Musky Baits: Thru Wire Construction

Through Wire or Screw Eyes?

This is one of many questions that need to be answered while preparing for this years Musky Bait Building Bash. Through Wire Construction means, if the bait was shattered by huge a Musky, you would still land the fish because the twisted Through Wire secures the line tie and all the hooks together.
Here is a little history that played part in our decision making.
Frank and I'd met a Canadian resident in Georgian Bay named Blair, who fished primarily with F18 Rapalas because that was all you could purchase in Canada back in 1988.  Blair had a mid 40" class Musky shatter his F18 yet he boated the fish because Rapala F18 balsa wood baits were made with Through Wire Construction.

The reality of most thru wire constructions that I've examined demonstrates some bait makers are using thru wire improperly, and only for the sole purpose of saying the bait has thru wire construction.  I personally see no advantage to thru wire construction with unsecured open tag ends. To me this defeats the whole idea and security of thru wire construction.  The Garage group has been using thru wire construction with twisted tag ends since we started making baits back in 2000. We choose to properly make thru wire secure with twisted ends, or use screw eyes!  Why waste the time if you don't complete the task.  In my mind, the twisted ends of the wire make it,  Solid Thru Wire construction, otherwise it is just wire that can fail.

Don't, take what I am saying the wrong way. There are a lot of great baits and Excellent Lure Builders out there that use this technique without failures. It is a proven application. Thanks "Remey."

My first Muskie was caught on a 6" Crane Bait unmodified, 20lb mono and a spinning reel (with a great drag). It was an unbelievable 30lb 52" fish. The correlation here is, I don't believe Crane uses twisted ends either. Check out the solid thru wire link above and read what Frank was saying about the thru wire process we use.

As we'd posted earlier, last year was our first experience using all screw eye construction. The lure sizes were 5" to 10" rather than the 14" to 18",  and we were looking to expedite the building process. I have used many a bait with screw eyes and to date,  I've never had one come out or break. We used .072 screw eyes. I will say they're OK for five to seven inch baits, but any larger bait, I prefer the .092. The threads of the .072 are minute to say the best and I am not comfortable with how easy I can break them loose. The .092 thread just seems to grab so much better.

Each of these processes has it's advantages and disadvantages. Personally, I need to do what I am comfortable with, good or bad.

Pros of thru wire construction
 A wire line tie is easier to tune than screw eyes.
 Split rings don"t become over sprung.
 With twisted ends, impossible to loose a fish. ( unless they eat your line ) or something else breaks.
 Twisted Thru wire leaves nothing to chance in a bait.
 It's just cool!!

Cons to thru wire construction  
 Thru wire construction adds quite a bit of time to the building process no matter how you do it.
 Thru wire cost more, when you make !0" baits or larger.
 Difficult adding weight once the wires been installed.
 If you have one offs, you are bending wire by hand, no jig.
 Muskie baits need .040 to .051 wire, this can be brutal at times, but much easier than .062

Pros to .092 screw eyes.
 Cost effective.
 Location placement is simple.
 Ideal for adding lead weight to (Jerk Baits, Twitch Baits).
 Time to install is minimal.
 If one does break, you can add another.

Cons to .092 screw eyes.
 They destroy most split rings. (Must use Bucher's or Wolverine's)
 Tuning is one or two attempts, then screw eyes get fatigued.
 Finding quality screw eyes.(most presses leave two indents at the bend in the eye) fatigue, in metal is bad.
 Drill hole, thread screw eye into hole, back screw eye out, add epoxy and then install screw eye. That is 
  my method of installing screw eyes.
 Open eyes are better than closed eye, for constructing jointed baits.

This is intended to give a little insight to one of the many choices we have when building baits. By no means am I trying to bash anybodies work. What works for any one individual is best.

If anyone who uses screw eyes wants to send us a bait to beat up,  please feel free to do so, drop a line and I will give you an address.  Muskie season is getting real close??

Thanks, to Frank on the co-edit..

( Keep it in the water )