This year I’m thinking of trying something different to with my bass jigs. I have a bad habit of especially in the winter months of making a bunch of jigs up when I’m bored. Boredom is a bad thing when you have gallons of zip lock baggys full of skirt tabs.

Basically, not putting the skirts on the jigs until I’m on the water. I only use maybe 4-5 different jig colors GP, Black, some variation of black and blue, brown and maybe white on the poison tail swim jig mold. I’ve heard of Frank Scalise doing this with spinner baits. I’m sure others do as well.

I could pour and paint my 3-4 main colors of jigs and put the skirts on the jig depending on water clarity, weather, and season etc etc etc. keep some skirts with rubber collars in either the Plano box with jigs or in a separate bag.

It seems like I make a ton of jigs up with skirt color combos that I’ll probably never need and running out of the jig patterns I actually need. Rather than a box full jigs I’ll never use.

Any one else do this? How does it work out for you ?

I pre-make all my jigs before I go on the water, hand tied, done. I use basically blk/blu. brn, brn/orange, green pumpkin and black. I make all these colors in 15 of each of the sizes, 1/8, 3/16 and 1/4 oz. That's it. I put all of them by size in my Plano 3700 box. I do not have time to tie jigs on the water or switch skirts. To me it is time wasted instead of trying to find fish. Nothing wrong with doing this if this works for you. I have never found a color I needed that I didn't have in my tackle box. All the colors I have work at some point. I'm not saying creating your own color on the water doesn't get more bites. I just don't see that as a solution to fishing that particular day. JMO

When we did a lot of camping we spent from April 13-May 14 on Stockton Lake. I always carried tying supplies in the camper that way I didn’t have to stock a bunch of colors and sizes. Like cadman said I won’t take fishing time to make jigs.

You will only know if it works for you if you try it.

Banded skirts take less than a minute to change. Just sayin'....

I plan on using rubber collard bands. I’ll just put the bands over 2-3 skirt tabs . I probably wouldn’t cut the skirt tab’s until I’m on the water or the night before.

Seems like this way too if you need to adjust a skirt color combos. I can now look at the current lake I am fishing and adjust the color. Rather than guessing months before hand.

I understand why people tie rubber skirts onto jigs but, I’ve never found it necessary to tie them that way.

Umbrella or collared skirts. Can change them out quick!

I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but in my opinion, you're overthinking the whole thing. Personally, I would spend more time fishing and less time changing skirts!

That's exactly what I do with jigs, vibrating jigs and spinnerbaits. They're all assembled but I put the skirts on on the water if needed. The jigs are in one box and the spinnerbaits in another and the skirts in a bag and separated by color. I can't tell red from green so they need to be marked.

On 2/24/2026 at 10:14 PM, Mbirdsley said:

This year I’m thinking of trying something different to with my bass jigs. I have a bad habit of especially in the winter months of making a bunch of jigs up when I’m bored. Boredom is a bad thing when you have gallons of zip lock baggys full of skirt tabs.

Basically, not putting the skirts on the jigs until I’m on the water. I only use maybe 4-5 different jig colors GP, Black, some variation of black and blue, brown and maybe white on the poison tail swim jig mold. I’ve heard of Frank Scalise doing this with spinner baits. I’m sure others do as well.

I could pour and paint my 3-4 main colors of jigs and put the skirts on the jig depending on water clarity, weather, and season etc etc etc. keep some skirts with rubber collars in either the Plano box with jigs or in a separate bag.

It seems like I make a ton of jigs up with skirt color combos that I’ll probably never need and running out of the jig patterns I actually need. Rather than a box full jigs I’ll never use.

Any one else do this? How does it work out for you ?

I ran into this when I used to tie flies. I have boxes and boxes of unused patterns and colors. I’m guessing here, but roughly 1 in 5 patterns become a go to pattern for me. I’m in the middle of learning how to make skirts. I don’t pour my own heads.

The color options made me go a little wild. I incorporated reds, oranges, green with my blues and blacks, etc. My plan is to fish new patterns when my local fishery opens up. If they don’t produce like the tried and true green pumpkin and black/blue, I’ll replace the skirts to colors I have confidence in. I’m hoping to end up with 2-3 new color patterns that I have confidence in, from there I’ll likely just make those color skirts and have an abundance of them. Hope this helps in some way.

10 minutes ago, NWfishing said:

I pre assemble all my jigs. I don’t want to fuss with any of that while I’m fishing. I just started making my own jigs recently and it’s hard not to experiment. But that’s good! I have a handful of new colors on the ready and a few I know will produce.

The color options made me go a little wild. I incorporated reds, oranges, green with my blues and blacks, etc. My plan is to fish new patterns when my local fishery opens up. If they don’t produce like the tried and true green pumpkin and black/blue, I’ll replace the skirts to colors I have confidence in. I’m hoping to end up with 2-3 new color patterns that I have confidence in, from there I’ll likely just make those color skirts and have an abundance of them. Hope this helps in some way.

On 3/6/2026 at 11:16 AM, NWfishing said:

I ran into this when I used to tie flies. I have boxes and boxes of unused patterns and colors. I’m guessing here, but roughly 1 in 5 patterns become a go to pattern for me. I’m in the middle of learning how to make skirts. I don’t pour my own heads.

The color options made me go a little wild. I incorporated reds, oranges, green with my blues and blacks, etc. My plan is to fish new patterns when my local fishery opens up. If they don’t produce like the tried and true green pumpkin and black/blue, I’ll replace the skirts to colors I have confidence in. I’m hoping to end up with 2-3 new color patterns that I have confidence in, from there I’ll likely just make those color skirts and have an abundance of them. Hope this helps in some way.

Yeah that’s my biggest point of this. Same with the box of jig patterns. I get bored in the winter time and just make up random patterns and guess what? I keep throwing the same 4-5 colors every season

3 skirt tabs with a collar already on would only take say less than a minute to get out, cut tabs, cut skirt length I want and slide on jig.

There’s times a finesse cut skirt catches a lot of fish. However, it is not an all season deal. Under the old system I would have to make a bunch additional jigs with skirts cut finesse length in 1/4 and 3/8 oz ( I’ve been getting away from 1/2 is jigs ) on top of all my regular jigs. When using them they have to be stored somewhere. Usually, jig color doesn’t change. I use GP, black, black and blue ( if I’m feeling real rebellious) and white ( very seldom used and only on a poison tale swim jig)

I’ve made up some cool blue gill and perch imitating jigs but, I haven’t really used them.

I’m going to give this system a try. I haven’t worked out all the details yet but, I have time. Jig season usually won’t get going for another 2-3 months around here.

Do whatever works for you. I couldn’t do it. I tie my own at home and use them on the water. They are hand tied and have to be because I skip a lot and the bands won’t hold up to constant skipping. Besides I only use 4 colors anyway.

Color is one of the factors I'm least concerned about. I carry 4-5 main colors with a few others sprinkled in. I pour and wire tie all my jigs so I don't have to worry about skirts slipping or bands rotting.

If it's a day that color is that important, it's unlikely that I'll change my jigs enough to find the exact color they're on anyways unless it's one in my normal rotation.

On 3/13/2026 at 7:57 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

Color is one of the factors I'm least concerned about. I carry 4-5 main colors with a few others sprinkled in. I pour and wire tie all my jigs so I don't have to worry about skirts slipping or bands rotting.

If it's a day that color is that important, it's unlikely that I'll change my jigs enough to find the exact color they're on anyways unless it's one in my normal rotation.

I’m the same way. Some kinda green, brown, or black basically gets it done or it’s not gonna lol.