Re-skirting trolling lures

If you’re a keen troller of gamefishing lures, there will be times when you need to change or replace their skirts. Or you may have bought the head only, and now have to rig it. Graham Murphy offers two good ways to do this.
METHOD ONE: tied skirts

Re-skirting trolling lures
1.    What you’ll need:
• A lure head
• A pair of lure skirts the correct size for the
head in your preferred colours
• A pair of sharp scissors
• A can of furniture polish
• A roll of 15kg rigging floss.

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Re-skirting trolling lures

2.    Note the lure skirt’s anatomy so it’s cut at the correct location. An Octopus skirt has a head, a neck and a shoulder; in this instance cut the skirt above the neck – give yourself about one centimetre to work with.

Re-skirting trolling lures
3.    Take your scissors and start a cut on one side. However, don’t just cut right through the skirt in one go as this will cause a scallop-shaped cut that won’t fit on the lure head very well. Instead, after making your initial cut, insert the scissors and cut around the skirt neck to remove the skirt’s head.

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Re-skirting trolling lures
4.    Take the underskirt first and turn it inside out, before spraying the skirt surface with furniture polish. This provides a great form of lubrication, which helps when positioning the skirt onto the lure head’s rear skirt collar.

Re-skirting trolling lures
5.    After working the underskirt onto the skirt’s collar, check that the skirt’s pattern aligns with the lure head correctly. Note how the neck of the skirt is pushed all the way back to align with the deepest part of the skirt collar.

Re-skirting trolling lures
6.    To secure the skirt on the skirt collar, tie a whipping over it with the rigging floss. We do this by forming a loop, leaving the short tag-end lying back towards the lure head…

Re-skirting trolling lures

7.    …before wrapping the long end around the skirt collar, overlapping the loop each time. Make three wraps, then pull it up tight.

Re-skirting trolling lures
8.    Pull on both tag ends to tighten down the whipping.

Re-skirting trolling lures
9.    Trim the ends of the whipping, leaving about a centimetre. This will make it easy to remove the skirts the next time you have to re-skirt. Fold the underskirt over and check that the alignment is correct and the skirt is lying over the skirt collar nicely without any bulges.

Re-skirting trolling lures
10.    Next, prepare the top skirt in the same manner. Cut the skirt’s head off, turn the skirt inside out, lubricate the surface with the furniture polish, then pass all of the underskirt through the top skirt.

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Re-skirting trolling lures
11.    Now take a firm hold of the ends of each skirt and pull them carefully in opposite directions. The top skirt should slide nicely over the underskirt and snap into position on the upper skirt collar.

Re-skirting trolling lures
12.    Ensure the neck of the skirt aligns with the seat of the skirt collar. Check the alignment of the top skirt again at this stage, then tie the skirt down with another whipping exactly as you did with the underskirt.

Re-skirting trolling lures
13.    Trim the ends of your skirts to the desired length.

METHOD TWO: gluing the skirts

Re-skirting trolling lures
1.    What you’ll need:
• A lure head that needs re-skirting
• A pair of lure skirts the correct size for the lure head, in your preferred colours
• A pair of sharp scissors
• A tube of Super Glue
• A stick of some kind to work the skirt onto the head (I use a piece of fine stainless-steel rod with the end rounded off, but you can use a chopstick or a blunt screwdriver provided you’re careful not to damage the lure head or silicone skirt material).

Re-skirting trolling lures

2.    It is important to note the lure skirt’s anatomy so the skirt is cut at the correct place. An Octopus skirt has a head, a neck and a shoulder. When gluing a skirt onto a lure head, cut the skirt as close as possible to the narrowest part of the neck.

Re-skirting trolling lures

3.    Take your scissors and start a cut on one side. However, DO NOT just cut right through the skirt in one go, as this will result in a scallop-shaped cut that will not fit the lure head very well.

Re-skirting trolling lures
4.    Instead, after making your initial cut, insert the scissors and cut around the skirt neck to remove the skirt’s head.

Re-skirting trolling lures
5.    Take the top skirt first and work it onto the skirt collar using the stick tool to manipulate it into place. The skirt should be a firm fit, but not so tight you have to really stretch it in order to get it on.

Re-skirting trolling lures
6.    Once the top skirt is in position, fold it back to expose the skirt collar again so the underskirt can be fitted into place.

Re-skirting trolling lures

7.    Follow the same procedure for cutting and fitting the underskirt. At this point you can fold the top skirt back down to check that the skirt pattern is aligned nicely on the lure head, then fold both the top skirt and the underskirt back to expose the skirt collars.

Re-skirting trolling lures

8.    With the skirt collar exposed, apply a few drops of Super Glue and then fold the underskirt back over, being careful to maintain the correct alignment.

Re-skirting trolling lures

9.    Now do the same with the top skirt: apply a few drops of glue to the skirt collar, and you can also apply a drop or two to the underskirt so that the top skirt will adhere both to the skirt collar and the underskirt. Be sparing with the glue as too much can see it spill out and cause problems.

Re-skirting trolling lures

10.    Trim the ends of the skirts to the desired length.

Re-skirting trolling lures
11.    Your lure is now ready for another great season.


January - 2016 - Graham Murphy

New Zealand Fishing News Magazine.
Copyright: NZ Fishing Media Ltd.
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

 

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