Wakebait action

[Jimmy1326]

Hey guys I’ve been making baits for a little while now mostly swimbaits like wakes swimmers and glides but I built my first 2 peice wake last night and took it out for a test swim today and wasn’t getting a lot of action out of it. Would either swim straight with the slightest wiggle to it or If I cranked on it pretty hard And fast I would get some better action. I did lower the line tie down some closer to the bull and it did improve slightly added a few pictures thanks

Edited December 23, 2021 by Jimmy1326
Miss spelled

[JD_mudbug]

Nice paint job.

Is the joint is free moving and not binding up anywhere through the range of motion? You might need to make the slots in the rear section a bit bigger or make sure both loops coming out of the front section are at the proper location and angle to the slots.

Does the back section float up or hang down at an angle from the front section when at rest in the water? You would need to adjust ballast in one or both sections.

If you can you get the diving lip out easily, I would try different lip shapes as the bait is already painted. I like to test my baits with different lips after sealing and before painting. You can use hot glue or even tape on the back of the lip for testing if you are careful. I have a bag of assorted lips for testing. I sometimes get surprised by which diving lip works best with a given body. It greatly increases the chances of a good running bait before I put any effort into a paint job.

I have made a few baits like yours and they have similar lips to yours except they angled slightly more forward around 75-80 degrees instead of 90. Some lips are shorter but wider at the end, the lip angles out more from the sides of the bait. One of my baits didn't work well, probably due to my inconsistent carving. It did work great with a lip that had straight non-angled sides and had a round curve on the end. You could also try using a heat gun on a lip to give it a slightly forward bend so you can use the same lip slot to test different lip angles.

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by JD_mudbug
typo

[Vodkaman]

JD_mudbug – Great comments, covered most of what I was going to write. You should follow his suggestions first, as my suggestions are purely based on theory.

First a disclosure, I have never built a wake bait.

The bait looks like it would swim nice without a lip, with the tow eye just below the chin as shown in the  3^rd pic (end view).

The lure attitude is determined by a balance of forces above the tow eye and below the tow eye, in other words, the force of the water on the back of the lure balance the force of the water on the lip.

What I see happening, is the water forces on the lip force the lure nose down. This moves the lip passed vertical and so the length of the lip is effectively reduced as seen in the swim direction, this reduces the force on the lip. At the same time, the back of the body rises and so the forces acting on the back increase. The result of these forces means that the bait rotates/rocks nose up then nose down, and then the whole process repeats, resulting in the bait rocking up and down rather than producing vortices that will give you the side swimming action that you are looking for.

Try shortening the lip, possibly by a lot, but do it gradually. If this does not work then angle the lip more forward, say 10° and adjust lip length again. As long as the lip is not pushed passed vertical then the lure will find a stable balance, and will generate side vortices. Once the lip passes vertical then it cannot reach a balanced state.

I know, complicated. Not my fault

Dave

Edited December 23, 2021 by Vodkaman

[ravenlures]

I am glad that you are asking these questions because I am thinking of building one. At first glance I would change the angle of the lip, after that go with what they say here which is helping me on my own project good luck and keep asking question these guys have a lot of information to pass on.

Wayne

[Vodkaman]

One thing I have forgotten; if the lure is breaking the water surface, then this complicates things and may make my analysis above irrelevant.

Dave

[AZ Fisher]

 I would suggest moving your line tie a little higher on the nose and try that before changing lip location. Personally I think your lip needs to be moved forward some also. I've had to move a lip forward before to get a bait to wake better. I had to remove the old lip, fill the slot and cut a newer slot a fair amount forward. We called it the Frankenbait, as it had been cut apart and glued back together in various places, but it worked afterward.

  As Dave and JD above stated, try a shorter, wider lip. I've found those tend to get a taller profile bait like a gill, to wake better. The lip you're showing will want to make the bait dive or crank down, IMHO. Depending on how you have the bait ballasted, how low it floats in the water will also effect how it swims.  Mine worked best as a very low float, barely floating with the back just out of the water, throws a great dual wake. The lip and nose create the big V wake and the tail will create swirling vortiscies{sp} to each side, inside the V wake. 

  I would move the front hook hanger back a hair also, looks like the front treble will hang up on the lip when casting.

  That's a great looking bait, nice carving and paint, get er' waking and she will get crushed!!

  Here are a couple pics of a gill wake I made after moving all the components to get it to wake nice. This is a resin bait BTW, 6 inch long and just under 5 oz.

  Good luck moving forward with this bait and Happy Holidays to all!

