Are line-aligners worth the effort?
Do you think it’s worth going to the extra effort of creating a line-aligner instead of just curving your shrink tubing? Warren, via e-mail
Lewis Read says: “In a word, YES! The line-aligner offers a much more exact means of controlling the position that the hooklink exits the tubing and as such you can really fine tune the way in which the hook turns as the hooklink tightens and draws the hook back towards the fish’s bottom lip.
“It’s not only the smaller hole that the hooklink passes through that is of such great benefit in this arrangement, but also the angle at which it exits the side wall of the tubing – normally perpendicular to the angle of the tube.
“To create a similar angle with just a bit of shrink tube the kicker would be longer and would inevitably end the up reducing the working gape of the hook – so you would gain a lot in the mechanical turning effect on the hook, but lose a little of the advantage due to the masking of the gape.
“In fact, the line-aligner is more effective as it achieves everything a piece of angled shrink tube does when set as a kicker, but is smaller and neater!
Incidentally, I have always found that the line-aligner works brilliantly with either Supa-Shrink tubing or thick-walled 0.5mm silicon tubing (labelled XT Silicon Tube in our Covert range). Try it and see for yourself.”
