Hair or Rubber Skirt?

[Patudo]

Not quite on topic but I'd like to try a couple of marlin lure heads with hair skirts. I think the lightness of the hair could be useful in certain situations and definitely impedes the hook less than conventional octopus style skirts. Nothing new of course, folks have been using the Iland express, black hole etc as straight lures with good success. But I'd like to give it a try. Bill - maybe you could try a couple of my heads with hair skirts next time you're down in Brazil?

[Squidnation]

I spoke to jody down in Guatemala today and he said the marlin bite has been a bit better so i am excited to pull them and see if we can see a couple next week. May also leave a couple days early and go out just with jody and pull some teasers a bit wider for some marlin.

[clt_capt]

Not quite on topic but I'd like to try a couple of marlin lure heads with hair skirts.

If I remember correctly, a bunch of the earlier Hawaiian resinheads used nylon fiber - similar to the stuff in a lawn chair. It was frayed and tied to the head... I've attached a pic from Jim Rizzuto showing a Black Bart Lure...

Looking like a nice new lure Bill...

[Patudo]

Yup, Bart's old lureheads (the ones that were lathed to shape individually) often were skirted with some kind of nylon fiber - sometimes that was the entire skirt and sometimes it was used as an inner skirt. I think he referred to it as seat cover material. He mentioned one reason he switched over to single hooks was that the stuff tangled around the front hook of a two hook rig too easily - that's interesting because I've fished Iland lures with two hooks and never had a problem

some photos of the old bart stuff







Some of the old Sadu lures were skirted like that too. Anyone have a photo of those?

[NightHeron]

The material was the webbing from lawn chairs. rolls of 100 ft were bout 5.00 tie on then split along the edge strip out short fibers.

[Squidnation]

alright all you lure heads. How do you get a good tight fitting skirt on the head without breaking your hand or ripping the skirt.

[NightHeron]

heat water in microwave put skirts in helps soften them up some. start one edge on use a screwdriver to stretch other edge on run it round and round it will walk its way up onto collar. If that fails get right size skirt

[Patudo]

If you're talking conventional octopus skirts part of it is getting the skirt selection right ie. don't try to cram a skirt with too narrow a diameter on to a lure head. Most skirt material has a bit of give or stretch to it. Some form of lube also helps tremendously. Water, soap, some folks swear by Pledge furniture polish etc.

[Squidnation]

NH - thanks for the tip. We improvised and couldn't believe how easy it was to skirt them. I owe this one to my wife and her damn steer. Who knows what tools this is?





Here's another shot on a green skirt









Heres one that we talked about last night. Most people like just a little hair so we made it sparse on purpose.



We'll be pullin these on Monday so I will post a report monday night.

[jbonvetti]

A better way to put the skirt on is to fold it inside out, put your head in so that the back of the lure head is even with the end of the skirt, floss it tight, then fold the skirt back over the floss...it hides the floss and is tighter for a better hold....If you get up with me in Mexico Bill I have a bunch of home-made lures my father made me I'll show ya...I'll try to get some pictures up but the internet is slow here...truly one of a kind custom lures...