How To Properly Skirt A Trolling Lure

To skirt a lure you will need a resin-lure head, two rubber-squid skirts, waxed-rigging floss, scissors and a small knife. Skirts are available in a wide variety of colors, so choose colors that match the lure head and have proven to be effective in your fishing region. Story and Photos: KJ Robinson

Yamashita makes one of the most popular skirts on the market. In order to add extra body and color variety to a lure, two skirts are generally used. In this example we will be attaching 9.5 inch Yamashita octopus skirts to a Marlin Magic Baby Blue jetted-bullet lure head.

Begin by cutting off the top of the inner skirt. You should make your cut for the inner skirt right above the narrowest point of the skirt.

Slide the inner skirt onto the bottom skirt post. The skirts will always overlap each other, so always start by attaching the inner skirt first.

Cut a three-foot (one meter) length of rigging floss; this will be used to secure the inner skirt to the lure post.

Create a loop at one end of your length of rigging floss.

Tightly wrap the rigging floss 6-8 times around the skirt and lure head as shown.

After finishing your wraps, take the end of the floss and pass it through the loop.

Pull both ends of the floss down at the same time to tighten and secure the wrap. Alternately, many fishermen will use a surgeon's knot to secure the wraps. Trim the tag ends of the floss.

Now it's time to attach the outer skirt. Begin by trimming the outer skirt about an inch above the narrow point of the skirt's head.

Turn the outer skirt inside out.

Hand soap, furniture wax, or saliva will be needed to help slide the outer skirt over the lure head.

With the outer skirt inside out, begin sliding it over the front of the lure head, making sure the colors on the skirt and lure head are in line with each other.

Slide the outer skirt over the lure head until it's positioned evenly over the first lure post.

Secure the skirt to the lure post with rigging floss as you did for the inner skirt.

Carefully roll the outer skirt back over the lure head and over the inner skirt. Be careful not to tear the outer skirt during this process.

A properly skirted lure should have a smooth transition between lure head and skirt as shown.