Skirt Tying Questions

[MidMO]

I've been making my own jigs a few at a time for the past couple of years or so. Nothing fancy - one color powder paint, rubber banded skirts (tan/brown jig in picture). I've also been buying a lot of different jigs and trying to take what I like best from each.

One of those things is the copper hand tied skirt (like War Eagle and Jewel use on some of their skirts). What I really like about the War Eagle jig is how they attach the skirt (black and blue jig in picture). It is similar to a Terminator Spinnerbait Skirt in that all the strands are actually tied on the head side of the jig - there aren't any strands on the hookside (until you pull it through the water and the strands fold back over the hook).

Been messing with trying to tie a skirt like that. It isn't very easy to do with the weedguard in place. Without a weedguard it is much easier to tie. It is a little clumsy trying to wrap the non cut section of the skirt end around the collar (especially when using multiple skirt strands) but it can be done.

Just curious if anyone else ties like this and if there are any hints for doing so?

I'm not entirely sure that I like it like this in the water (haven't made up my mind yet). If a jig tied in this manner lays still in the water the skirt tends to float away from the hook - leaving the hook pretty much naked.

But tying it in this manner makes the skirt really flare and is also much fuller than when it is tied normally (with strands on each side of the collar).

Picture of all 3 jigs in water:

My version of the War Eagle type skirt tie is on the left. All the strands have floated forward off the hook. The War Eagle jig on the right doesn't do it as bad. The jig in the middle is tied normally and the hook is covered by the skirt.

Any thoughts?

[clamboni]

You will get just as much flare regardless of whether you tie with all the strands on one end or both ends. It's still the same thing at the head end. The more strands you put in, the fuller it will look obviously. Your head looks different then the War Eagle head. One other thing to try is tying a little tighter to the head, this will force the strands out instead of allowing them to move up.

Edited April 3, 2009 by clamboni

[george12182]

How are you keeping the skirt strands in place? What I do(not all my ideas, stole some of it from another post) is to first attach the normal skirt collar to the skirt the set up the skirt colors how I want. FishingSkirts.com has a $4 dollar tool that works great for this. I've also heard of people making this with aluminum arrows. Then I slide the skirt on the hook, but not all the way. The skirt collar acts like a vice keeping the skirts in place while I tie. This should solve your problem with the weedless jigs. I also like to have the jig/spinnerbait upside down when I'm tying, this helps keep the skirt strands even. Then to keep the skirt strands even during the tie, I make the first wrap kind of loose, reposition the skirt strands if any got out of whack, then tighten up my first wrap and make three or 4 more wraps. Twist the tag ends, trim leaving a little bitm, fold this in and cover with nail polish. I use 26 guage copper wire and think it works perfect. From reading some other posts, people complain that this is too thin and reccomend 24 or 22. But the craft store I went to only sells 26 or 20 so I never tried the guages in between, but 20 is too thick IMHO. Now if you only want the top half, cut the bottom half of the skirt off.

You can also by skirts similar, not exact to the terminator. Theyre called ez skirts. I believed GLC fishing produces them. They don't sell them though. This is what strike king uses on their higher end spinnerbaits. Bassdozer sells them on ebay and a few other companies sell them as well if you google them.

By the way, unless terminator changed their skirts recently, they are not tied.

[george12182]

One other trick. This might help with your problem with the skirts flaring up in the water instead of down. I was experimenting adding a little flashabou accent to my skirts and was having problems with the flashabou sticking out all over and not lying down in sync with the silicone strands. What I did was to get a zip tie and put it around the strands so they are all flaring down, not real tight though so I could easily slip it off when I was ready to use it. I'm not sure if I explained this very well. When I slide it off, all of the strands would lay really nice, since the zip tie gives the strand a little bit of memory and they want to flare down.

[Tony Maxwell]

If you are using the 20 strand silicone strips all you have to do is put the eye of the jig in the vise. Then fold the weedguard forward. I use a heavy rubber band strip to wrap around the barrel of the vise and the weedguard. Then wrap the uncut end of the skirt strip(s) with the strands forward and tie on with heavy flytying or rod winding thread. Once everything is finished cut the skirt material in half and you have enough for the next jig.

Tony