Line tie and circuit board diving lips

[Lurenerd]

When making deep diving balsa lures for largemouth bass fishing, and using circuit board diving lips, what is the best size wire to make the line tie?  I'm using .35 stainless wire to make the line tie, drilling a hole thru the lip then bending and inserting the line tie thru the hole and cutting  the tag end  off at the edge of the diving lip.  I insert the bill and tag end of the tie wire into the lure lip slot and use D2T or Etex to glue it in place.  It's pretty difficult getting the loop in the wire and getting a straight bend that can be tuned if needed....maybe the wire is too heavy??  Any info on how to do this better is appreciated.

[mark poulson]

When I'm putting a line tie into the lip of a crank bait, I do the same thing you do, but I hold the line tie in position by wedging it up from the lip with a piece of toothpick or wood, so it doesn't move while my epoxy is setting.

I use the soft sst wire that Bob P recommended.  Anything with a temper is too hard for me to work with.

 

[All Eyes]

.35 is what I use, but I drill two holes in the lip and shape the wire before inserting it thru. Trying to get a proper bend with the lip attached is a pain in the butt. Here is what my wire basically looks like before installing it.  It takes a bit of manipulation to push through at the bends, but I do this with both polycarbonate and circuitboard lips.  Both tag ends go into one hole in the bait body, which  force the wire tightly together and also acts as a bit of resistance against pulling out.  

Edited January 17, 2017 by All Eyes

[mark poulson]

2 hours ago, All Eyes said:

.35 is what I use, but I drill two holes in the lip and shape the wire before inserting it thru. Trying to get a proper bend with the lip attached is a pain in the butt. Here is what my wire basically looks like before installing it.  It takes a bit of manipulation to push through at the bends, but I do this with both polycarbonate and circuitboard lips.  Both tag ends go into one hole in the bait body, which  force the wire tightly together and also acts as a bit of resistance against pulling out.  

 

That looks great!

[Lurenerd]

Appreciate the response All Eyes.  The line tie in the photo looks great.

[All Eyes]

3 hours ago, Lurenerd said:

Appreciate the response All Eyes.  The line tie in the photo looks great.

Hope it helps. Here is what the end result looks like.  I like to drill the hole for the line tie before cutting the lip slot.  Too hard to drill that close to the slot without blowing it out. 

My line ties are usually longer than the one shown in the picture. I also like to put a slight bend at the very ends of them to grab a bit better. 

 

Edited January 21, 2017 by All Eyes

[BobP]

Great looking bait, All Eyes.  I do mine differently, using soft temper .041" stainless wire.  I twist the line tie shanks into a screw eye shape, drill a single hole in the lip, bend the eye 90 degrees taking into account the thickness of the lip, then force it through the hole with the shank long enough to fit into a slot in the nose of the bait just below the lip slot.  As an optional reinforcement, you can also cut a slot in the back of the lip and bend the shank of the line tie back over the top of the lip and crimp it down.  This is all with soft temper stainless wire.  Hard temper wire makes it much harder to do accurately.  

Any method works as long as you end up with a line tie that is anchored strongly enough that it will not move during use.  I like the soft temper wire because it makes the bait easy to tune and is easier to shape by hand.

[RayburnGuy]

There are a lot of different ways to skin a cat. Below is a picture of how I do my line ties. I do a haywire twist in the wire where it shows under the lip because I think it is more uniform and is more appealing to the eye. Where the tie fits into the lure I use a barrel twist because in tests I've done it has more bite than the haywire twist which results in a stronger joint.

Like Bob, I drill one tight hole in the lip that is just large enough that the line tie can be threaded through the hole. After the lip and line tie are installed as a unit, and the epoxy has cured, I come back and epoxy the exposed part of the line tie to the underside of the lip. This will help stiffen the lip and make the joint even stronger. To epoxy the line tie to the lip I lay down strips of painters tape before applying the epoxy. This way you can move the epoxy around so it gets under the line tie and is uniform in height and width. Once the epoxy is leveled out the painters tape is removed before allowing the epoxy to cure.

Ben

 

 

[All Eyes]

TY! Good stuff guys. I have used the twisted wire method on a limited basis in the past, and went back to the way I learned from the start. Like Rayburn Guy said, there are a lot of different ways to skin a cat. Any tunable line tie that's durable and lets the bait move freely is a good one in my book. After that it's just personal preference. 

I also drill a small hole thru the back of the lip and rough up the material to help the epoxy bond to it. My line tie hole and lip slot are drilled and cut on the small side, so that it takes a bit of pressure to fit them into place.  I use 2 ton epoxy, and shove a lot of it into the hole with a piece of wire before installing them. After testing on some mock ups to the breaking point, I am positive that no fish out there is going to pull the lips out. Especially before the line snaps or the hooks fail.  That epoxy is no joke. 

Edited January 21, 2017 by All Eyes