Hi all,
Bill emailed me and asked me how the tail wraps were done, so I thought I'd post what I know here so you all get it.
We don't make the lures, and the guy who does has no interest in telling others how to do it! - so there's a better pic further down and you can maybe pick up a bit from it.
The wire is done through a hole drilled the length of the lure (not slotted in - GTs rip them out on lures made that way), and the centre swivel/hook hanger is on that. At the nose, on poppers the wire twist is pulled into the hole, and on stickbaits into a small lead plug.
The finish is done at the tail end. Both poppers and stickbaits get what is effectively a round sinker, half cupped into the body and half domed out. It's big on the poppers, not so big on the stickbaits. The wire is pulled back so that the nose twists are buried nice and clean, and then it's twisted at the tail - and here's the trade secret bit - in a way that ends up so tight and neat I have no idea how it is achieved.
On some lures of this style the tail twist is also brazed, or soldered or welded, but that's not necessary provided heavy enough wire is used in the first place.
The swivel on the tail of the stickbait is to accommodate a single hook. I prefer SJ-41TGs to Jobus. That rigging shown earlier, the way Nomad do it, is an all-metal arrangement because they're often trolling these stickbaits in wahoo country, and sharks and dogtooth can cause grief too. However if you're not in toothy critter country, I much prefer the single-hook rigging shown at the link in a later post (the site won't let an absolute newbie post links - fair enough); that gives great flexibility and negates the need for two hooks on the belly. The two-hook thing works fine but if you're fishing catch-and-release, it can be hard to get out those two singles without getting hooked yourself.
I still fish trebles a lot on them anyway, but always barbless... anyway that's getting off the subject line.
I hope that's some help. Now I'll go and explore the rest of this cool board... |