s a completely different way of thinking about a bait keeper.
Reason #2: Move Some Lead Toward the Belly
The keeper itself is lead.
Moving it farther down the shank means some additional mass moves farther toward the belly of the lure.
That can influence balance, orientation, fall, roll and retrieve behavior.
The keeper isn’t just holding plastic.
It’s part of the lure’s weight distribution.
Reason #3: Engage the Thicker Portion of the Soft Plastic
Instead of relying entirely on the nose of the bait, the farther-back keeper engages material deeper into the soft plastic.
Depending on bait geometry, that may place the keeper in a thicker portion of the body.
Again: one design element doing multiple jobs.
That’s What We Mean by Multi-Purpose
The name wasn’t supposed to mean you can put several soft plastics on it.
It was intended to mean the jighead itself doesn’t dictate what kind of lure you have to build.
Want a paddletail jig? Fine.
Want a bucktail? Fine.
Want bucktail + TPE? Fine.
Want marabou + plastisol? Fine.
Want living rubber + a craw? Go build it.
TPE vs. Plastisol as a Trailer
Now we get back to the material question.
TPE potential advantages: extreme durability, stretch, tear resistance, longer bait life, different buoyancy options and increasingly different density options.
Plastisol potential advantages: softness, huge bait selection, excellent low-speed action, easy rigging and an enormous variety of densities and formulations.
Neither wins automatically.
When We’d Lean Toward TPE
If both materials are getting eaten equally? We increasingly lean toward TPE.
Especially when fish are aggressive, we’re catching multiple fish, bait durability matters, we’re using expensive trailers, or we’re tired of constantly rerigging.
Why replace a bait every few fish if you don’t have to?
When We’d Lean Toward Plastisol
If the softer plastisol gets more bites? Fish it.
This is the same reason we continue fishing baits from companies like Zoom and Keitech.
Some extremely soft plastisol isn’t going to win a durability contest.
We don’t care.
If it’s getting crushed? Keep fishing it.
The Keeper Tradeoff Still Exists
Our farther-back tapered keeper is designed to bridge elastic materials and traditional soft plastics.
But we’re not going to tell you it’s perfect for every bait.
Very soft plastisol can tear, enlarge around the keeper or eventually blow out.
That’s a tradeoff.
Some of those extremely soft plastics may get destroyed after a couple fish anyway.
They’re still worth fishing.
TPE Creates Different Rigging Challenges
Highly elastic materials can stretch, bunch, resist conventional collars, fight screw locks or rig crooked.
That’s why we don’t believe the answer is simply make the keeper more aggressive.
The keeper needs to work with the material.
Sinking TPE Makes Hybrid Jigs Even More Interesting
For years, elastic plastics were often associated with buoyancy.
That’s changing.
With newer sinking TPE formulations entering the market, anglers can potentially combine hair movement + elastic durability + sinking soft-plastic behavior.
That opens another category of DIY experimentation.
Think About Fall Rate
Imagine bucktail + buoyant TPE versus bucktail + sinking TPE versus bucktail + dense plastisol.
Those three combinations may have similar profiles.
But they may not fall the same.
They may not hang the same.
They may not respond to current the same.
That’s the fun part.
Weight Still Matters
Now change 1/8 ounce to 1/4 ounce to 3/8 ounce.
Everything changes again.
The material isn’t operating in isolation.
You’re tuning jighead weight + weight placement + tying material + soft-plastic material + bait profile.
That’s a system.
DIY Bucktail for Striped Bass
Our favorite starting point remains white bucktail.
Maybe add a touch of green flash or a little chartreuse-green bucktail mixed with the white.
Then fish it.
If the stripers are actively feeding? Try it without a trailer.
If they become lethargic? Add a solid white ChatterSpike-style trailer.
That’s worked extremely well for us.
DIY Bucktail for Walleye
Our Lake Erie experience is another perfect example.
We fished 1/2- and 3/4-ounce Upgrade Multi-Purpose Jigheads with 5/0 2X hooks and tied purple bucktail.
Then added a chunk of nightcrawler.
We even ran a stinger hook.
And caught dozens of walleye from roughly 12 to 28 inches.
Hardly any were hooked on the stinger.
Most ate the primary 5/0.
Hair + Live Bait Is Another Hybrid
That’s important.
This concept isn’t limited to hair + soft plastic.
The open-shank design can also support hair + crawler or other creative combinations.
The jighead is the platform.
You decide what goes on it.
DIY Marabou for Bass
Marabou can be especially interesting when water is cold, fish are pressured, movement needs to be subtle or fish don’t want to chase.
Now imagine pairing that subtle hair movement with a small TPE trailer or a very soft plastisol trailer.
Again: don’t ask what category the lure belongs in.
Ask what you need it to do.
DIY Living Rubber for Bass
Living rubber gives us another option around craw profiles, bottom contact, vegetation and structure.
Pair it with the right trailer and you’ve essentially created your own hybrid jig.
And you aren’t locked into the trailer you started with.
Replaceable Trailers Matter
This might sound obvious.
But it’s going to become very important in the next article.
With these DIY combinations, the tied material can stay on the jighead while the soft-plastic trailer changes.
Trailer gets destroyed? Replace it.
Want a different color? Replace it.
Want TPE instead of plastisol? Replace it.
Want plastisol instead of TPE? Replace it.
That’s flexibility.
What If the Soft Plastic Became Part of the Finished Lure?
Now things get really interesting.
There’s another way manufacturers combine soft plastics with jigheads.
