Beginner jig colors

[10,000 lakes Bassin]

I'm looking to start tying some custom jig skirts. After looking on fishingskirts.com I was overwhelmed not only by all the colors, but by all of the different series of colors (barbwire, half wire, natural, etc.) What are the essential colors to pick up for tying a classic green pumpkin, and a classic brown craw pattern, as well as some variations of greens and browns? Im looking to pick up maybe 20-30 colors to start.

If I'm going to tie a skirt, what ratio of solid colors to barbwire, half wire, or natural series is common practice. 

If I was going to make a basic green pumpkin color what series of green pumpkin should I use? 

 

[cadman]

Since I make and sell jigs, I have about 100 different colors of skirts. Only reason being is many guys want a certain color and I try to accommodate them. With that said, I am a jig fisherman. I fish a jig 95% of the time all day long. My  top three colors are Blk/blue, green pumpkin, brown and sometimes white, My colored skirts are blk/blue , solid green pumpkin, solid brown and solid white. That's it nothing fancy here. I do catch a lot of fish with these colors. To me jig fishing is more about presentation and finding out what the fish likes based on how you work the jig. I'm not saying making a three colored skirt on a jig doesn't work, but if you can't catch fish on a jig, it doesn't matter what perfect color you have. Keep it simple at first. If you want to add some color later on go ahead. A lot of fancy colored jigs are to sell to  the fisherman. They look great in the package and we are visual humans. So when we see all these color we think wow a fish would definitely hit that, in all reality a solid color would work just as well. Just my thoughts

[Jig Man]

You have a bunch of questions maybe too many for one thread.  I wouldn’t get more than 3 or 4 basic colors to start.  You can always order more later if you decide to do this long term.  I bought a bunch of their stuff a few years ago.  Some of it has never been opened let alone used.

Cadman has given you some good advice.  He knows what he is talking about.

 

Now I have questions for you.

       Are you making or buying your jigs?

        What style of jigs are you going to use?

[fishballer06]

Don't overthink it. Basic jigs can catch fish just as well as complex ones will. 

 

With that being said, my bottom contact jigs I keep pretty simple on colors. Where I will get a little more complex with whenever it comes to my skirts is for my moving baits (spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, swim jigs). Below are some I've done. Most of these have 3-5 different colors in them. 

 

 

 

This one is living rubber.

 

 

[10,000 lakes Bassin]

5 minutes ago, Jig Man said:

You have a bunch of questions maybe too many for one thread.  I wouldn’t get more than 3 or 4 basic colors to start.  You can always order more later if you decide to do this long term.  I bought a bunch of their stuff a few years ago.  Some of it has never been opened let alone used.

Cadman has given you some good advice.  He knows what he is talking about.

 

Now I have questions for you.

       Are you making or buying your jigs?

        What style of jigs are you going to use?

Im going to buy my jigheads. 

The jigs that I'm going to tie skirts for are some arky and some flipping jigs. 

What 3 or 4 colors would you use for a green pumpkin and a craw? 

[cadman]

9 minutes ago, 10,000 lakes Bassin said:

Im going to buy my jigheads. 

The jigs that I'm going to tie skirts for are some arky and some flipping jigs. 

What 3 or 4 colors would you use for a green pumpkin and a craw? 

Take a look at fishingskirts.com They have a lot of skirt colors. Also they have a tab on their website called "Builds" open that tab. There are some good colors there. Also they give you the skirt color numbers and the quantities used.

[fishballer06]

If you want to keep it simple with all one style, you could do a lot with these colors below in the Barbed Wire series. 

 

Dark Green Pumpkin (SKU: 066)

Money Maker Watermelon (SKU: 520)

Olive Pumpkin (SKU: 321)

Peanut Butter (SKU: 259)

Belly Craw (SKU: 238)

 

And then I'd go with the tried and true solid black (SKU: 034)

[MIbassyaker]

I like the barbwire and dalmation tabs a lot

 

I kind of feel like you can just get a few versions of brown, green pumpkin, watermelon, amber/pumpkin in any version you like, along with plain black. I like to get some addtional chartreuse, blue, purple, and orange for highlights.

