I just made up 50 of those 200# “Bite Leaders” and learned a few things. I decided to do this to sell a few and get a few out of it for myself. I used 200# Seaguar Fluorocarbon, Jinkai Crimp Sleeves and the larger size Magnum Ring and Grommet for the lower end along with a 300# Pit Bull split ring. This hardware offers a relatively bullet proof connection, no “crotch breaks” For the top, I went with some Ocean Cat brand Stainless Steel swivels and switched to Quick Rig Sea Buoy Ball Bearing swivels for this last batch. For chafe protection I used some of the Momoi Chafe Tubing for the first batch and then some of the Catch All Green Chafe Tubing. They came out pretty good and I’m proud of the work. 20 of the first batch sold pretty quickly so I reloaded for the next batch. If anybody needs a picture or source for any of this, shoot me a P.M.
Stuff I learned. Owning a decent set of calipers is vital to what we do. I’m not good about remembering what top shots are on my reels, this solves the problem. Makes it easy to check your top shots and the windons in your tackle bag so you can easily inventory your stuff. Before ordering compatible components for making your leaders, first you need to verify the diameter of the leader material you’re using. Don’t trust the manufacturer’s data and label. I made the mistake of ordering the Jinkai Crimps based on that information and got one size too big. Seaguar label said 1.48 mm, caliper showed 1.4, maybe just a little smaller. I ordered size F @ 1.56 mm and I crimped them as hard as I could and had something like two or three of the first ten just slide out. Next smaller size SG @ 1.28-1.47 mm was perfect. That thing we do, melting the end and mushrooming it works well for pulling everything tight before crimping, but it will slide out. I did the testing with a drag scale, pulling 45-50 pounds. Quality control.
Prepping for the crimp, I found, once things were all in place, it would cinch down best by putting the leader material through the smallest hole in the crimping pliers and pulling it tight. The tag end that has been melted will let you pull pretty hard to make sure there’s no slack.
Stuff I learned. Owning a decent set of calipers is vital to what we do. I’m not good about remembering what top shots are on my reels, this solves the problem. Makes it easy to check your top shots and the windons in your tackle bag so you can easily inventory your stuff. Before ordering compatible components for making your leaders, first you need to verify the diameter of the leader material you’re using. Don’t trust the manufacturer’s data and label. I made the mistake of ordering the Jinkai Crimps based on that information and got one size too big. Seaguar label said 1.48 mm, caliper showed 1.4, maybe just a little smaller. I ordered size F @ 1.56 mm and I crimped them as hard as I could and had something like two or three of the first ten just slide out. Next smaller size SG @ 1.28-1.47 mm was perfect. That thing we do, melting the end and mushrooming it works well for pulling everything tight before crimping, but it will slide out. I did the testing with a drag scale, pulling 45-50 pounds. Quality control.
Prepping for the crimp, I found, once things were all in place, it would cinch down best by putting the leader material through the smallest hole in the crimping pliers and pulling it tight. The tag end that has been melted will let you pull pretty hard to make sure there’s no slack.
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