[Bass'n'Cast]

What do you use to have eyelets?? i know some use through wire construction but what about everyone else... Little eye screw the kind to hang things?

[BobP]

Some use screw eyes (chromed brass or stainless steel), others use hand wound stainless screw eyes. I go the hand wound route. You can buy screw eyes from Jann's Netcraft, Stamina, and other suppliers.

[Lincoya]

Some of us use stainless steel cotter pins.

Gene

[Bass'n'Cast]

cotter pin that is shortened? how do you get it to hold.

[Lincoya]

I shorten them by folding the legs back on themselves. Then drill the hole large enough to accomodate the extra diameter. The fold will never allow the cotter pin to pull out. BTW, I also use them to make the line tie in the lip.


Gene

[mark poulson]

Gene,
Are you the one who gave me the tip about using egg sinkers with cotter pins through them for hook hangers? If so, thanks again. If not, what can I say? :O)

[diemai]

@ Bass'n'Cast

Here are two pics about homemade wire eyes , took them from magazine essays , that I wrote about two to three years ago(sorry , don't have a scanner/printer) .

I use 1,0mm dia. SST wire for these and glue them in thoroughly with two-component glue .

The coiled ones are a bit finacky to bend with the eye fixed in a vise , but to fix them into the lure is far easier and faster .

Tested these ones for pull out with fishing scales , the scales got spoiled at a pull force of 23 Kilograms (about 50 lbs) and the eyes didn't move out of the wood a single bit !

Greetz , diemai

[Bass'n'Cast]

thanks for the help, i wish i knew german but spanish is currently my second language study... i like the screw idea and the cotter pin idea....hmmm which to chose.

[diemai]

@ Bass'n'Cast

If you should have further questions , feel free to post here or drop a PM , I could give you some more hints about these , especially the working processes .
But why don't you get yourself the screweyes , that BobP mentioned here ? This is the easiest and fastest way to rig your lures .

I had to find this solution about those pictured wire eyelets , since we can hardly get such special lure eyescrews over here in Germany , only very few internet shops carry them recently , ordinary tackleshops not at all !

greetz , diemai

[The Natural]

Being new to the game...I'm here to tell you Gene's idea is where it's at. I found using cotter pins was significantly easier than doing steel wire coiled over on itself (not even doing a through frame). Still much easier. I just finished several baits that are ready for paint, and I used a cotter pin through a tru-tungsten bullet weight for the belly ballast/hanger, and a cotter pin for the tail hanger as well. As Gene said, if you take a pair of pliers and bend the tip of the pin into a barb; it will dig in to the balsa if you try to pull it out. There is no way it's going anywhere. It made what I thought was going to be the more difficult part of the bait construction into a very simple procedure. Thank's Gene