Square Bill Crank Problems

[keysd13]

I'm having trouble getting my shallow diving square billed crankbaits to swim correctly. They don't seem to want to dive and wobble no matter the lip angle. I'm placing the line tie in the nose of the bait (like a vintage bagley) and making the baits out of cedar. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Dkeys

[jawjacker]

I'm having trouble getting my shallow diving square billed crankbaits to swim correctly. They don't seem to want to dive and wobble no matter the lip angle. I'm placing the line tie in the nose of the bait (like a vintage bagley) and making the baits out of cedar. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Dkeys

dkeys sounds like a weighting problem do you have any weight in the bottom of the bait for ballast

[A-Mac]

Tried it myself a couple times. My lures failed, didn't wiggle, and I threw them in the reject box. I needed a lure for a tourney and didn't have any made up and took the grinder to the lips, rounded them out, and voilà every lure worked perfect. I don't know how they get square bills to work, but if all else fails grind it and see if it performs.

Good Luck!

[keysd13]

I have a .22 case full of lead in the bottom with the wire hanger going through the middle of it. A friend questioned my placement of the eyelet on the front of the bait. Any thoughts on that? If all else fails I will try to round the baits off a bit. Thanks

[Stringjam]

I have a .22 case full of lead in the bottom with the wire hanger going through the middle of it. A friend questioned my placement of the eyelet on the front of the bait. Any thoughts on that? If all else fails I will try to round the baits off a bit. Thanks

A picture would help....if your lip is too far away from the line tie, that can cause the problem.

Placing the line tie right on the lip gives you the widest action. As you raise the line-tie's position away from the lip, the action will tighten, and the higher you go, the tighter it gets. If you raise it too high, though, you'll drop the action completely.

Very small movements of the line-tie position have a large effect on the action.

[jawjacker]

could also be the length of the lip having some effect on the action also a pic really would help out in this case

[keysd13]

Stringjam, I think you may be right. I'm going to move some line ties today and if that doesn't work I'll post some pics. Thanks for the help guys.

[benton B]

With my square lipped baits the line tie cannot be higher than a 1/8 inch off the lip. If it is the bait just pulls straight thru water with no wobble. I prefer to set my line tie right on top of the lip or in the lip.

[rbredefe]

With this particular problem a picture is worth a thousand words. However, I love reading the input from fellow members. Thank you to every one.

[keysd13]

Problems solved thanks to everyones help. The line tie was to high in the bait. I also increased the amount of weight in the belly area to make the bait bite better. This is my first bait with wire in the middle for the hangers and it swims awesome. Thanks to everyone for their help. Dkeys

[A-Mac]

Problems solved thanks to everyones help. The line tie was to high in the bait. I also increased the amount of weight in the belly area to make the bait bite better. This is my first bait with wire in the middle for the hangers and it swims awesome. Thanks to everyone for their help. Dkeys

Whadoyaknow, it seems I learned why mine didn't work too. According to the specs, my line tie must be too high on mine as well. Good thread, glad you got them to work out.