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History of the Famous Looney Jig
I started fishing the old State Park Pier in 1984. Back then we bought all our supplies from Sam's in Orange Beach. I used to buy white Spanish jigs in bulk bags of 50. They always had a "Made in China" sticker on the bag. The first thing we would do with these jigs, before we used them, was to paint the thread wrap on the neck with clear finger nail polish, because if you didn't, the first Spanish you caught would cause the thread to unwravel. Even with the polish, eventually the hair would pull out and the paint on the lead head would chip off after a few Spanish were caught.
In my early days on the pier, it took me a while before I ventured out onto the end where all the "big fish" were caught. But when I finally did, all the old-timers were nice to me, but one went above and beyond the call to help me learn the ropes. That man was Harvey Looney. Mr. Looney retired to Bon Secour in the early 80's, having worked most of his life for the Selma Water Works. When he retired, he was the head honcho. Mr. Looney was a very handy man, and could solve most any engineering problem that involved fishing. Many of you may not want to hear it, but he was the first one to fish a two-line trolley on the pier and he was darn good at it. He caught a lot of fish using this method.
One summer, the white Chinese jigs got hard to find. Well, Mr. Looney saw a niche he could fill, so he set up his garage as a jig factory. He spent a lot of time researching the hair, the paint, and the glue and finally decided on two-pound-test Ande line as the hair, and Dupont automotive paint for painting the lead heads. He had quite the facility in his garage. You should have seen the "spinning wheel" he used to bunch up the Ande line into little bundles that could be wrapped onto the jig head.
Mr. Looney had quite the cottage industry going on. He made little wooden displays that could be found in WalMart, the pier house, and the local tackle shops. He kept everyone supplied in the best Spanish jigs ever made. That automotive primer and paint WOULD NOT chip, and he used a special glue that kept the "hair" from being chewed off easily. He had improved on the mousetrap!
Sadly, Mr. Looney passed away in the early 2000's, but he passed his jig factory down to his son, Terry Looney, and his grandson, Terry Looney II, or TLII as he is known to many people. The process has changed since Mr. Looney was building them, but the Looney jig remains the best jig known to man for catching Spanish mackerel.
Below are a couple of pictures of this fine man. Thanks for reading.
