;D When most of your solo trips are with a tandem canoe, you line more than most I guess. ;)

I agree that for lining something closer to the waterline is preferable. I (basically) just wrap the painter around the boat on the down stream end. That leaves a rope on the bottom of the hull but it's tight to it and I'm more comfortable with that than the tippy aspect. For the upstream rope I just use the grab handle. That's the finesse line anyway.

Do those who have tugeye type holes use them as everyday painter locations or just for special situations like lining? Do you revert to the grab handles so you don't have to untie and retie for every portage?

As Preacher already mentioned, a bowline is great when stressed but that ease of untying makes it better suited for temporary situations like actually using the tugeye. It's not a tie it and forget it knot. What I think works better for painter to handle is a fixed loop used as a larks head. Easy on easy off and I find folding causes far less tangles than coiling.

I use my painters a lot. I'd be uncomfortable w/o them. At put-ins I'll at least toss one up on shore so if my boat somehow gets away from me as I'm loading, the rope gives me 20 feet of second chances.