 

brown-black-pumpkin is a good all-around craw color.  Green pumpkin with a little purple, orange and chartreuse makes a good bluegill.

 

Here is one of my favorite to make for the lakes in my area, which get algae-tinged in the summer. It doesn't mimic anything directly, but possibly everything; I just landed on it after some experimentation with a bunch of different patterns from fishingskirts -- just a brown/green with some lightly-muted chartreuse:

 

Brown Black BW (SKU: 120) - 1 tab

Money Maker Watermelon Dalmation (SKU: 224) - 1 tab

Bananaseed Dalmation (SKU: 007) - 1/2 tab

 

 

[Jig Man]

1 hour ago, 10,000 lakes Bassin said:

Im going to buy my jigheads. 

The jigs that I'm going to tie skirts for are some arky and some flipping jigs. 

What 3 or 4 colors would you use for a green pumpkin and a craw? 

All of the skirt color choices is personal preference.  No one besides you can choose what color of tabs partial or full and how many to use.

 

There is a good jig maker who calls himself smalljaw and had lots of helpful videos.  You may want to look at some of them.

[10,000 lakes Bassin]

1 hour ago, fishballer06 said:

If you want to keep it simple with all one style, you could do a lot with these colors below in the Barbed Wire series. 

 

Dark Green Pumpkin (SKU: 066)

Money Maker Watermelon (SKU: 520)

Olive Pumpkin (SKU: 321)

Peanut Butter (SKU: 259)

Belly Craw (SKU: 238)

 

And then I'd go with the tried and true solid black (SKU: 034)

So you just do the barbed wire and don’t use any of the plain colors? 

22 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

Here is one of my favorite to make for the lakes in my area, which get algae-tinged in the summer. It doesn't mimic anything directly, but possibly everything; I just landed on it after some experimentation with a bunch of different patterns from fishingskirts -- just a brown/green with some lightly-muted chartreuse:

 

Brown Black BW (SKU: 120) - 1 tab

Money Maker Watermelon Dalmation (SKU: 224) - 1 tab

Bananaseed Dalmation (SKU: 007) - 1/2 tab

 

 

Sounds perfect for to go with a summer craw colored trailer. Definitely something I’ll try. 

[fishballer06]

2 minutes ago, 10,000 lakes Bassin said:

So you just do the barbed wire and don’t use any of the plain colors? 

I was just giving you some good starter colors that were all in one style. Feel free to buy/use anything you want. 

[10,000 lakes Bassin]

2 minutes ago, fishballer06 said:

I was just giving you some good starter colors that were all in one style. Feel free to buy/use anything you want. 

That sounds good, I’ll try straight barbwire for my first few. 

[MediumMouthBass]

I use Skirts Unlimited tabs and i buy them on sale through TW, ive been able to make some really cool jigs with them so far. I really like their half wire, and fish scale patterns. I think when mixing those 2 with a plain one it makes a very nice looking skirt.

 

Youve already got some great recommendations so heres all i have to offer to add on:

On TW or FishingSkirts check out the Skirts Unlimited

Barbwire: Dark Green Pumpkin, Black Blue Crystal

Halfwire: Green Pumpkin, Black & Blue, Chartreuse (great for Summer Craw)

Living Image: Magic Craw Blue Swirl and Magic Craw Green Swirl, these 2 colors combined or even with a Black/Blue added make a phenomenal jig.

Dalmation: Peanut Butter

Solid: Glimmer Blue, Pearl

Solid W/ Flake: Black Blue Glitter

Fish Scale: Black Silver Holo Chrome (coolest looking skirt ive ever seen), Rootbeer Black, White

 

Not all of these are the colors you asked for, but they can make some very nice jigs when added to Green Pumpkin or Black and Blue skirts.

 

[BlakeMolone]

I like the magic craw or green pumpkin with blue interference as it’s sometimes called. A step up from the basic green pumpkin! Just find a few colors that look like something you would buy and use on a jig that’s made and get creative with it.