mark poulson Posted October 10, 2014 Report Share Posted October 10, 2014 Mark, that is where it broke. I can see both wires inside the crimp sleeve. Actually, I had hung it on some rocks and when I got it back, the T-wire was bent . A hard bend right at the crimp sleeve. when I tried to straighten it, it broke. John Maybe leaving a longer "tag end" on your wire, so the crimp is a little farther from the R bend, might help by leaving more wire to act like a spring. I've found I can open larger tempered hooks so the point is up from the centerline of the eye if I hold them just behind the eye, and just behind the barb, and gently pull them open. It spreads the bend over the entire hook wire, instead of just at the straight to bend transition. Maybe that will help spread the load and keep the wire from breaking when you try to straighten it back out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBlaze Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 Bob, thanks for the link. That would definitely solve the problem of the wire pulling out of the crimp sleeve. I have thought of another way that might work and will give it a try first.. Mark, the bend in the blade arm is spread over the whole length of the wire. I can actually bend the wire into a complete circle smaller than a dime and when released, it will snap back to its original straight form. If I bend it back over itself using a hard edge, it will retain that bend/angle and will break when I try to straighten it. I think what happened to this one when I got it hung in the rocks, was that the blade arm some how got bent back over the hard edge of the crimp sleeve and this left it at a weird angle which broke when I tried to straighten it. Will give the .020 wire a try maybe it will not bend so easily but maybe it will also not vibrate so well either. The lesser of two evils huh. :-). John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 (edited) Bob, thanks for the link. That would definitely solve the problem of the wire pulling out of the crimp sleeve. I have thought of another way that might work and will give it a try first.. Mark, the bend in the blade arm is spread over the whole length of the wire. I can actually bend the wire into a complete circle smaller than a dime and when released, it will snap back to its original straight form. If I bend it back over itself using a hard edge, it will retain that bend/angle and will break when I try to straighten it. I think what happened to this one when I got it hung in the rocks, was that the blade arm some how got bent back over the hard edge of the crimp sleeve and this left it at a weird angle which broke when I tried to straighten it. Will give the .020 wire a try maybe it will not bend so easily but maybe it will also not vibrate so well either. The lesser of two evils huh. :-). John Your probably right about the "hard edge" John. It would seem, to my way of thinking anyway, that the hard edge would definitely concentrate the bending force into a very small area which would result in metal fatigue and stress fractures. No doubt you will figure something out and if you don't it won't be for the lack of trying. good luck, Ben Edited October 12, 2014 by RayburnGuy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBlaze Posted October 12, 2014 Report Share Posted October 12, 2014 Thanks Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBlaze Posted October 20, 2014 Report Share Posted October 20, 2014 Update on the "Flex Arm Spinnerbait" I think I have the problem solved on the T-wire arm pulling out of the crimp sleeve. I cut the grooves on the front and back of the main wire instead of side to side. I forgot to take a picture of this before I put them together so I drew this diagram to show it. As far as the wire bending down over the crimp sleeve and breaking, I put a drop of epoxy on top of the sleeve which made a small cone surrounding the wire and protecting it from the hard edge of the crimp sleeve. Hopefully, this will work. If you look closely at the second picture, you can see the epoxy cone against the white post. I also made a couple of them with the .026 100lb. test T-wire. Don't know how it will vibrate as it is much stiffer that the .016 and a lot less stiff than the main wire. Have a tournament Wednesday, will let you know if these changes make it more durable and if the .026 vibrates or not. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBlaze Posted October 24, 2014 Report Share Posted October 24, 2014 well, I threw the bait for about three hours and finally caught one little small mouth bass. It was a mean and feisty one, might have weighed a pound at the most. He beat my spinner bait up pretty badly. after I got him unhooked, I noticed that the T-wire was doubled up on itself and my line was wrapped around it about three, maybe four times. After getting it untangled, the T-wire sprung right back to its original shape and seemed to be just fine. We had a cold front blow through the night before and my fish were just not there, I finally managed to catch two for about four pounds on a jerk bait. never did try the one with the .026 wire. But after the way this mean little monster treated the spinner bait, I am going to say problem solved. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robalo01 Posted October 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 (edited) Is it a fact that a more flexible arm will create more vibration? I think a flexible arm would swing more, but would actually absorb the vibration. If the objective is to transmit vibration in the water, a stiffer arm would be more suited for that IMHO. So, to illustrate, if your hold a vibrating sander with a really loose grip, it will move around a lot, but you won't feel the vibration much through your arm. If you hold it really tight, it will move around less, but you will actually feel it a lot more. Or, an old 70's fiber glass fishing pole sure bounces around a lot, but you don't you really can't read the bottom structure when you drag a worm on the bottom of the lake. On the other hand, a stiffer, lighter graphite rod, doesn't bounce around much, but is excellent at allowing you to feel the gravel, grass, mud, etc on the bottom. If you agree with this theory, then the best way to increase vibration would probably be to play around with the source or motor of the vibration to modify the volume and frequency. Go with stiff wire, but seek out new blade designs or configuration. Edited October 26, 2014 by robalo01 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBlaze Posted October 26, 2014 Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 Is it a fact that a more flexible arm will create more vibration? I think a flexible arm would swing more, but would actually absorb the vibration. If the objective is to transmit vibration in the water, a stiffer arm would be more suited for that IMHO. So, to illustrate, if your hold a vibrating sander with a really loose grip, it will move around a lot, but you won't feel the vibration much through your arm. If you hold it really tight, it will move around less, but you will actually feel it a lot more. Or, an old 70's fiber glass fishing pole sure bounces around a lot, but you don't you really can't read the bottom structure when you drag a worm on the bottom of the lake. On the other hand, a stiffer, lighter graphite rod, doesn't bounce around much, but is excellent at allowing you to feel the gravel, grass, mud, etc on the bottom. If you agree with this theory, then the best way to increase vibration would probably be to play around with the source or motor of the vibration to modify the volume and frequency. Go with stiff wire, but seek out new blade designs or configuration. robalo01, I was intrigued by this thread that you started and hope that I have not stolen it. A couple of the posts really got me to thinking about it and I just wanted to see for myself. My conclusions may differ somewhat from yours and are not based on any type of scientific evidence. Just gut instinct and what I have observed for the past couple of weeks. I hope that I have not offended you and I thank you for starting this thread. It has in my opinion given me a better bait. John I honestly can't answer this question. I will agree with you that the less stiff and more flexible wire does swing more. Actually. watching it in the water as I pull it beside the boat, it actually looks like the middle section of the wire between the head and the blade is oscillating back and forth at a very fast pace/frequency. Is this transmitting more vibes to the water? Is it putting out vibes that a fleeing minnow might make? Again, I don't know. I do know that three trips to the lake with it, I have caught bass on it. Only one on the last trip but the first two trips, It caught more and bigger bass than I normally catch. I'm no rocket scientist but field testing as of now makes me think it is a better bait Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
