pipes18079 Posted July 15, 2012 Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 Just started painting and assembling own baits mad aprox. 20 so far all walking type top waters took one out for a test trip this evening caught plenty of fish on it but kind of dissapointed too. Bait doesn't sit straight at rest it's listing to one side not sure why. Wondering if I should go up on hook size not sure if that would make a difference probably not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted July 15, 2012 Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 There are a couple of things that could be causing your problem depending on how it's built. You don't say whether you used any ballast weight, but if you did it could be that the ballast is not perfectly aligned with the hooks and is overpowering any ballast effect the hooks have thus causing the bait to list to one side. If you did not use any ballast then it's possible that you can go up a size with the split rings and hooks or either one of them.Sometimes just the addition of the next size split rings will be enough to correct the problem, while keeping the hooks the same size. And depending on how bad it is you may have to go a size bigger on both of them. Wood is not perfect and can have a "heavy side" to it. On most lures this isn't a problem and is easily overcome when the lure is ballasted. It's more of a problem on surface lures with no ballast and are cylindrical in shape such as the Smithwick Devil's Horse. If this is the type of bait your building one thing that might help is to do a float test after the lure is sealed, but before adding paint and hardware, to see if the bait naturally rights itself. This position would then be marked and the bottom would be the natural keel. This would only be necessary if you didn't want to use ballast and were building a bait with small hooks, hangers and split rings. This can all be easily avoided by just using the proper amount of ballast which is what most of us choose to do. The "proper" amount of ballast changes from lure to lure and what's right for one may not be right for another. The main purpose of ballast is to make the bait set in the water like you want it to. On diving lures it can also help the lure gain extra depth. good luck and welcome to TU, Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pipes18079 Posted July 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 Thanks for the info I have a bunch of wood to carve but these lures are plastic blanks I will deffinatly use this info once I bring out the wood blocks to be carved up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted July 15, 2012 Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 Try adding bigger hooks and split rings and if that doesn't fix your problem then something is wrong with the blanks. Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyo1954 Posted July 17, 2012 Report Share Posted July 17, 2012 Agreed. Sounds...uh...fishy when plastic blanks list. G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayburnGuy Posted July 18, 2012 Report Share Posted July 18, 2012 One thing that happens is the rattles will get stuck to one side of a plastic lure when the two sides are glued together. It's much more evident in baits with one large ball that produce a deeper sound such as in baits like Norman's DD22 and Little N series. I learned that the hard way. These days I make sure to shake a lure before buying it. Sometimes you can give the bait a hard whack in the palm of your hand a few times and it will knock the rattle loose. Just be sure to remove the hooks before trying this. Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyo1954 Posted July 18, 2012 Report Share Posted July 18, 2012 Good thought Ben. Didn't think about the rattle. You pinpointed the most likely cause. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
