Belly swivel without thru wire?

[Nufo]

I am working on the second Generation of my big 10" trout spooks. I want to do a belly swivel without thru wiring the bait. Can I just drill a hole in the belly and then tack the swivel in with a nail? Figured I'd add some epoxy to help hold the nail.

Mike

[woodieb8]

i would not do that.. do the wire save the dis appointment

[jamie]

Mike dont even try it, you might get away with it, or maybe not. how would you feel If a fish of a lifetime was on and the design fails, or even worse somebody elses fish of a liftime who is throwing your baits. If you are like me I would kick myself for skipping steps.

[mark poulson]

You can make a sst wire loop, bent tight, and thread that through one eye of the swivel.

I use egg sinkers for hook hanger weights, so I would pull the sst wire up through the hole in the egg sinker until the swivel is tight to the sinker. Then I'd bend the wire over in opposite directions at the top of the egg sinker, and cut the tag ends flush with the outside diameter of the sinker. I'd drill a hole the same diameter as the sinker, fill it half way with 5 minute epoxy, and slowly push the sinker in. The epoxy should fill the eye hole in the sinker as you embed the sinker. Watch that the swivel doesn't get filled, too. You might want to experiment with less epoxy first, and keep removing the sinker and adding epoxy until you get it just right. For the first one, 30 minute epoxy will give you more time to experiment.

I know the Triple Trout by 22nd Century has built-in swivels at the hook hangers. The idea is to give the fish less leverage when it shakes it's head and tries to use the weight of the lure to throw the hook.

I haven't tried it yet, so I can't say if it makes a big difference.