Making / rebuilding worn harness'

[Hoytman86]

Nail polish works, just not as full coverage/tint as paint and holds pretty good. If the walleye are hitting the spoon it's self, they can chip/tear the polish off. I use nail polish to tint more than cover. Because of my wife , I have found the Sally Hanson's hard as nails lasts longer and has some great colors, purples, pinks, oranges etc.

Mmmhmm, it was the "wife" that tipped you off, huh? Just joshin' ya. All good information. Now that I think about it, that stuff doesn't spread very thick at all. Maybe I'll get Dad to get some touch up paint from work (service manager at a car dealership), has anyone ever tried that? I'm pretty sure it spreads thicker than nail polish, just more expensive and less color options.

[DoubleD]

I bought mine at Walgreens for about $2 /bottle. I have not had them in the water but they look great. I paint them up similar to the store bought ones, leaving the backs the color of the metal. I have found that gasoline (and most likely polish remover) removes it so if they chip I will just RE pain them. Make sure you buy some beer when you buy the polish so you don't look too eh hem, "feminine" buying a dozen bottles of nail polish. LOL. I have some lowes spray paint that I have used as a base color on some but I don't really know if that is necessary.

[Hoytman86]

I guess I'll have to send in the wife because beer is too expensive at Walgreens down here, about a $2 markup. Of course, it's not going to look much better when I say "Hey honey, can we go buy some nail polish?" I might have to steal some of my daughter's, she got some of that glittery stuff for Easter, might make for a nice-lookin spoon.

[DoubleD]

Ebijack, what are those crimps you have between the first hook and the spoon? Earlier dialogue says to have the first hook as close as possible to the spoon and as I am trying to hand tie traditional knots, I am learning that it is not that easy to get that first hook close to the spoon. Tying a palomar knot w 17 p test is getting me over an inch away at best after 5 tries. Thx.

[Hoytman86]

Ebijack, what are those crimps you have between the first hook and the spoon? Earlier dialogue says to have the first hook as close as possible to the spoon and as I am trying to hand tie traditional knots, I am learning that it is not that easy to get that first hook close to the spoon. Tying a palomar knot w 17 p test is getting me over an inch away at best after 5 tries. Thx.

I have been looking into that as well. I thought about tying the standard knot that you'd use to tie a crankbait, but that's not always reliable on a split ring. I considered a perfection knot and palomar, again with little luck (perfection knot because I'm worried about wearing it out trying to slide it through the split ring). I am just having trouble finding the right size crimp to use as well as I'm worried about crimping too tight to the mono and shearing through it just enough that a fish can break it off.

[Hoytman86]

Managed to get the perfection knot really small and close. Shortened it up to less than an inch by starting it holding the eye of the hook and making each loop progressively smaller, starting with a 1/2" loop. To get it into the split ring without tearing up the line, I split the ring with wire cutters, put the tip of a hook into the open ring, slid the loop up to the hook and walked it around. Trying to embed a photo, but I haven't done it before.

Now I just need my Cat-Dog spoon to go with it.

Attachment 998

[ebijack]

O.K. I took a photo of the Mason plastic crimps I use. $4.00 for 100 sleeves. I make up spoon harnesses out on the water if I need. I always have crimpers in the boat just cause ya never know when your going to need to fix some wiring. And a image of the bumble bee blades. I've never had a problem with the crimp breaking the mono.