guys,

sorry if this topic has been beaten to death a zillion times, but, me being perenially late to the game...

i have a few spare superstrike bullet needles (1 5/8 oz, methinks) that i would like to put some eel skins on.

this sounds like a fairly easy mod, since there is a groove already cut into the head of the plug.

let me see if i'm doing this right ...based on a few conversations i overheard ....

1) brine the skins for a few days in kosher salt solution

2) remove the rear hook and the front hook, but leave the split ring on the front hook

3) measure off the skin. the skin should not be so long as to get tangled up in the front hook, right? so a rule of thumb to use is to see if the tail, when bent over, is just short of reaching the front hook. trim the (head-end of the) skin accordingly.

4) most of the guys here prefer the skin inside out (blue side showing).

5) no tail hook. tie a section of stiff mono (100 lb +) to where the tail hook would go on the plug. this is to give the eelskin some backbone. any thoughts on your preferences regarding this?

6) put the skin on the plug. tie off with some heavy duty braid where the groove is on the head of the plug. suggested line and knots?

7) locate split ring attached to front hook. make small incision in skin with scissors. attach VMC 6x 2/0 hook.

8) when not fishing the lure, store the entire plug in a bag of kosher salt, preferably refrigerated.

am i missing anything?

thanks.

The only thing I do differently, is to make a loop of stiff mono at the tail and use a small crimp to make the loop, pinch one end of the loop to a point, this set up will hlep spread the tail and give it additional width...

does it matter which way the loop is set up? should it be vertically or horizontally oriented?

thx - good tip.

-fpp

I always use a tail hook with a skin needle, usually a SS VMC 4/0 Siwash open eye then closed right to the tail loop of the needle.

The Gibbs standard needle is an outstanding plug to put a skin on. Some are blue side out some are dark side out.

Always scrape off any meat left on. I pack mine in Kosher Pickling salt which is very coarse. I put the salt in a zip lock then dribble in water a little at a time. You want it damp, not wet. The litmus test is being able to poke your finger into the salt and leave a hole that keeps it shape and shows no excess water.

Store in refridgerator after trip, never the freezer. You get blotches and the skins break down.

I make my own needles for skins with a groove for tying about a quarter inch in back of the nose loop. Most bodies are six inches long. But if you don't make your own plugs, I believe a wooden plug with a skin is way better than plastic. I like my skins to fit snug over the plug body as well.

Hope that helps ya!

I keep the tails about three inches longer than the plug body as a rule of thumb. Cusght some beautiful fish in the last three weeks on them.

waxed floss holds knots better, Z showed me that

waxed floss holds knots better, Z showed me that

I use 18#lb test squidding line (mainly cause I got a spool) but it works well.

Ol' Stan Daggett revealed to me one time while I was priviliged to be invited into his basement in West Dennis how he used skins over a little basic needle he made from dowels with 1/8 ounce egg sinkers stuffed in each end. You strecth pencil eel skins over it from 10" eels.

I have been using one of the skin needle plugs he gave me for a couple weeks now. Fished just the way he told me and they are deadly.

thx guys.

care to share how you work them?

Ben, s-l-o-w is the key. If fishing an area where there is current I let the needle or plug swing with it with occasional pulse (lightly done) as soon as the tension of the current is felt to be reduced the retrieve starts again with an occasional pause. Many fish take it on the pause.

Other wise whatever plug is adorned with a skin I just make it a slighly slower action than normal. I have found that it is normally taken by bigger fish than the same plug sans a skin.

Just because your skin plug starts to bleach out or start to dispense a less than pleasing odor oft times the fish find it more attractive.

Steve-

Thanks again.

I'm liking this eelskin approach - a lot less of a hassle than using live eels (made scramble to B&T shop, keeping 'em alive, etc). Easy to craft, easy to maintain, and these things are TOUGH.

-fpp

RIP ...Stan....about a year before he passed on at a salties meeting Stan did a how to making his needleskin and how to fish them.He always carried one on the rod and one in his back pocket in a plastic cigar tube..best part was these plug's weren't sealed or painted..you could make them from 1/2-5/8 or 3/4 dowels depending on the size you liked best....then at the same meeting he gave away all his vintage gibbs,,ccb's and other's he had hanging on his pegboard downstairs.I was lucky to get a few..then a few meeting's later, he asked me if I'd buy his fishing gear he had left..I said sure, but never saw him again.Next thing I heard he was gone.....He was a great teacher of fishing to all and bent over backwards for kids....I do miss him.

I have one of Stan's skin needles thanks to capesams :D Thank you again Steve. I'll have to dig that out wherever it is and change the hooks and skin.