Rubber or Silicone?

Jay Yelas prefers a rubber bass jig in the winter time to attract slow moving bass.

February 3, 2015 • Jay Yelas • Archives

Jig skirts are made of silicone or rubber these days, but I think rubber skirts are superior overall, especially in the winter when the water is cold. Rubber skirts aren’t as affected by cold water and still have quite a bit of action, while silicone skirts tend to stiffen up more. The biggest advantage silicone skirts have is that they are produced in so many different colors. When bass are super-selective about the color of a skirt, it might help your catch rate.

In the winter, I’m not as particular about the color of a skirt as the action it imparts in typical water conditions. A fairly long rubber skirt still has that billowing flare to it in cold water, though it’s more slow motion, but that’s a good thing when everything under the water is moving slower. In the summer, when the water is warmer, I prefer a trimmed rubber skirt because it really “poofs out” a lot quicker.

Like I said, I’m pretty basic about the color in winter. In a full-sized jig, I’ll go with a brown skirt if the water is fairly clear – that was always a staple for me in the clear-water Western lakes. In Southern lakes, usually I’ll fish a black skirt or a brown-and-black skirt. As spring rains become more prevalent and we get more rain and the water gets dirtier, I like a black skirt with a little chartreuse in it.

Besides the regular-sized rubber skirt material, there is also a finer size that is great for finesse jigs. A 1/2- or 3/8-ounce football-head jig with the finer skirt material is a great smallmouth bait. I rig it with the smallest Yamamoto Craw or Flappin’ Hog.

The metabolism of bass is slowed down in cold water. The water is denser, and they don’t move very fast. So the typical winter presentation is more of a horizontal drag. You cast out to a rocky point or bluff and then just crawl and shake the jig along the bottom like it is a crawfish creeping along. Just make sure that you’re fishing a rocky bottom; that’s a huge key. That’s where crawfish live in the winter and where you want to fish jigs – preferably with rubber skirts.