Making Tube Rattles

[LittleMac]

Making Tube Rattles

You will need……….1. a pair of lineman’s (side cutter) pliars
2. a candle
3. some plastic drinking straws (clear or foggy, the fatter ones work best)
4. some “E” Beads (available at Wal Mart Craft Section and other places)
5. a pair of scissors

Cut off about one inch from a straw and place in the sidecutters so that 1/8 inch or less sticks out on the flat side of the cutters when you press down to close the end of the straw. Melt this protruding short end in the candle flame and hold until cool (usually about 5 seconds). Take the straw section and insert two beads…then hold the open end in the pliars with 1/8 or less sticking out of the flat side of the cutters and melt that end shut as well.

After cooling, use your thumbnail crossways on the end of the welded seam and buckle the end of the rattle. Do this to both ends so that the rattle now resembles a little pillow having 4 pointed legs, so to speak. This buckling keeps the beads from wedging in the end of the rattle and gives them a horizontal end against which they can also rattle.

Using the rattles….. I like to first insert a number 5 split shot (round type) into the tube, followed then by inserting and working in the rattle so it snugs against the split shot….I then take my thumb and forefinger and apply pressure between the hind legs of the rattle….this spreads the little points apart and they grab the sides of the tube. I then Texas rig with a 2/0 Gamakatsu Extra Wide Gap Hook and this keeps everything in place.

On gravel bottoms, I like to crimp the shot near the rear of the hook on the outside of the hookshaft under the tube….this way the tube tail flails on the fall and the shot catches and releases on the gravel giving much more action to the lure and activating the rattles inside.

I also experiment with colored straws, usually red…they show up well in a translucent tube such as watermelon and some other colors such as a light smoke.

You can also use a hand held paper punch to put holes behind the weight and slip in a red rattle so the holes line up on the middle of the rattle….adds color and permits the sound to carry better.

[LittleMac]

You can also stuff a tube with the cotton the dentist uses to catch excess fluids in your mouth....cut it in half, soak in scent and place inside the tube even with the punched holes....dispurses scent for a goodly amount of time.