Jig Skirt Colors - Wanting Ideas

[fishballer06]

I'm looking for ideas for some jig skirts to build myself. What are some of your favorite skirt colors that work well for you outside of the tradition green pumpkin or black/blue?

[bigjim5589]

Many of the skirts that you see on commercially produced lures are more to catch the angler. That's part of getting them sold. I try not to get into that type of mindset, so when I'm making a skirt, I think in terms of the available forage. The fact is those basic skirt colors will catch plenty of fish and the rest are for us to admire. 

Here's a few I've done. They were made with "Sunfish", shad & other things in mind.

[bigjim5589]

A couple more.

[Princeton_Man]

Green Pumpkin has been my primary success color for quite some time. NuTech's Smoke Shad comes in second, then Black/Blue.
I think best colors have to do with location, forage, and water visibility and for me that's usually clear to heavily stained. Green pumpkin is my best bottom and cover color while Smoke shad does best swimming jigs. 

[coldfront]

I am a match the hatch guy, within reason.

for instance, if it's fall down on th river, the craws start to go black/red.  red shad looking
on the big lake, in spring with a bunch of warmouth and yellow perch around?  a bit of orange is good.

can be orange tips on my jig trailer.  orange flake in my lizards.

too, there's som ething about a little purple in a jig, crank that just seems to get bit.

and here, on the TN river?  ;chartreuse highlights get a lot more bites.

do your best to understand forage.  enhance your odds with the 'illusion' for the bass.

[saltystick]

Jig skirt colors:
Brown or green pumpkin with green and black flakes
Just black - a classic color along with black and blue
Have caught bass on white/chartreuse/blue combo

Spinnerbaits skirt colors:
Black or black and blue
White or white/chartreuse/blue (or lime green) combo
pearl

Jig and spinnerbait trailer design is IMO as important as color. Light color skirt - light color trailer; dark skirt/ dark trailer - both near in color.

[NJNick]

By far bass see red and green best.  In clear water red and green can be seen down to about 20' to 30'.  On overcast days and In muddy cloudy water red loses its color faster.  In muddy water or cloudy days darker colors and florescent  can be seen better.

[fishballer06]

Thanks for the replies guys. I like seeing what guys throw all around the country because different things work better/worse depending on where you're located. I'll have to get around to posting some pictures of some different colors that work well for me.

[SteveTX]

I typically use about 4 to 6 different colors. And to be honest almost all of mine are dark colors. But I fish mud so go figure. 

Probably my best color is the Black Blue Purple with some Purple Crystal Flash. I get them from oldhamjigs.com


Black and Purple is a great color.


I also find I do good with this 6th Sense color called Cajun Craw. Stock pictures don't seem to look as much the same in person. Mine are less Yellow in them. 6thsensefishing.com


Solid Black is another favorite as I can go any direction with my trailer color. Blue, Green, Brown trailers all work well.

There is a color called Bluegill I got from Mike at siebertoutdoors.com (I know others sell it). These seem to work great in ponds for me. I prefer Mikes version of the color as they seem to have less of the highlight coloring. Don't know why but in lakes I haven't even remotely had the same success as throwing that into ponds.


This pic shows actual used jigs with the skirts mentioned above. The bottom one is the 6th Sense color called Cajun Craw I mentioned. The top one is a NuTech jig I put a Bluegill colored Mike Siebert skirt on. 

Last I have this I believe its Spotted Tabasco color from Boss. I also got from Bass Pro. It workes well for me also.

[zippyduck]

Brown

Black

Green pumpkin

Put some blue on all three and you never need another jig.

[coldfront]

Brown

Black

Green pumpkin

Put some blue on all three and you never need another jig.

thnk about this for a moment.  how much time/effort/discussion do we put into flouro vs mono vs braid vs co-poly?  then whether or not a 6' 10 inch rod is better than a 7' 3" rod.

what rod do I need for squarebills?  what rod do I need for jigs?  am I flipping?  pitching?  skipping?

now, how 'bout those folks who say you only need two colors:  black, white.





and while we're at it, does red line 'disappear' in the water due to wavelengths getting filtered out?
how does black neon work?  red flecks on ablack worm?  in deep muddy water?



now, zippy, let me take away purple/orange flake in your yamamoto grubs and leave you with 'just' green pumpkin.  will you keep catching fish?  sure you will.  as many? 