Edited December 23, 2021 by AZ Fisher

[Jimmy1326]

Thanks for the tips all my baits have been successful but this 2 pc got me haha so I racked my brain last night it was catching the slightest so I shaved it down and also to the weight out of the tail section and widened the lip so going to take it for a test run also separated the joint some to give it more movement 

[Jimmy1326]

Ok so I did a few minor adjustments and it’s action is 10 times better but now it’s kinda swimming on its side. When it sits in the water it tilts to the side that’s swim on could this be because I took all the weight out of the tail section and it’s trying to float up 

[JD_mudbug]

I would tape or rubber band some lead to the side of the bait to get it to sit right and try a careful cast or drag along the shore.  This way you can test lead in different places before modifying the bait any further. If you are looking at the bait on the retrieve and the right bottom is trying to roll up (a counterclockwise rotation), tape some lead on the bottom half of the right side. I usually attach lead from a 1/8" coil and keep it below the midpoint vertically. My first place to try is usually in front of the front belly hook.  I have even used scotch tape applied to a dry bait. It usually gives me a few casts/drags.

https://www.amazon.com/Bullet-Weights-1-Pound-Fishing-8-Inch/dp/B00CMR7EX0/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=solid+lead+coil+1%2F8+inch&qid=1640349450&sr=8-9

If I can find a lead amount and placement that corrects the problem, I will drill a 1/8” hole in the location of the taped lead. I drill up from the bottom between the bottom centerline and outer edge avoiding any internal hardware. You can angle the hole slightly outward if the bait gets wider as you go up being careful not to get too close to the outside edge. Slide the lead into the hole, tape over the hole or use superglue and test again. Once you confirm it's fixed, you can fill, seal and paint the small hole. I have had a dozen or so baits through the years that could only be fixed this way. Something wasn't symmetrical in the carving, ballast, lip or any combination of the 3. I have taken some old dud baits and fixed them with this method. Unfortunately, that was after paint. I figure it's better to have a 1/8" blemish than a non-working bait. If you can't match the paint, paint that spot red for the wounded bait look.

When testing a bait pre-paint, I will seal the bait and hot glue ballast to the bottom for testing. This way I can get the ballast right from the start. I change the lead as necessary and retest. On  a large bait, I will use a 1/4" lead coil for ballast.

https://www.amazon.com/Bullet-Weights-1-Pound-Fishing-4-Inch/dp/B003OCAFEC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=35XE1OEHPRNUC&keywords=solid+lead+coil+1%2F4+inch&qid=1640352102&sprefix=solid+lead+coil+1%2F4+inch%2Caps%2C224&sr=8-1

If you have a bait with too much ballast, you can drill out some lead and fill the hole with craft dowels matching the drill bit.

Edited December 24, 2021 by JD_mudbug
typo

[azsouth]

You might want to listen to AZ Fisher, He does it all quite well.

[Jimmy1326]

12 hours ago, JD_mudbug said:

I would tape or rubber band some lead to the side of the bait to get it to sit right and try a careful cast or drag along the shore.  This way you can test lead in different places before modifying the bait any further. If you are looking at the bait on the retrieve and the right bottom is trying to roll up (a counterclockwise rotation), tape some lead on the bottom half of the right side. I usually attach lead from a 1/8" coil and keep it below the midpoint vertically. My first place to try is usually in front of the front belly hook.  I have even used scotch tape applied to a dry bait. It usually gives me a few casts/drags.

https://www.amazon.com/Bullet-Weights-1-Pound-Fishing-8-Inch/dp/B00CMR7EX0/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=solid+lead+coil+1%2F8+inch&qid=1640349450&sr=8-9

If I can find a lead amount and placement that corrects the problem, I will drill a 1/8” hole in the location of the taped lead. I drill up from the bottom between the bottom centerline and outer edge avoiding any internal hardware. You can angle the hole slightly outward if the bait gets wider as you go up being careful not to get too close to the outside edge. Slide the lead into the hole, tape over the hole or use superglue and test again. Once you confirm it's fixed, you can fill, seal and paint the small hole. I have had a dozen or so baits through the years that could only be fixed this way. Something wasn't symmetrical in the carving, ballast, lip or any combination of the 3. I have taken some old dud baits and fixed them with this method. Unfortunately, that was after paint. I figure it's better to have a 1/8" blemish than a non-working bait. If you can't match the paint, paint that spot red for the wounded bait look.

When testing a bait pre-paint, I will seal the bait and hot glue ballast to the bottom for testing. This way I can get the ballast right from the start. I change the lead as necessary and retest. On  a large bait, I will use a 1/4" lead coil for ballast.

https://www.amazon.com/Bullet-Weights-1-Pound-Fishing-4-Inch/dp/B003OCAFEC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=35XE1OEHPRNUC&keywords=solid+lead+coil+1%2F4+inch&qid=1640352102&sprefix=solid+lead+coil+1%2F4+inch%2Caps%2C224&sr=8-1

If you have a bait with too much ballast, you can drill out some lead and fill the hole with craft dowels matching the drill bit.

Thanks man for the tips I actually ended up molding the bait last night so I can get another one and mess around with it but I did take some of your advice and drilled a small hole and added just a bit of wait in the tail section and straightend right up. Now to mess around with the 3 piece I made. Thanks again