Instead of rigging a finished plastic onto a finished jighead, the soft-plastic material can be formed around the jighead itself.
A pour-over style bait.
Now the lure can come out of the package essentially ready to fish.
Pour-Over Baits Solve Some Problems
A molded or poured-over soft-plastic body can provide consistent alignment, a finished presentation, less initial rigging, an integrated body and jighead, and ready-to-fish convenience.
There are some really interesting products built around that concept.
But we’ve also been thinking about one of the biggest limitations.
What Happens When the Original Body Gets Destroyed?
That’s the question.
Fish catches. Teeth. Tears. Damage.
Eventually the soft-plastic portion may no longer be usable.
On many integrated pour-over designs, once the original molded body is destroyed or separates from the head, the lure may not be designed to simply accept another conventional soft plastic.
The jighead might still be perfectly usable.
But the original lure system isn’t necessarily built around easy replacement.
That got our attention.
What If a Pour-Over Lure Didn’t Have to Be Disposable?
This is where we’re heading next.
What if you could have the convenience of a ready-to-fish pour-over bait but retain the ability to rig another soft plastic after the original body is damaged or removed?
TPE. Plastisol. Maybe a completely different bait profile.
Now we’re talking about something more than a pre-rigged soft plastic.
We’re talking about a reusable terminal-tackle platform.
And Yes, We’re Thinking About This Very Seriously
We are currently in the patent process around aspects of The Upgrade platform and where we believe this concept can go.
We’re not going to get ahead of that process or pretend every future idea is already a finished commercial product.
It isn’t.
But one direction we’re exploring is pretty damn interesting: The Upgrade as a pour-over, ready-to-fish bait platform.
And the part we’re especially interested in isn’t simply pouring plastic around a jighead.
It’s what happens after the original plastic is gone.
Because that’s where the existing Multi-Purpose keeper—and potentially the Hover Hook platform—could create a very different second life for the lure.
That’s the next conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you put a soft plastic behind a bucktail jig?
Yes. A soft-plastic trailer can add profile, movement, length and durability to a bucktail presentation.
Can you use TPE with bucktail?
Yes. TPE can make an excellent durable trailer when the jighead and keeper are compatible with elastic materials.
Can you use plastisol with bucktail?
Absolutely. Soft plastisol trailers can provide excellent action and are available in an enormous range of profiles.
Can you use marabou with a soft plastic?
Yes. Marabou’s subtle movement can be combined with either TPE or traditional plastisol trailers.
Can you combine living rubber and a soft plastic?
Yes. Living rubber can be paired with craws, minnows, paddletails and other soft-plastic profiles.
Is TPE better than plastisol as a trailer?
Not universally. If both produce equally, TPE’s durability can be advantageous. If a plastisol trailer produces more bites, fish the plastisol.
What color bucktail do you like for striped bass?
We like predominantly white bucktail, sometimes with a small amount of green flash or chartreuse-green bucktail mixed in.
What trailer do you like on a striper bucktail?
One of our favorite combinations is a solid white ChatterSpike-style trailer behind white bucktail.
Do you always need a trailer on a bucktail?
No. In our fishing, aggressive striped bass readily ate bucktail alone. When the fish became lethargic, adding the soft-plastic trailer became more productive.
Why is The Upgrade keeper farther down the hook?
Three primary reasons: preserve open shank for tying materials, move some additional mass toward the belly, and engage the soft plastic farther into its body.
Can you tie directly onto The Upgrade Multi-Purpose Jighead?
Yes. Preserving tying space behind the head was one of the reasons for the keeper placement.
Can you replace the soft-plastic trailer?
Yes. That’s one of the biggest advantages of a traditional hybrid hair-and-soft-plastic presentation.
What is a pour-over fishing lure?
Generally, it’s a lure where soft-plastic material is molded or poured around part of the hook, jighead or internal structure rather than requiring the angler to rig a separate finished soft plastic before fishing.
Is Ebb N Flow developing a pour-over Upgrade?
We’re exploring this direction as part of the broader development of The Upgrade platform and are currently in the patent process around aspects of the system. Future commercial configurations are still being developed and shouldn’t be treated as finalized products.
The Bottom Line
A jighead shouldn’t necessarily tell you what kind of lure you’re allowed to make.
That’s the entire point.
Want bucktail? Tie it.
Want marabou? Tie it.
Want living rubber? Use it.
Want bucktail + TPE? Do it.
Want marabou + plastisol? Go fish it.
Want white bucktail + a little green flash + a solid white ChatterSpike? That’s one of our favorites.
The Upgrade Multi-Purpose Jighead was designed around that flexibility.
Instead of putting the bait keeper directly where we wanted to tie materials, we moved it farther down the hook.
That gave the keeper more than one job.
Leave open tying space. Move some mass toward the belly. Retain the soft plastic farther into the bait.
And perhaps most importantly: leave the angler room to experiment.
But that design decision may have created another opportunity we think is considerably bigger.
What happens if the soft plastic isn’t initially rigged onto The Upgrade at all?
What if it’s poured around it?
Ready to fish straight from the package.
And then, after the original body eventually gets destroyed… the jighead isn’t done.
What if you can simply rig another bait onto the keeper and keep fishing?
That’s where the difference between a disposable integrated lure and a reusable lure platform starts getting really interesting.
And that’s exactly where we’re going next.
Next up: TPE vs. Plastisol Pour-Over Baits — and Why the Jighead Shouldn’t Have to Die With the Soft Plastic.
Open shank behind the head, keeper farther back — build whatever you want. Shop The Upgrade family →