Getting a skirt on...

[Gringo]

No, not what you might be thinking. This is actually a fishing related question.

We recently discovered that a lot of the local game fish like skirted cedar plugs. Go figure.

Anyhow, over the past few days the boogers have been grabbing the skirts and mauling them. I picked up a few skirts yesterday, but trying to stretch them enough to get them onto the plugs is really difficult. Is there a trick to this, or do you just muscle them on?

Also, by the way, while I am asking for help here, the hooks that came with the cedar plugs have a very narrow eye so that they fit up inside the cedar body of the plug. I like that, in some ways, since the wahoo can't bite the hook off with the entire shank and eye protected by the wood. But that only leaves the curved part of the hook exposed. It occurred to me that this might contribute to problem A, above, i.e. the fish biting the skirt to smithereens and missing the hook.

Would it be a good idea to replace the narrow eye hooks with standard ones? That leaves the sharp part of the hook way back in the skirt where it would be difficult for them to bite the skirt without getting the hook.

I hope the answer to that is yes, because we can't find the narrow eye hooks here.

[Capt_John]

The narrow hooks settle into the cedar plugs and give it the action it needs. Unfortunately, you're gonna have to order some. When I was there Walkin marine over by the airport had some, but I guess not anymore. The hook is a Mustad 3412 in 8/0 or 9/0. The best skirts are the cheap Boone 6" skirts.

[Gringo]

Hi John!

How's life in the homeland? We stopped by Walkin yesterday, after spending four hours trolling. Had two huge hits on the plugs, I suspect wahoo but never saw em. They grabbed the skirts and took off, laterally not down so I don't think they were YFT. We didn't hook either fish, and they shredded the skirts.

Walkin didn't have the hooks yesterday, but you know how that goes. He has what he has, when he has it, and if it's any good it's gone pretty quick.

I was going through lures last night, and have noticed that the colors here that seem to get the most teeth marks just happen to coincide with the colors of young rainbow dolphin. Wonder if that's just a coinicidence?

For example, all my blue/white skirts are pretty well unmarked. But greens and yellows, and bright pinks are all chewed up.

Have you been following the news here at all? its a political mess.

http://www.tcweeklynews.com/

[Capt_John]

Hadn't been following it, but it doesn't surprise me in the slightest.If I could only tell you the things I saw myself while I was there.

You can get the lures, skirts,etc. online and have them mailed to you quicker and even cheaper in the long run than waiting for Walkin to get them.

[clt_capt]

liquid dish soap will work as a good lube to get the skirts on. Just wash it off once you have the skirt at the right place.

[joeksr]

Looks like it's time for hot water and a stinger hook.

[Gringo]

You can get the lures, skirts,etc. online and have them mailed to you quicker and even cheaper in the long run than waiting for Walkin to get them.

Well, not mail. Mail doesn't work here. Not for packages, ever, and envelopes about 25% of the time. And those take a month.

Fed Ex is still the only game in town, which means it's expensive. But I am sure if the quantity was sufficient it would eventually be worth it.

I just paid $ 15.60 each for skirted cedar plugs. I bet they are cheaper in the US.

[Capt_John]

http://shop.seastriker.com/cedarplugs1.html

[Gringo]

Thanks for the link. Now I don't feel so bad about the prices, a couple extra bucks per lure ain't horrible considering the cost of getting them here.

Problem here,of course, is that there is an extremely limited choice. Gotta get there right after they re-stock.