How To Balance Hardbait/jerkbait?

[Dziadzia]

I love to understand how to balance a hardbait... How many piece of weight do you mount into hardbait and what is the most important considerations to keep in mind placing weight ? Again, just my thought – to use only one at the lowest point of blank? ...What about to consider mass centre of hardbait? I have heard that placement around the mass centre gives nice action – like shaking than moving or like shaking than sinking... Thank you in advance. Ed

[rjbass]

Plenty of info on the seach section......try experimenting, trial and error, that's how you learn.

I love to understand how to balance a hardbait... How many piece of weight do you mount into hardbait and what is the most important considerations to keep in mind placing weight ? Again, just my thought – to use only one at the lowest point of blank? ...What about to consider mass centre of hardbait? I have heard that placement around the mass centre gives nice action – like shaking than moving or like shaking than sinking... Thank you in advance. Ed

Edited February 16, 2011 by rjbass

[dtrs5kprs]

On most baits (especially if light wood like balsa) you need some weight near the front hook hanger, usually in thru the belly. Helps the bait ride correctly, may add to the side to side action. Trick is figuring how much and where...in front of hanger, behind hanger, attached to wire of hanger...

Other baits will need additional weights...farther back along the belly for level float, tail if you want a nose up topwater, forward if you want a nose down diver (like a deep crankbait). Again, very general rules to start with.

[Vodkaman]

It really all depends on the type of lure that you are attempting.

I do mainly lipped cranks and like to have the lead in one place, around the centre of gravity (CoG). I find the approximate position by balancing the blank body across a 1/8" drill bit or something close to hand. No need to make a big deal over this, as the rear hook will pull the position aft and the lip will pull it forward. Keep the lead in the lower half of the body, but don't be afraid to experiment.

I don't do gliders and jerk baits, but they require a totally different ballast strategy and I will leave that to the experienced builders. The best way to get advice is to tell us what you are planning to build.

Dave

[BobP]

Where and how much to ballast depends on many things - type of wood, size of bait, what size hooks the bait will carry, whether the bait is a lipless glider or will have a lip, etc. I recommend you take another look at the jerkbait plans on the site I referred to in your post about wood types because it contains build plans including amount and placement of ballast weights for an array of pike baits.

If you build your first baits according to tested plans offered by experienced builders, you have a much better chance of producing a fish-catching bait. Then you can experiment with later lures to tweak the bait's action to suit your particular design aims. Building crankbaits is a continuous learning process and the plans can give you a "leg up" on the learning curve.

[RiverMan]

There is only way to know what the lure will do and that is to experiment. Weight placed in a particular manner on one type of wood will perform entirely different than the same scenario on another wood. Shape, length, width, height, hook placement, and weight placement all effect action. Run dozens of experiments, keep notes.

Jed

Edited February 17, 2011 by RiverMan