How to tie copper wire on a jig skirt

[gat0r]

Can someone post their step by step process for tying a skirt to a jig with wire. I've seen lots of posts about using fly tying twine but I'm looking for an explanation on tying with copper wire or craft wire. I've tinkered with it for doing some living rubber skirts for my own personal use but so far I've been pretty flustered trying to get the copper wire to tie off correctly.

I basically lay the skirt pads on the jig wrap twice with the copper wire then twist and cut, but then I have a 1/4 inch tag end that is a pain to bend down or out of the way and make the collar look professional.

Any tips would be appreciated.

[PaBasser]

I used to use wire to tie my skirts on jigs and spinnerbaits before there were skirt collars.

I used craft wire, wrapped the wire around the jig or spinnerbait twice, then put skirt on. Wrapped the wire about three more times, then bend wire at tag end together, wrap it around three or four times. Cut wire then bent it over using my plyers, against the skirt.

When wrapping wire around jig or spinnerbait wrap wire in both directions (lay wire down, put jig or spinnerbait in the middle of the wire, grab tag end from each side and pull across each end going around the lure, keep doing this until you get the desired wraps on lure. Then put skirt on and do the same until desired wraps. Wrap tag ends together bend over with plyers and your done.

I did this for years with no problems at all. You get faster as you do it more and more. Keep your wraps tight together and for a smoother finnish. I cut strips of wire before I started to wrap wires onto lures. Length of strip depended on lure size, just experement on lenghts of the wire until you find you don`t have alot of excess of wire when you cut tag end.

Don`t pull wire real tight after wrapping skirt because it will cut skirt, but make it tight enough so skirt doesn`t slide out. You can put epoxy or glue over wire when done wrapping, and then you are done.

Hope this helps you.

PaBasser