[zippyduck]

Please don't take my purple/copper flakes. 

I know its a confidence thing and I'm sticking to it. 

Now the line thing does have consequences if you use the wrong line. fish around rock with a mono using jigs and you are going to lose lures and fish.

[Donald Garner]

I generally fish (3) lakes close to my house here> Belton Lake, Stillhouse Lake and Nolan Lake over on Ft. Hood.  Below are the skirt colors I've had most of my success using whether its on a Spinnerbait, Swim Jig or Bladed Jig.

Swimbait > "woops"y Shad Color






Spinnerbaits & Bladed Jigs > Firetiger & Bleeding Shad & Crawfish Colors

[Wizard]

In the Ozarks, standard color patterns work well. Blue/brown, Blue/black, Missouri Craw will catch bass on most days when the water has some stain. In clear water, lighter colored strands  work well. For ultra clear water I use clear strand jigs and a clear holographic trailer.

Wizard

[saltystick]

As with anything lure related, confidence is key. Color success is much of the time in the eyes of the beholder - angler and fish. Just because a lure doesn't seem to catch fish on certain colors doesn't mean it won't work because of that. The best anglers have priorities when it comes lure choices and go from there.

If I feel the skirted jig & trailer has potential, basic color(s) are always used because they usually work in situations where I find bass. Like most of you, I have favorites that fall into a few categories : dark solid colors, dark colors with traces of other skirt colors and dark colors with flakes. Where we work a jig or spinnerbait sometimes dictates the overall image we want to present which ultimately depends on a lure's action parts - in this case skirt & trailer.

When it comes to spinnerbaits, you already have a brightly flashing blade so why not chose a mix of bright skirt colors as well as a light colored trailer?  The only time I use a black skirt is when the spinnerbait is just a jig with a small blade : a short arm spinnerbait where vertical jigging is the primary presentation.

The nice thing about spinnerbait and jig choices are their simplicity in design and minimal presentations that have an affect on a fish's super-sensitive senses : sight and feel, with everything else conjecture on the part of the angler. You and I in the same boat may do well casting different or the same lures in different colors - it happens ! If so, the above is undeniable proof that color may be a factor but less so when two anglers do well on the same outing. Even if one angler does better, much of the time it depended on the presentation (lure speed, depth fished).

Remember the Beetle Spin? The presence of a skirt didn't matter the day this one caught bass.

..nor this jig with it's ultra-fine action skirt:


JMHO

[Dink Dawg]

I'm no expert on jig fishing but here's a thought:  I look at jigs as falling into three categories,
1) Drop and Hop
2) Bottom Dragger
3) Swimming

Each type of jig represents a different forage type so colors are chosen to mimic the forage and take water color into consideration.

So:

1) Black/blue, green pumpkin, bream, blue craw
2) Brown/orange, brown purple, Delta red craw
3) Black/blue, green pumpkin, bluegill, shads/white

For my region this covers about all of it.

[Oldfart9999]

Black/blue, green pumpkin, white, watermelon, brown. Purple or red flakes can help.
Rodney

[saltystick]

Suggestion for storing and posting images:
imgur.com/

[Wizard]

If you look in archive, I have several threads on how to fish various jig types, detecting a bite, etc.. You fish a jig with your mind as much as technique.

Wizard

[fishballer06]

Here's one of my favorite local colors that I make. It's a mixture of green pumpkin black, magic craw, and then some green pumpkin with gold/purple fleck. And then I usually add 2-3 strands of black living rubber to add some unique action.

[SteveTX]

I could fish those colors

Here's one of my favorite local colors that I make. It's a mixture of green pumpkin black, magic craw, and then some green pumpkin with gold/purple fleck. And then I usually add 2-3 strands of black living rubber to add some unique action.

[Oldfart9999]

fishingskirts.com shows an assortment of skirts and the material to make them, good site.
Rodney

[caddyjoe77]

If you look in archive, I have several threads on how to fish various jig types, detecting a bite, etc.. You fish a jig with your mind as much as technique.

Wizard

yessir, it takes a while to learn to do that but it does work -- some days better than others -- some times i just cant get into that "zone"