# Favorite skirt color combinations



## Captain Mickey O'Reilly (Dec 18, 2008)

What are your favorite colors for billfish, Wahoo, etc. ?


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Hard to beat any skipjack/baby tuna pattern ie black/purple, black/blue/white, purple/blue/silver, etc, etc


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Oh yeah, don't forget something in dorado especially what I call Jamaican flag; green/yellow over black


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## samoajoe (Dec 28, 2010)

The simple blue and white pattern seen in islander lures works well for most species consistently here the Gulf from what I've seen. I tried to work that angle with this color combination. It worked for a couple billfish over the past year or so.


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## Capt. Alex Pinney (Jan 23, 2008)

Black , black , black ... Black


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Hey Alex, do you guys ever pull any lures in black or black/?


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## Capt. Alex Pinney (Jan 23, 2008)

Buckwheat works everytime !!


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## Travis Gill (Oct 6, 2007)

Anything as long as its black!


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## Capt. Alex Pinney (Jan 23, 2008)

Freespool said:


> Anything as long as its black!



Trav you should see my new weapon for this year


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Well, what is it Alex? Text me a pic


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## Capt. Alex Pinney (Jan 23, 2008)

Chris V said:


> Well, what is it Alex? Text me a pic



I will in about September . But regarding this post , what's his face wrote a large article in marlin magazine a year back about lure colors and choices and talks about how marlin can't see colors and especially more than so many feet away . They all show up black to them .


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## FenderBender (Oct 2, 2007)

Capt. Alex Pinney said:


> I will in about September . But regarding this post , what's his face wrote a large article in marlin magazine a year back about lure colors and choices and talks about how marlin can't see colors and especially more than so many feet away . They all show up black to them .[/QUOTE
> 
> 
> I would like to read this article, how can they possibly study or know something like that?


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## Capt. Alex Pinney (Jan 23, 2008)

If I can find it ill post a link


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## PorknBeans (Nov 21, 2007)

FenderBender...

Just covered something in class today that might explain. The retina of the eye contains rod cells and cone cells. Cone cell stimulation allows color sight, and rod cells are sensitive to low light conditions. My guess that if a marlin retina was found to have a low density of cone cells, it could be assumed that marlin would see primarily in shades of grey.


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## Captain Mickey O'Reilly (Dec 18, 2008)

If you think about it, the most popular colors for years have been combinations involving black. I like blacks, purples, blues, and I always have a few green/orange/yellow combos as well.


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

You should always have a variety. All tackle record atlantic blue marlin; 1402lbs on a pink/white mold craft super chugger


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## Captain Mickey O'Reilly (Dec 18, 2008)

Chris V said:


> You should always have a variety. All tackle record atlantic blue marlin; 1402lbs on a pink/white mold craft super chugger


You are 100% right!


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## eddiem84 (Nov 3, 2010)

This should be a great thread. Should be lots of great info shared.


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## Gotta Gaff 'Em (Jan 4, 2013)

Favorites from the mid-atlantic... blue/white, black/orange, black/red, and what we call toucan or rainbow for tuna which is like pink/green/yellow/orange all layered up.


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## MakairaPullingLures (Nov 11, 2009)

whatever color catches the fishermen - the fish don't care!


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## Downtime2 (Sep 27, 2007)

LOL True....

Pink Bullwinkle does pretty fair...


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Downtime2 said:


> LOL True....
> 
> Pink Bullwinkle does pretty fair...


So does a Lena in ANY color!


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## Mullethead (Oct 4, 2007)

Contrast .... a bait fish's silver white belly is camo to fish looking up ! and if there is any chop or wake ... (a white surface) black/dark purple stands out. and for something leaving a bubble trail .... the dark spot leading bubbles becomes the target 

Pinks & whites on cloudy days , or near sundown or sun set


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## ashcreek (Oct 4, 2007)

I like Mulletheads explanation. Sounds like good logic...


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

75% of my lures are some variety of blue/silver/white as I am always thinking flying fish. Having said that most of my flat line lures are either black or purple.

Robert


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## panhandleslim (Jan 11, 2013)

*Shades*

Talked with lots of Marlin captains about this subject and from their answers I have concluded that it is SHADE of lure...Dark - Medium - Bright, that makes the difference...not the specific color. Highest percentage effective = BLACK or Black with another color accent. Gives Marlin a better cross sectional pictures especially on less than bright days. The captain I fish with in Brazil gets 85% of his bites on a Blue/White combo even though the fish seem to be concentrating on dolphins and small tunas. So, action...position....calm water/less froth where he runs it. This summer, we were killing on a gold head Makiara with yellow/gold/green skirt...then we busted off a corner of the face on the transom. Fixed it and we couldn't buy a bite on it. So.....it had nothing to do with color....it had to be action/vibration. In the old days we had better sucess with Black/Red combos on Wahoo..now, the hot pinks are taking a lot of fish. Again, I think it is the action. Had a period in the Azores this summer when another captain who I also fish with was beating our brains out with light green combos. We finally had to change and started getting hungry fish in the spread. Who knows. They came up but didn't always take the greens but we had started raising them. Best teaser we had was Blue/Pink with a White bird in front but I had a fish that came up on it and I pitched the sole of a Black flip-flop with a two hook rig in it and he crushed it. What color did he like best? The eye of a Marlin has been studied to death but the great majority of fish are taken on some combination with Black in it; either solid or with an accent skirt added. Who knows the mind of a Marlin.


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## Michael f sights (Jun 19, 2012)

After time talking to the staff at Balck Bart, Bart himself & a good conversation w/ Justin, they all say color does not matter & the older I get the more I know it's true. They both stress the lure action is more important than color.

That being said, I tend to pull Black/Purple, Black/Red, or Blue/Silver/Pink.


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## MakairaPullingLures (Nov 11, 2009)

i custom skirt lures other than mine - a customer sent me a spread of assorted lures, included were, 2 identical (looking) bart somethings, one skirted black/pink and the other blue/silver/green. the black and pink had been crushed, the other not. he told me they get about equal water time and black/pink was his favorite color, but re-skirt the lures the same as they were.

i pulled the switch. reversed the skirt colors on the lure heads, now the pink/black skirts was on the head that previously had the blue/silver/green skirts, and vise a versa. sent them packing. 

the moral of the story, his latest favorite color is blue/silver/green!!


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## samoajoe (Dec 28, 2010)

MakairaPullingLures said:


> i custom skirt lures other than mine - a customer sent me a spread of assorted lures, included were, 2 identical (looking) bart somethings, one skirted black/pink and the other blue/silver/green. the black and pink had been crushed, the other not. he told me they get about equal water time and black/pink was his favorite color, but re-skirt the lures the same as they were.
> 
> i pulled the switch. reversed the skirt colors on the lure heads, now the pink/black skirts was on the head that previously had the blue/silver/green skirts, and vise a versa. sent them packing.
> 
> the moral of the story, his latest favorite color is blue/silver/green!!


Lure action is key. Shape, weight, balance, position, etc all come into play when being pulled. 

So in essance, the same head still got crushed, right?


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## MakairaPullingLures (Nov 11, 2009)

samoajoe said:


> Lure action is key. Shape, weight, balance, position, etc all come into play when being pulled.
> 
> So in essance, the same head still got crushed, right?


you got it - color made no difference!


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## samoajoe (Dec 28, 2010)

MakairaPullingLures said:


> you got it - color made no difference!


I've thought about reskirting when it's time, some of my better producing heads with different colors. Then see what happens......thanks for sharing. With your product all over the world, I'm sure you've had all kinds of feedback from all kinds of places.


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