15" bulb squid Spreader bar

[TimW Texas]

I have been working on some larger bars. Mostly I do 12" down recently I was asked to do larger Squid 15" look at my work and tell me what I can do better
36" spreader bar almost 9' long
The wings are 180.lb leader
The 15" squids have the biggest floats I have in them. 3 "
main line 300 lb. double crimped at all ends and burned tags,stainless steel thimbles loop protectors
11/0 4 X stainless steel hook
4 oz lead in the stinger or chase bait
500 lb ball bearing coastlock snap swivel

[Ace1st]

Looks good! Only thing Id do different is put some chaffing proof on the piece between hook and weight. A piece of clear plastic hose pipe is what i use.

[hotreels jr]

I build my stingers with two crimps with a twist in between for chaffing protection/spacing.

[rabcoman]

looking good

[TimW Texas]

Thanks guys being an ex commercial fisherman from the left coast, there is one thing that I have seen and that is terminal tackle failure. Even though on these bars there is 2 barrel swivels as per the pic. I do believe, I would run my line directly to my thimble and eliminate that chink right there. I got a PIC yesterday from a Capt. that had a Monster, Blue fin grant you. We do not have anything that big on the west coast but I sure has hell would not trust those barrel swivels with that kind of fish. When I see pics like that wow

[gradyfish265]

The rigging looks excellent!! I am not a fan of bars that are run off swivels in the middle. I like spring steel bars for my smaller squids in the 6"-9" range, and more expensive high end titanium bars for my bigger squids. I too feel the swivels will not handle large fish, they are typically 100 or 150lb swivels, so even having a 300lb mainline, the swivel is the weak link, and could mean a whole lost bar. I run bars that allow the main line to run through it, the main line is crimped in place so you fight the main line and the fish, not the bar itself, it does effect the action a little from what I've seen. There are plenty of simple bars out there where they bend the bar and include no swivels, honestly swivels are pointless tackle on a bar, the squids on the wing do not need them, they will not twist when being pulled, and the main line you rig with a snap swivel off the rods mainline, if the fish does circles that will take care of line twists. A lot of my bars have a 250-300lb bb snap swivel hidden in a squid to allow me to change out my last stinger squid, or to attach a different lure as my stinger. I like this on my smaller bars, it allows me to have extra stinger squids rigged, as soon as a fish hits the deck unsnap it and put a new one on...your fishing in seconds. This gives you time to unhook your fish and if the stinger needs rerigging due to chafing you have time to do so while your bars back in fishing. On bigger bars like your planning to rig, I avoid that step, I feel simple is better, the less that can go wrong the better. I will be rigging some 13 and 15" bars for bigger bft and bigeyes in the next few weeks, if I remember I'll post some pictures as well.