Attaching a balloon

[Roy Pride]

Hi L,

Best fishing show on TV. I was wondering how you attached the balloon to your line in a recent show.

It got me to thinking on the ideal of how to use the balloon to float a crab without stress-ing the line. After using different scenarios I came up with a rig that is in no way going to put a knot or kink in a line and will still give the set up the intregity of the leader to line as if there was no balloon attached.

I used the typical Bimini to 3 turn nail knot but when I attached the leader to the Bimini I left about a foot of excess on the 3 turn nail knot side. After cinching everything in place I then made a loop knot on the Extended portion with about a quarter size loop at the end of 4 or 5 inches of the leader. This way the balloon attached to the loop just has no effect on the overall set up as it is just tightening the nail knot . How did you attach the balloon as I couldn't tell on the show?

R

[dahlberg]

Hi R,
All I do is stretch the neck of the balloon and do a double or triple overhand knot around the line. If I'm doing alot of "adjusting" I sometimes tie a piece of waxed floss around the line using a nail (uni) knot and tie it to the balloon.
I punch a tiny hole in the horn of the crab with a needle or hook and use copper wire or floss to secure it to the hook. Crab stays on better than if you jab the barb through the shell which creates a slightly larger hole than the needle.
Good luck!
L