Lure Skirts: An Alternative to Live Baiting 

Updated on February 28, 2020

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If you have been using fishing lures to catch fish, then you definitely believe in their effectiveness. But if you’re not familiar with it, a lure is a kind of artificial fishing bait that anglers use to attract fish. If you buy lure skirts, you will find out that they are available in various colours, sizes, and shapes. Each of these lures is designed to attract a different species of fish. 

The advantages of using skirted lures over live baits.  

Using skirted lures are less messy compared to using live baits. Lures enable you to target and capture species more accurately. Lures are also much easier to interchange than live baits. When it comes to catch and release, lures are considerably better as they prevent the fish from gulping the whole hook. Moreover, you can cast much farther with lures than with live baits. 

Components of a lure skirt

A skirted lure comes with three main parts; the head, skirt, and hook. You can rig the hook as heavy as possible if you want to catch a huge fish, considering that it’s not integrated to the rest of the lure. This feature makes lures a favourite of different levels of anglers

In addition, it’s essential that the hook you’re using is in the right place, the correct size, and must be razor-sharp. The green beads allow you to position the hook in a manner that a chasing fish will not either see it or miss it. 

With regard to the skirts, they eventually get beaten up with usage. But they can easily be replaced, and it is reasonably affordable. When you buy lure skirts, make sure that the skirts are wire-tied to prevent them from sliding down the hook shank or falling into pieces. A pair of pliers and some floral wire can fix this common concern. 

Begin with a few inches of the wire and wrap it around the lure skirt. After that, use your fingers to twist the tag ends and tighten it with your pliers, this gives you a bulletproof skirted lure that can now take all the abuse of regular use. 

Over the years, lures have proven to catch more fish than other methods. These fishing lures work because they trigger aggression and feeding responses. Several contributing factors affect the effectiveness of the skirted lures, including the rigging, vibration, action, colour, shape, and size. But, the overlooked aspect is using them in a location that can produce great results.  

Matching the hatch

The pattern of a lure should mimic a fleeing or wounded bait species in the area you are fishing.  You must get this right, as most predators will capture any available source of food at any time. Matching the hatch is relatively easy as the blue water baits are similar all across the game fishing areas. However, keep in mind that the types of food tend to change when they migrate through a specific area at certain periods of the year. 

You will also realise that there are a variety of food species available through a given period. Determine which food has a tendency to be in a location, so that you accurately buy lure skirts that can match the hatch in size, colour, and action. When you get this system correctly, you may be able to catch species even outside a normal season. 

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