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Years ago, when I was pre-teen a local fisherman would carry me over to Barrington, R. I. to "the Eel Man", Bob Bryden...He had only one leg but could hop around the shore and in and out of his boats and tend to the eel cars, wow..It gave me a great respect for the adaptiveness of the handicapped, at a young age...but, I waver from my course,....
I started skinning eels when I was in the single numbers....would skin a nail keg of em at an afternoon....as noted above...take a nail and grind the head off to a point and then stick the nail in a fence post....stick the eels by the head, take a razor blade or sharp knife and just cut the skin, all around, just behind the eyes, peal the skin off, being careful at the vent..you have to cut the intestine at the vent or the skin will split and be no good.....place the inside out skin in rock salt without cleaning.....keep in rock salt till ready to rig....We used what Bob Bryden called "Cuttyhunk Eels". All 24 to 28 inch, starved down to the diameter of your thumb, or less.... The gold bellies worked at certain times and the silver bellies worked at other times better....We used Copper Tubing in the early days, I use pvc tubing now..about 1/2 to 5/8 O.D. is best...cut the tube so that its only about 3/4 inch long, so that the ends of a barrel swivel are out the ends. Drill a hole through the barrel swivel, and drill a hole through the tubing. Put the barrel swivel inside the tube, pin it with a brad or small nail. Years ago we would solder the pin in place. With the pvc I use epoxy glue to keep the pin in place. Put a 5/0 or 6/0 hook to one end of the swivel and if you want to rig the skin with two hooks then take a piece of 80# Dacron and tie it to the swivel.....Take an eelskin out of the salt and into a bucket of salt water...fresh water will make the skin to turn to jelly and is unusable...Rinse the skin off in salt water till it is clean, still inside out....now, turn the skin right side out and clean the slime off between your fingers...wet a piece of board and lay the eel skin on to the board. Be careful to get the skin exactly sideways on the board. You should be looking at the side of the eelskin.. smoothly laid out on the board. Take your razor blade or very sharp knife and at the head end, cut the skin square at the fins...lay the tube and hooks alongside the skin with the tube end right at the end of the skin. Set the hooks out then make a little cut in the belly of the eel where the round of the hook starts, so that when you next push the hooks down inside the skin the hook point can be led out of the cut you made and the hook will hang down and not hamper the skin from filling up with water....With the skin pulled down on the rig and the hooks sticking out of the skin you now manuver the tube inside the head end of the skin. Get it lined up so the hooks are on the belly side and the tube is just at the cut head end of the skin..now gather the skin around the tube so every thing hangs equal and wrap the skin to the tube with black thread, like you would wrap a bucktail to a jig, only you don't want the thread to show, that's why you use black thread...wrap it tight, a couple layers thick and then tie the thread off, keeping the thread tight.
Wash it off in salt water, put your snap swivel through the front of the barrel swivel inside the tube and troll it alongside to see how it looks...If you did it right you will see what looks like a 'live eel' and by the gentle twitching of your rod tip you can make the skin "swim" just like a live one. You may adjust the movement of the tail by taking the tail and pull the two sides apart for an inch or two, by trial and error you will see the eel suddenly start to twist and swim like it was alive.
This is a trolling bait..It cannot be cast couse it gets all buggered up. The Blue Fish will chop it to pieces so move away from the blues, or fish deeper, under the blues.
The big difference is that you as an individual have now skinned and rigged a bait that if you 'fish it right' will catch Striped Bass in a true Sporting way....
Good Luck..
Chet
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