The Slip Crank.... Wigglow

Well this one is a dud... It was a little finicky in the test tank, and worthless at the lake!

Made an adjustment on the next one, and it ran great in the test tank... Photo soon

Really like this out-of-the-box concept of a diving lure sporting this line-thru hook rigging , not very often to be found on lipped hardbaits(except typical salmon plugs) .

 

Have you already swum the second prototype in the outdoors , ...I reckon , that your lure model has to be tuned to track true by bending the line eye on the lip sideward ?

 

Which were the issues about the first lure , .......probably lip size and angle , .....or tow point location  ?

 

Very nice , ....greetings , Dieter

Thanks Dieter!... All my crank baits are built this way, simply because i hate losing them!

Ive had great success with my shallow divers, both with catching fish and retrieving the bait after a snag

I learned a lot from this deep diver project!... I wanted a super tight wiggle, for fishing cold water.. To accomplish this, i spread the ballast along the length of the body (using #5 shotgun pellets).... This bait does exactly what i want at slow speed, but even at medium speed it changes directions and then blows out

My theory is that it was too tail heavy, behaving similar to a topwater lure with the changing of direction

On the next one (green one) i placed all the ballast directly on the CG.... Still has the action i wanted, and is WAY more stable!!!.... Later today i will take it to the lake for the "real world" test

Scratch that... For some reason, after adding another coat of epoxy to the second bait (the green one), its doing the same thing as this bait.. Maybe confirming my theory about weight of the tail

Don't think , that your issues result from the ballast location alone , ...as far , as I can figure out(or better say , imagine)by the picture , the lure has a flat cross section and the kinda usual half-round lip , both of these features do enhance a blow-out , at least at this given lip angle .

 

I've been into experiments about deep diving lures sporting a tighter wiggle for fall season pike as well , and I guess , that I managed to decypher their secrets , ...at least partly , ......it seems to be all about slender and/or pointy lips mounted to a more or less straight and oval cross-sectioned body .

 

Such lips do maintain diving depth quite well , but since being narrower in general and especially at their tips  , they do not let the lure swing around that pronounced , as they do not offer so much plane for the oncoming water pressure to engage to , so this results in a tighter wiggle .

 

Also the oval cross section offers more buoancy at the back portion compared to a flat-sided lure body , that helps to push the lure back upright , once it has kinda "capsized" to one side .

 

I've almost skipped these half-round lips on deep divers for some years now in favour of slender and pointy lips , hardly have issues about blow-outs anymore , ...and the tighter wiggle is just right for fall season pike .

 

Good luck with your outdoor tests , ...greetz , Dieter

I watched your deep diver videos while working on this project... I did try the pointed lip on one of the test pieces, it was easier for me to design the round lip to be symetrical, so i went round instead

The flat body was a failed experiment, though it did work, the margin of error was way too small!... I am in agreement with you now on an ovalized body

These slender baits are far more challenging than the typical round bass crank!.... So im working on one of those now before i redesign the minnow

I must admit , that it's not quite easy to get those lips symetrical , ....through the years I have made a coffee can full of aluminium templates for spoons and spinnerblades , also for a few diving lips .

 

To furnish such templates takes a while due to accurate filework is required , but once finished , they come in pretty much handy .

 

It's not that difficult though , basic tool is a triangle ruler , sharp pencil and an eraser , .......just sketch your lip shape on a piece of paper and draw a straight center line .

 

Naturally your sketch would not be symetrical at this point , so you'd pick the half , that suits you better and utilize the triangle ruler to flip over a couple of the outline points across the center line to the other side , ......best would be , that you would do that at repeating distances marked on the centerline , .....you should erase the bad half before , so that your sketch remains clear .

 

This way you'd get a row of dots on the other side of the centerline , that you would just have to connect with the pencil .

 

Now cut out the sketch and glue it onto a piece of 1,5mm or 2,0mm aluminium sheet , that was previously marked with a straight center line scratched into it with a marker needle down a metal ruler , .......centerlines both on the aluminium and paper must come to lay accurately and absolutely flush .

 

Now cut out the shape with shears and file down the template's shape to the marker line on the glued-on paper template .

 

Once you're happy with it and have the edges filed smooth , also broken the edges a bit , peel off the paper and utilize your triangle ruler again to check for symetry of the aluminium template , .....if required , do some more honing on it's shape .

 

You could use your aluminium template now to make marker lines on sheet metal or polycarbonate alike using either thin permanent felt pens or the marker steel needle .

 

Please check my older video "Making Slim Casting Spoons" on YouTube , ......first pictures there are about making such templates , ...might help you to figure out about my write-up .

 

Really haven't found a better way to make such paper templates yet , ..would surely work on computers , ....but I'm too dumb for such !

 

 

Greetz , Dieter