Trimming Your Spinnerbait Skirt

Everyone fishes a spinnerbait differently, right?

Not really. Most bass anglers fish a spinnerbait as it comes in the package, and virtually all add a trailer of some sort. That works, but might not be optimal, especially for competitive fishing.

Marty Stone says he's found a better way.

"I was so aggravated with the question of whether you should you use a trailer or not," he says. He'd been using one, but "after 2-3 fish the trailer was ripped or torn, and the whole bait was out of balance. Then you have to take off the trailer and put on a new one.

"And in clear-water situations, a plastic trailer doesn't look natural," he adds. "I thought there had to be a better way."

The better way he found is omitting the trailer and trimming the skirt -- to function better and to look like a trailer.

Does it work? "I can honestly say that I don't get any fewer bites," he says. "And at times I feel like I've gotten a few more, especially in clearer water, because it looks so natural." (Another angler who eschews trailers and instead trims skirts is Kevin VanDam.)

Trimming the Skirt

Here's how Stone does it:

1) He removes the skirt from the bait, turns it around and threads it on backwards. "There's always a short end and a long end," he explains. "Thread the short end on first, which is backwards."

2) Then he trims it two ways. "Once the short end is threaded on, trim that end down to about 5/8-inch. It looks like a big, puffed-out lion's mane. With the long end, take roughly 10 strands, put them in your hand and hide them. Then take your scissors and cut the rest of the skirt even with the hook."

There you have it -- a built-in trailer. "It looks as good as any trailer on the market and always runs true," Stone says.

Stone designed Gambler's Pro Series Spinnerbait, but it isn't sold with his custom-trimmed skirt. "Most people would look at it and say, 'Man, no way,'" he says. "But in the water, when you retrieve the bait the skirt bends back. And when you stop it, it immediately flares."

He adds that "the 10 strands in back are constantly flowing. It looks just like a baitfish."

Other Spinnerbaiting Tips

> Stone always uses a 1/0 Gamakatsu trailer hook.

> Choose spinnerbait weight according to conditions, he says. For example: "In really shallow water, like a tidal river, use 1/4-ounce." In non-tidal waters, when the cover is sparse, he likes a 3/8-ounce bait.

> Stone's workhorse is a 1/2-ounce bait with gold and silver blades fished on 17-pound-test.

> He fishes a 3/4-ounce bait in heavy wind, in deep grass and for smallmouths "when you need something to throw a long way and wind really fast." His line: 20-pound-test.

> "The worst thing you can do is overpower a spinnerbait with line that's too heavy," he says. He prefers P-Line, and says that "if you throw a 1/4-ounce bait on any more than 12-pound test, you're not getting a good natural flow of the bait." Line that's too heavy "brings the bait up and makes it ride heavier than it needs to."