Personally there is no "golden rule" as to what it takes to make a full skirt. Spike raises a great point with strand size. The thick strand sizes work great on slow rolled baits and a mize of thicker strand and thin strand on your jigs. "Tuning" a skirt is not essential to the bait's performance due to it being a reaction bait. The "tuning" needs to take place in the blade(s) size vs head weight to prevent tilting or roll-over. Too big of blade(s) on too light a head will cause the bait to spiral when retrieved.
Getting back to the skirt...sorry got a bit side tracked...The number of strands or tabs you will use is based on your personal preference and the color combos you use. With the clear/opaque colors I personally use more to provide the visual appeal. Darker colors you can get away with less. If your skirts are too long they will collapse when retrieved and present with being thinner/smaller and this problem compounds when using the thinner strands.
In short, buy a variety or different skirting material and experiment. The material is relatively cheap and if a skirt combo doesnt work you can take it apart and reuse them in a new skirt.
Site to check out for different skirts:
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Z-Man Fishing » Home . Hope this helps!! Happy spinning!
