Jeff Hahn

I have tried rigging the blade in a downward position by putting the snap on the back of the blade. I thought it might make the bait dive...wrong! The bait had no action...just rolled in circles.

I always bake anything that I powder paint. Smalljaw gave you all the good reasons to do so. I bake mind at 350 for 15 minutes. I would advise you to place an old cookie sheet under the heads just in case you got too much powder paint on a few and it drips off during the time in the overn.

Well, I was able to salvage a few baits that would not hunt. I took a tiny bit of the bend out of the blade and now they hunt. I'm not certain that this fix will work on all my baits that won't hunt. But, I'm going to give it a try.

I have also noticed a thin trailer makes the bait more likely to hunt. I want to be able to get the bait to hunt on a constant retrieve...which about 1 in 5 will do with a thin trailer. (I prefer the old Burke trailer, but the Zoom Spinnerbait Trailer is OK, too.) The original RAD Chatterbaits would consistently hunt. But, the Z-Man baits do so far less often. I've played around with the size of the blade, a little with the shape, and with the size and diamater of the eye that the blade attaches to. I use a Do-It Sparkie mold, so it has the regular eye style, rather than a flat eye. So, I haven't played around with the split ring to the blade design yet.

Yes, darting offerratically to one side and then back to center that is what Rick CLunn has called "hunting" and it's a highly valued trait in a crankbait. Some bladed jigs will do the same thing and I am trying to figure out exactly what factor controls this. But, since a bladed jig uses a snap, rather than a fixed eye like a crankbait, I don't know that bending the snap will have any effect. But, I will give it a try and see.

For what it's worth, I have continued to play with my vibrating jigs and the blade modifications and for the life of me I can't figure out what makes one hunt and others just vibrate straight back. As best I can tell, about 1 out of 5 will hunt, for whatever reason. I guess that I just need to make more than I need, so that I end up with enough that hunt.

That looks exactly like the Figure 8 link that I used on my bladed jigs. Those are the nuts!

I bend my blades using an old trailer hitch ball that I secure in my vice. I use a small hammer to apply the force necessary. I start about 1/4 inch down from the tip of the blade and as I hit the blade I pull it downward along the bend of the trailer ball. This bends the blade in a tapered fashion and also adds a little cup to it.

Dave: I don't have the capacity to shoot any video. I can post a pic tomorrow, if you would like. Do you have a link to your findings on getting a crankbait to hunt? Can I post a pic with only 5 total posts under my belt?

I don't sell them. I just make them for my tournament partner and I, plus a couple friends.

As you can tell by my post count, I'm new around here. Used to hangout on the BFHP a lot and now on BBC. I make a bladed jig and some of them "hunt," veering off to one side and then centering themselves, just like a crankbait that "hunts." The problem I'm having is trying to figure out how to consistently create a bait that hunts. I have played around with bending the blade in various ways, but that hasn't produced consistent reults. I got a few suggestions that I am experimenting. Any additional help you can offer would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

This is also the method I use. The Figure 8 lin from lurepartsonline works pretty well with a 4/0 spinnberbait hook

I use the Figure 8 links that lurepartsonline carries. I use one end as the eye and attach the hook to the other end. You can bend the eye out after molding the jig to attach the blade. I use the medium size. http://lurepartsonline.com/Online-Store/Misc-Hardware/Figure-8-Links.html