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| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [30 messages per page] Muskie Fishing -> Lures,Tackle, and Equipment -> Building a Glider Leader, and repairing a Bucktail wire! Rob “The Nightmare” Peterson |
sworrall |
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Posts: 32930 Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Building the Ultimate Glider Leader and Re-Shafting Bucktails By: Rob “The Nightmare” Peterson Building your own leaders is fun, easy, saves you money, and gives you something to do during the off season. Here is how to build them, with my own special twist: Here is what you will need for supplies: A coil of wire, Electrician’s Looping Pliers (they must have round jaws, do not use a pair of Needle Nose Pliers), Wire Cutters, a small locking Pliers, Heat Shrink Tubing, a Lighter, and a Swivel and a snap. As far as wire and hardware go, I tend to downsize, because some Gliders that I throw are fussy as to how much weight you put in front of them. Use whatever you feel confident in. A cheap source of wire is old Piano wire. First, determine how long you want your leader, then cut a piece of wire 4” longer. Grasp the wire 2” from one end about half way down the jaws of your Looping Pliers. Take the long end, and bend it at a 45 degree angle. Next, clamp your locking pliers to the tag end, with the wire still in the Looping Pliers, and make a loop. Remove the Looping Pliers and Locking Pliers, and thread either your snap, or swivel into the loop. Clamp your Locking Pliers back down to the tag end, and put your Looping Pliers back into the loop. Now, start wrapping the tag end around the main wire, keeping the wraps tight to the wire and to each other. Continue to do so until your locking pliers is tight to the main wire. Twist your Locking Pliers Clockwise until the tag end snaps off. If you have trouble at this, unlock your pliers, tighten them up some, and re-attatch. Now, slide on two- 1” pieces of heat shrink tubing onto the main wire, and repeat all of the above steps on the opposite end of the wire. Once finished, snug one of the pieces of heat shrink up onto your snap, the other up on your swivel, and heat them up. The reason why I use the heat shrink on my leaders is this: When you have a glider with a lot of swing, it is frustrating when your glider fouls on the leader. By using the heat shrink, I cut the amount of pivot points from four, down to two, thereby reducing the chance of fouling by 50%, without taking any action away from the glider. Don’t you hate it when your favorite bucktail gets bent up by a hammer handle? The same principles can be applied to re-shafting your bucktails, provided the hair was not tied directly to the shaft. One thing I like to do is to make my shafts longer than the original, and to put a “Z” bend in the shaft. This keeps the hook further back behind the hair, for those fish that like to nip at the back of your bucktail while following it in. I hope that I have given you some new knowledge, and something to do while you are waiting for that opening day that never seems to get here. All this will take practice, and you are going to screw up several leaders before you make a good one. Have fun, and see you on the water! Attachments ----------------  image001.jpg (40KB - 274 downloads) image003.jpg (23KB - 270 downloads) image005.jpg (47KB - 277 downloads) image007.jpg (36KB - 278 downloads) image009.jpg (38KB - 253 downloads) image011.jpg (32KB - 277 downloads) image013.jpg (27KB - 256 downloads) image015.jpg (30KB - 270 downloads) | ||
| muskie! nut |
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Posts: 2894 Location: Yahara River Chain | Very good Sir. Like Rob sez "Twist your Locking Pliers Clockwise until the tag end snaps off. If you have trouble at this, unlock your pliers, tighten them up some, and re-attatch." This makes it very clean and smooth at the end of a wrap. This aids in not having your line contacting the sharp edge of a cut tag end and it also prevents your hands from getting cut when you remove weeds off a leader if you don't place the shrink tubing on the leader. If you are having problems with gripping the wire to break the tag end, place a 90 degree bend in the tag end about 1/4" from the shaft (see 1st photo) and regrip your pliers close to the shaft to twist and break the tag end off (2nd photo). I also have this availible in pdf format and can email it to you. Email me at [email protected] Edited by muskie! nut 1/26/2007 3:29 PM Attachments ---------------- leader pics 002.jpg (5KB - 253 downloads) leader pics 003.jpg (17KB - 278 downloads) | ||
| A-ROZ |
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| muskynightmare |
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Posts: 2112 Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | |||
| muskie! nut |
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Posts: 2894 Location: Yahara River Chain | |||
| Bayboo_baits |
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Posts: 129 Location: Milwaukee Wi | |||
| Dan |
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| nutty4muskies |
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| djwilliams |
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| muskynightmare |
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Posts: 2112 Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | |||
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