Step Two Eyelet Formation

Step Two: Step two is the much harder part because it requires manual strength with precision dexterity. It is an art to form them correctly. The goal is to get an eyelet round with end tangents directly centered to the wire. This allows it to run smooth in the water.

Tips to making the eyelet:

• It is easier to bend the wire closer to the “Stalk” wire if the piece you are bending to it is longer and you are bending from a distance where you are holding the pliers that is farther away from the eyelet, more leverage is created this way to form a tighter wrap to the wire.

• Don’t forget to put the hook on the bottom eyelet before you close it with a wrap of 1 ½ to 2 turns.

• Use one of those bull nose snipping pliers to snip the end. If there is still a bit sticking out bend it to the “axis” using two pliers and a fixation point method.

• Start by straightening your wire with a few friction strokes of your fingers, but don’t run them off the sharp tip end or you will cut yourself. The ends of cut wire are of spade or hoe formations. A more appropriate analogy is they look the front of a hammerhead shark.

• Don’t cut the wire too soon and start with more than you need or you risk a blade that won’t turn because the axle on the front of the spinner is destabilized from balance by hydroscopic force. You need some length in front of your spinner to balance it and resist this force. The principal here is similar to the woodworking principal measure once and cut twice except it’s more of a measured guess.

• More on bending the eyelet. When I first started making these 30 years ago I put a large framing nail in the vise and bent the wire around it to form the round part of the loop, while holding the two ends with vise grip pliers. Then to center the loop to the wire body you must put a slight bend in the other direction where the wire is to be wrapped around above it. Today I have bought a pair of needle nose pliers with round tips and they allow me to form these eyelets better. I wouldn’t want to go back to the nail in the vise method.

• On one of these lures above the spinner blade I have placed a crimping sleeve to keep the blade orientated to the back of the lure during casting and so that when it hits the waters it starts spinning faster because it does not have to take up the slack in the wire. I have not tried it yet and it might go through some variations and I have never seen this done before.

These lures are much simpler to make than a Buck tail lure and will provide you with the basic skills necessary before trying to do the same with the added complexity of using Buck tail or synthetic hair on the lure. They are harder to work with. The addition of hair might mean a few nicks, scrapes and bleeding cuts to your fingers as the hairs hide the sharp tips of the hooks. “The fish are said to respect this.” J

Copyright 2010 Thomas Paul Murphy