Reel Repair by Alan Tani

Anyone else use fish skin such as from the Lai (Leatherback/Spotted Queenfish), to dress their lures and jig heads? I spent the morning whipping up a bunch of these. Yeah they're kind of funky looking, but the trevally and snappers gobble em up like candy...What's your go-to fish skin?

Never heard of that .... not a thing in Canada.... but they look great !

Todd

Quote from: Hardy Boy on September 18, 2026, 01:26:29 AMNever heard of that .... not a thing in Canada.... but they look great !

Todd

Thanks Todd!

No one else uses fish skin, not even for Sabiki? Hmm, must be an Indo-Pacific/Hawaii thing. They also use them in the trolling heads here, too. Works of art but pricey much.

On a couple of my Kona trips the heads of the homemade trollers had fish skin inside of the clear plastic; I remember one with mackerel that was very reflective. - john

I have a clear resin sinking Hawaiian kaku popper with a fish skin insert from back in the day. Always felt it was kind of a gimmick.  Flash can be useful, but there are plenty of easier ways to get flash.

-J

Interesting.  I know some East Coast striper fishermen sew real eel skins as tails on  plugs.  I've never seen it but   the movement in the water is supposed to be very life-like.

Some fish hit by eye sign and don't care much about smell . i found pure striper don't care about smell but Hybrid do , I always use Gulp curly tail when fish for Hybrid and use mono leader

Leatherback Lai skin jigs have a bunch of smell to them, to go along with the natural flash and pulse-like action when worked.

Some folks here will tie an entire tail skin section of eel onto the hook/s and cast that out as a lure, something I've never tried.

I'd like to hear a bit more about the process.

How is the skin prepped and dried?

-J

Quote from: jurelometer on October 07, 2026, 09:30:35 PMI'd like to hear a bit more about the process.

How is the skin prepped and dried?

-J

It's a simple process of skinning the fish first by cutting it around the edges sorta like a fillet, then peeling it away and scraping off any remaining belly meat. Next the skin is placed flat, flesh side down, on a piece of glass or a mirror etc and allowed to air dry a couple days. Once dry, we peel the skin off and cut it into strips that are folded back and tied onto the jig head as you would a rod guide. Some clear nail polish to set the wraps (I like Sally Hansen's Hard-as-Nails), and you're ready to fish.

The guys making trolling heads will go an extra step and brine-soak the skin to remove any moisture before cutting it, but I haven't found that necessary when tying jigs. Lai skin is oily and pliable when wet; stiff and crinkly when dry. Before fishing we soak the jigs in the water for 10 minutes to allow the skin to rejuvenate. A simple freshwater rinse then shake-n-dry after use, will keep them in useable condition for a good while.

Here are some Lai I caught recently. They don't grow very big—2-3lbs is thought to be quite big and 5 is a monster. These have a bit shinier skin and are fun to catch on light tackle. Some unleash an impressive display of aerial acrobatics throughout the fight.

Cool.  I caught a couple of these in Australia-  Cape York.  They call them lesser queenfish there.  Neat little fish.

Not sure that we have anything with a tough enough skin that is also flashy out here on the West Coast, USA.

-J

Salmon skin?  Dominick

Very much a Hawaiian thing - in more industrialized parts of the world, suitable fish skin is normally hard to find. 

The much bigger cousin of the lai found in the Indo-Pacific would probably be suitable (and you'd get quite a lot of skin from each fish), but there is no tradition of using it in lures there.

I have also seen/used Japanese sabikis with some kind of preserved fish skin, but no idea how they do that. 

Lai skin in a lure head is really only decorative (like the other traditional Hawaiian material, pearl shell) but if properly handled looks attractive, and implies a level of dedication to the craft that likely means the lure head is likely to be made well. 

When you say snapper, do you mean ta'ape, or uku? 

Those look really nice.