Larry,
I'm sorry I missed you at ICAST. Maybe next year...
Quick question for ya: I've just returned to using 1 oz Kastmasters for fishing the surf (I sorta accidently rediscovered them when I say an old gentleman catching redfish after redfish out of the surf with them when live and cut bait just weren't working). I've been trying to rig them with swivels to mitigate line twist. I want to keep the swivel as close to the spoon's eye as possible and then splice a leader to my braid, mainly because the edges of the spoon are sharp enough to cut a line knot and I don't trust snaps. The problem? I can't seem to get a split ring on the spoon because of the position of the eye in relation to the tip of the spoon (it's punched too far from the tip to accommodate sliding on a split ring).
Do you think twisting on a very short length of #80 coffee-colored wire to the spoon and then twisting on the swivel to the other end do the trick? I figure I can keep the length shorter than 3 inches, it may not be too long to hamper the spoon's action.
Cal Gonzales