I have a set of needle nose pliers that came with a couple of places designed for crimping, one small and one larger. Just be sure to use the size sleeve recommended for the wire, as AFW states on theirs. 30# AFW seven strand bare wire uses the #1 sleeve. Crimp, hit once with the wire cutters to put a slightly better grip spot on the wire, and fish it with confidence. Test it with a vice and see if it pulls loose....wire will probably break first and 15# test definitely will break before the crimp does. Most of the life long gulf fishers on here say the figure eight knot holds just fine, and I've tied a bunch of those, too. Coffee color, BTW.