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eel skin plugs

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bassturds

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Easy to rig.  Takes less than a minute.  Buy a salted eelskin, (RedTop or Mako's always had them) or just skin a fresh eel, turn the skin inside out, and tie it tightly with a little piece of fishing line onto the jig.  Always fished best in the dark for me, major negative was that the skin fills up with water and can make for some sore shoulders at the end of the night.

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Easy to rig.  Takes less than a minute.  Buy a salted eelskin, (RedTop or Mako's always had them) or just skin a fresh eel, turn the skin inside out, and tie it tightly with a little piece of fishing line onto the jig.  Always fished best in the dark for me, major negative was that the skin fills up with water and can make for some sore shoulders at the end of the night.

really. red top has em. i gota try em out! 

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Haven't bought skins before, but usually pick up a few of the largest snakes my tackle shop gets in. The ones nobody wants because they're so big they scare bass under 40#. Recently skinned a 2-fter and rigged ovr a loaded redfin. Eels for the even larger traditional skin-plugs need to be anacondas to have skins large enough to work with. Make sure your skin-plug or jig creations are kept coated well with kosher salt when out of the freezer on a fishing trip. Can liquify and break down pretty fast in heat if unsalted, esp after use.

 

Dont use em too much.. but have got some fish on em. Def look great in the water tho when made correctly.

Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.

Hemingway, Old Man and the Sea

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We used to catch eels with a simple wire minnow trap.  I would cut up a potato or turnip for bait (really) and toss it in a Cape tidal marsh at dusk.  In the morning there would always be 2-3 eels trapped inside.  To skin them, nail the eel through the head onto a board and ring the skin around the neck with a sharp knife or razor, then use 2 pair of pliers to pull the skin back and off.  I think I just used a square knot and medium weight mono to tie the skin around the lip of the jighead.  I liked using jigs with 2 hooks a couple inches apart.

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Used to fish skins on special plugs made from wood dowel stock with a groove at the head to tie off the skin, similar to a needlefish plug. The old Captain Andy pikie type plugs were also made to accommodate eel skins. In general the metal lip swimmers were always considered a better choice for eel skins.

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If you can get your hands on a Danny Pichney or know someone who makes them :D , Conrad Jr. it makes a superb eelskin plug for the canal. Even the Sr is a good plug for that too. Here are a few Pichney Conrads I made few years back and you can see the eelskin ring on a peanut, and Jr. Conrad.

post-3186-0-55335300-1435272167_thumb.jpg

Edited by Steel Pulse

what's the secret word for tonight

 

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bassturds in some cases they skin the dead ones and put them away for eels skinners.Getting a skin on some of the above plugs may require a size that most no longer carry Most of the shoe strings of today will never go on a full bodied plug. Now if you can find some where the end tail is actually  made for a skin with the nice indented groove to tie it off with, you will be good to go I would use the white one or purple one above and they would hold well with the skin staying on. I had a good friend make some like above with a hole inside the lip to allow the skin to blow up, when being worked.

Life member M.B.B.A #509

Life member Izaak Walton Fishing Association

Life member Cape Cod Canal

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  • 2 years later...
On 6/25/2015 at 5:59 PM, zeke04 said:

Here is a photo of the custom eel skin plug and an old Captain Andy Pikie

 

 

 

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That eel skin dowel brings back memories of stan dagget from the cape cod salties...he made those many moons ago[late 80's]...showed me how and boy they were a killer...only we never put a skin groove in the head, just pulled the skin over the head of the plug and tied it off....1/2"-5/8"-3/4" dowels...he also made 3" eel skin fly's...which back in 93 caught a cow on one at the chatham lt.house...never forgot that.

 

that e

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