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Old 04-16-13, 02:37 AM   #1
merc1997
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Default choice of skirt material

what are your choices of skirt material? the three most popular are living rubber, silicone, and hair. what are your choices? do you just stick with one type or use different materials based on the situation?

as for me, i use different materials depending on the situation. below 58 degrees, i tend to use hair more, but 58 and above, i will use either silicone or rubber. the exception above 58 is when the bass here are really keying on shad, and then i will go back to hair coupled with a slender trailer to better mimic a shad.

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Old 04-16-13, 05:02 PM   #2
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Oh for fishing lures... thought hair was a bad choice until I figured it out. I like that silicone with strips of mylar in it. Or in a pinch I use xmas tree tinsel.

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Old 04-16-13, 06:39 PM   #3
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sorry that i did not make that quite clear. we will say skirt material for jigs.

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Old 04-16-13, 06:41 PM   #4
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Originally Posted by Captmikestarrett View Post
Oh for fishing lures... thought hair was a bad choice until I figured it out. I like that silicone with strips of mylar in it. Or in a pinch I use xmas tree tinsel.

Capt Mike
why do you prefer silicone to rubber or hair?? do you feel it has better movement or is silicone your choice because of the many more variations of color?

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Old 04-16-13, 08:34 PM   #5
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It undulates and lasts longer in the tackle box.

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Old 04-16-13, 10:02 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Captmikestarrett View Post
Oh for fishing lures... thought hair was a bad choice until I figured it out. I like that silicone with strips of mylar in it. Or in a pinch I use xmas tree tinsel.

Capt Mike
Thanks a lot, Mike-that thought had not entered my mind until you said that!


I use silicone almost exclusively mainly because of the multitude of colors, availability, and they last(except for the collars, which will discintigrate over time). Plus, here in Texas it just doesn't get that cold compared to yankee climates so they stay soft in our version of cold water. I do have some rubber skirts that came on some buzzbaits. Years ago I made living rubber skirts but that was all that was available. Now I get the pads and put them together myself with all kinds of crazy color combos.
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Old 04-17-13, 11:04 AM   #7
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Thanks a lot, Mike-that thought had not entered my mind until you said that!


I use silicone almost exclusively mainly because of the multitude of colors, availability, and they last(except for the collars, which will discintigrate over time). Plus, here in Texas it just doesn't get that cold compared to yankee climates so they stay soft in our version of cold water. I do have some rubber skirts that came on some buzzbaits. Years ago I made living rubber skirts but that was all that was available. Now I get the pads and put them together myself with all kinds of crazy color combos.
do you notice any difference in bulk and flotation between silicone and living rubber?

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Old 04-17-13, 11:44 AM   #8
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These are my favorite.

http://www.overstockbait.com/Jig_Skirt_p/oxskt42.htm

They are silicone but they have little bumps on the strands.
Look at photo closely.
The bumps let them breathe easier and kind of release bubbles when you work the jig.
It's only 45 strand but bulk out when in the water so 45 is probably enough...for me anyways.
Terminator used to have them on their finesse jigs and called them 'living skirts'. They no longer use them.

On a float and fly I like Marabou.
Hair and fur just have such a nice natural puffing or pulsing action especially when fished slow.
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Old 04-17-13, 02:46 PM   #9
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joedog

glad that you mentioned maribou. in really cold water maribou really shines! also, you mentioned strand count. this is all part of the reason for starting this thread. i was just trying to get everyone to start thinking more about what purpose the skirt on the jig plays. it is really amazing as how you need to use different amounts (strand count) of material in the skirt. i remember one time last year that we were tearing the bass up on jigs with round rubber skirts. but, the skirts only had about 15 to 20 strands of rubber. anymore than that, and no bites. on other trips, i can remember that the skirt had to be silicone. silicone acts and reacts differently than live rubber does. it slicks down almost as small as hair does, but it does not poof out have and as much bouyancy as live rubber.

hope to hear more of what everyone uses and why they use it. let us know your thoughts as to why you use more or less strands, length of the skirt and other variations. these are all things that can be shared and will help each of us better utilize the catching power of jigs.

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Old 04-17-13, 03:29 PM   #10
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I've always used silicone, mainly because it's what most commercial jigs are made from. I actually just got some rubber in today that I plan to start using in some of my jigs. I'll probably do some with rubber and silicone and some with just rubber. I'm pretty curious to see the difference. I've also got some flat rubber tabs coming from Fishing Skirts but I haven't gotten them yet.
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Old 04-18-13, 12:47 PM   #11
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I use silicone skirts
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Old 04-18-13, 07:46 PM   #12
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I've always used silicone skirts, but last weekend I used a Buckeye Mop Jig with the living rubber skirt. I caught bass on it, but I do with silicone as well. I guess I would say that for certain colors, you will want silicone, but otherwise, for the basic colors, I havn't seen a difference.
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Old 04-19-13, 10:22 AM   #13
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I used to buy my skirts from Jann's, but I've switched to north star baits
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Old 04-19-13, 01:08 PM   #14
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Quote:
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I used to buy my skirts from Jann's, but I've switched to north star baits
I used to buy pre-made skirts from Barlow's but I've started making my own from tabs. I have a guy that pours and paints jig heads for me and I make my own skirts. It's a lot of fun but harder than I anticipated.
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Old 04-19-13, 03:42 PM   #15
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I used to buy pre-made skirts from Barlow's but I've started making my own from tabs. I have a guy that pours and paints jig heads for me and I make my own skirts. It's a lot of fun but harder than I anticipated.
That would be great, but my hands shake too damm much
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Old 04-19-13, 07:37 PM   #16
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That would be great, but my hands shake too damm much
I should have been more clear when I said it is harder than I anticipated. What I meant was, it harder to get the colors and patterns to turn out the way I want them to. I'm sure it just takes some practice, I haven't been at it very long.

I use the Naked Bait Skirt Expander and just use bands. It makes skirt making really easy, you just stick the tabs in the expanded band and close it. It is a little expensive to get a good stock of colors and the expander.
http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Naked...page-NBSE.html
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