Guys, here goes.  I've been in the process of cleaning up the tackle over the winter and I opened the ol spinnerbait box and started going through them.  

What's the deal with the rubber bands used to hold these skirts together anyway.  Literally, half of my spinnerbaits are falling apart.  some of these skirts are only a year or two old.  The bands I'm referring to are those sorta brownish ones that look a little like a rubber band or perhaps surgical tubing.  On the baits that are intact, some of them I can take my finger and rub that band and it's turned to mush.  I'm looking at replacing skirts on around 20-30 baits and some of these skirts were just replaced a couple years ago!  >

I've noticed the black bands used on jigs don't have this problem.  Is this some kind of reaction to the skirt or the paint on the bait heads?  Is there a maker of skirts out there that uses something other than those bands so I'm not having to replace perfectly good skirts over and over?

Yeah Cart... those brownish collars suck.  The first thing I do with skirts when I buy them is replace the collar with a black or solid white rubber collar.  I have also wrapped skirts onto baits permanently with red nylon thread and superglued or epoxied the knot.  I have even tried the craft wire wrap.  But, I still prefer just replacing the collar.  Lately, I am trying two collars to see if it helps or hinders... so far, so good.

The thread wrap sounds like a great idea, I'm gonna try it.  

What's odd is some of the spares I've got in a bag with those collars are just fine even though they're the same age.  

Guess I'll pick up some of the black and white ones along with some skirts.

Something else to remember, Cart.  I used to keep jigs in my box with the soft plastic trailers on them.  I found that if the  soft plastic comes in contact with the rubber collars, the collars will slowly deteriorate.  I take off trailers before storing my jigs now and it has made a difference.

The simple answer is they are made of rubber...... Rubber under tension will dry rot much faster than the spare collars you have that aren't under any tension. Add heat and sunlight and they will dry rot in just a few weeks. Dink gave you the best solutions for a fix. (Craft wire or thread) I would recommend the wire because you can take it off and switch skirts faster and easier than glued thread.

I guess my issue is the black and white colored collars aren't doing the same thing. I pulled some jigs out of my jig box that have easily been in there 4-5 years and the black collars are intact.  There were 2 lone jigs that used the brownish collars and those came apart.

Guess I'll head to Janns and get some collars and skirt material.  I've always thought about doing skirts.  I've already got a tool for spreading the collars and saw a neat idea using a piece of an arrow shaft for making them.

I too have the same problem.

I'm tinkering with the Z-Man skirts on my spinnerbaits, won't have to worry about a collar at all.

Z-man skirts are similar (if not identical) to the skirts that come on chatterbaits.

I use red or blue holographic rod wrapping thread.  Three wraps, knot, and leave the tag ends 2 or 3 " long.  I put three of these so I get 6 threads in with the skirt.  If you have trouble getting the knots tight, just rub the thread with bees wax or candle wax.

Gotta agree those amber ones are CRAP.  I hate them.  I think that is how companies sell baits is to put a crappy skirt collar on it.  Those are the only ones I've had a problem with too.

The easiest way would be to retie the ones that are barely holding on with thread or wire.  The others would be to re collar them but that is a huge pain trying to get all the strainds through the collar.  If you tie them on the wont come off ever.  OR untill you catch a few pike and rip the silicone upl

What's odd is some of the spares I've got in a bag with those collars are just fine even though they're the same age.

Guess I'll pick up some of the black and white ones along with some skirts.

I have a zip lock bag of skirts that lives in the boat (year round in the tx heat).... these were bought at costal tackle in '96 and are still like new. (bought a 'lot' of 50 in the same color)  I replace the ones on baits every other year but the bagged ones never seem to change from new.

Oh yeah, the black bands on jigs fail just as much for me, about every other year.   :-/

you guys may allready have your own way of doing this but i thought i would share it anyway.

easier way to get all those stands back in the collar.

get an ordinary writing pen (fatter the pen the better) remove the guts.

place the new band on the outside.

get your strands together.

slide them inside the pen.

pull the band off the pen onto the skirt.

works for me just thought i would share

you guys may allready have your own way of doing this but i thought i would share it anyway.

easier way to get all those stands back in the collar.

get an ordinary writing pen (fatter the pen the better) remove the guts.

place the new band on the outside.

get your strands together.

slide them inside the pen.

pull the band off the pen onto the skirt.

works for me just thought i would share

How to make skirts out of loose strands=lay all the strands together lining up one end, pinch all the strands together then wrap them with masking tape, wrap one end in masking tape to a point and you will be able to roll a new collar on without any tools. This is not the fastest way but it works and requires no tools other than about 6" of masking tape.

Allen

well I got an update. I would bet from the dry rotting. I poured some jigheads over the weekend and used a collar as a lead stop. Never melted the amber collar 700+ degrees. So I guess its more from dry rotting then anything.