If you want to build your own lures, you can't do without a set of decent tools. Amongst those tools you have several good pairs of pliers that you'll need. As you well know, prices vary and the quality isn't always according to the amount of money you spend on them, though some brands are known for their consistent quality. We're not telling you to go out and buy the most expensive tool in the DIY store, because that would be a waste of your money. Our advise is to go out with a lurebuilder and ask him which tools he uses and why he uses a particular tool. Tell him about what you intend to do with these tools. We'll give you a short list of pliers you shouldn't be without.

First of all, a pair of pliers for cutting wire. My favourite is a Knippex wire-cutter which can easely cut wire up to 2mm in diameter. Check for a tool that does this, anything less is not recommended. Because you are mostlikely going to use this a lot for building spinners, spinnerbaits, leaders, through-wire systems, … get the best one available to you. This isn't a tool on which you should try and save some money.

Second of all we have a roundnosed pair of pliers. This tool has two short arms which are round. These are used for bending loops on spinners or on wire-leaders. If you like a nice round wire-eye, use this tool. Other than that, you can use it for loads of things like bending a wire-spring to attach twistertails to jerkbaits or spinners (you screw the tails on the spring), bending coils for bucktails, bending some snaps, line-ties for anti-kink rudders, … Check for a ribbed structure on the inside of the two arms. These provide you with a lot more grip on the wire you are trying to bend. My experience is that they do well for wire up to 1.2mm diameter. Anything thicker is not easy.

Another good tool is a pair of combination-pliers, mainly used for turning in screw-eyes, bending them, bending steel plates when you are building crankbait-lips from aluminum-plates or stainless steel. The arms shouldn't be too wide otherwise you loose your grip on smaller materials.

A good pair of splitring-pliers is a must. Don't get the cheap ones of 4$ or less. I have worn these out fairly quickly. A small splitring isn't a problem but when adding stronger ones, like the Joe Bucher splitrings, they bend when trying to move the splitring along the screw-eyes. You have to bend them back into shape time and time again. They just end up cracking. I suggest you get a decent tool (one that looks like a pair of roundnosed pliers) that is solid and this will save you money in the long run. I must have used about 3 or 4 of these cheap ones.

                                             Finally we have a crimping-tool.



For fixing sleeves on sevenstrand leaders. I would certainly advise you to try them in the shop (ask for permission first of course) because I've bought several ones before I got a decent pair. Often the holes for the various diameters in sleeves are way to big and your cable-wire isn't really fixed at all. I had a pair that didn't even press the sleeve, I could slide it through the opening in that pair of pliers without a problem! I name no brands here because there are so many, often the cheaper ones will do the trick as well, sometimes even better. Try it or ask your fishingbuddy where he got his. I'm not saying that there aren't more tools you can use for lurebuilding, but these are a basic set of pliers you'll need just for just about every lure.