Swimbait Weight Systems Simplified (Multi-Joint, 2 pc Glidebaits, Wakebaits, Crankdowns)

[RiverSmallieGuy]

I have been reading a large amount of topics where home builders are taking their first shot at making swimbaits, and I noticed a pattern; most of the questions that they had were about weight placement. So I thought I would post a topic about generalized logic and opinions on swimbait weighting systems.

*This is not a 100% guarantee for a perfect swimbait, regardless of category. This is just a starting point; a rough guideline.

-3 pc Swimbaits

These are a great entry level lure to build for your first swimbait, as they are more beginner friendly and less finicky  than, say, a 2 pc glider. When you weigh these, think of a lever. Is it easier to push a lever down at its highest point or its lowest point? Clearly its highest point. If you place all of your weight up in the head, or the back of the second piece, or even the back of the third piece of a 3 pc swimbait, you're essentially creating a lever that will prevent the bait from moving correctly. What you could do, however, if you want a slower, wider action, is place most of the weight very close to the joint, to free up most of the motion and then put a little bit of weight a little more toward the head. I will talk about utilizing this effect more later. Now, of course, there are ways to increase joint leverage, but I don't truly understand how to manipulate that. If you can find a way to increase the leverage that a joint produces, then that's great, you can place more weight up at the head and get a really slow, wide S pattern, not the S pattern of a glidebait, but the S pattern of a methodical, slower action 3 pc swimbait. These swimbaits can float, as well and have a very aggressive Triple Trout or Bull Shad style action to them. It is a little more complicated getting a 3 pc floating swimbait to function as you want it, because there is less water inside the joints to move them.

-2 pc Glidebaits

When you are weighing a 2 pc glidebait, based on my experience, they are the hardest lure to get right. Don't be worried about failure, though, take a stab at this, but don't expect to make a perfect bait on your first try. A good way to get into making glidebaits that I have found, is to make a 10+ inch bait, just to get the feel for it. It is far easier to get a 10+ inch (25.4+ cm) lure to work well than a 5 or 6 inch (12.7-15.2 cm) lure. I assume that this is because there is more water interacting with the lure. Back onto the topic of weighting systems, when you weigh these, you are looking for both pieces to have a very even fall rate where the centerline of the lure is parallel with the waters surface. This is very hard to achieve, especially if you have fins on the belly of your swimbait. You want the pieces to have identical fall rates so that there is no interference with the joint. When you are making a glidebait, specifically 2 pc gliders, you want a slower, more lazy action than say a 3 pc swimbait. To achieve this, we utilize the lever effect I spoke about above. You place a decent amount of the weight close to the joint, to free up more motion, then you place some ballast at the head to restrict some motion to achieve the slower, more methodical glide that we want when making these. A slower glide equals a wider glide as well. You want to make the chin of these bait very hydrodynamic as well, the chin isn't generating the action, the joints are. A hydrodynamic chin allows for a wider glide as well because of it's ability to travel better with less resistance from the water.

-Wakebaits (all varieties of joint configurations)

These are fun. You want a good beginner swimbait? These are about as good as it gets. You don't have to weigh these perfectly because of the large lip they have in the front, that lip is going to move the head of the bait regardless. Only if you place the line tie correctly and shape your lip properly. As for weighing these baits, remember what I had said about placing the weight close to the joint on a 3 pc swimbait? It is the polar opposite in wakebaits, because the joints aren't making it swim, the lip is, so you place majority of the weight right up close to the lip. You can always utilize the lever effect I spoke about above, but it is not 100% necessary because the lip is generating the movement, not the joints. The joints simply follow the movement of the head that is created by the lip and create that tantalizing lazy S action that you want out of a lipped wake bait. If you are making a 2+ piece wakebait, you want to put enough lead, or tungsten or whatever you're using to hold the other pieces upright so that that the buoyancy of the material you are using on the other pieces does't interfere with the movement of the joints, especially if you're using a very buoyant material like balsa or tupelo. One final bit of information on wakebaits is that you generally want a wider lip, not a longer lip, and you generally want that lip to be 75-80 degrees, rather than 90 degrees.

-4+ pc Swimbaits

These can be tricky, because you think about the 3 piece swimbait where you place the weight right next to the joint in all of the pieces to hold it vertical, and you try to think about the 4 piece, and you try to apply the same principal where you place a little lead in each piece, you don't generally want that on a 4 piece. You mostly just want to place enough lead in the first 2 pieces so that it sits upright and swims with that really smooth S action. You do not place any lead in the 3rd piece, if you have the hook on the 3rd piece. That hook is generally enough to hold it vertical enough to get the action you want. Continue to use the lever effect principle on these swimbaits, and you should figure it out.

-Crankdowns (all varieties of joint configurations)

These are very similar to the wakebaits. The primary difference in these is that the lip is less wide, but longer to aid it in diving. Another key difference with crankdowns is the weight, you put more weight in these to aid it in diving. The final difference is the lip angle. The lip angles on these can be around 75-65 degrees to help it dive. You also want to put the line tie fairly close to the lip to increase the action due to the increase in weight, which could prevent quite a bit of motion with the bait.

Edited February 9, 2022 by RiverSmallieGuy

[RiverSmallieGuy]

If there is anything that I may be incorrect about, let me know! This is just me posting a rough guide for the beginners who may be interested in building a swimbait. If anybody wants to reply with any tips on joint leverage, joint angle, joint size, head shape, line ties, or anything that affects swimbait action, go ahead! Make this the trusted standard topic for swimbait building on TU!

[RiverSmallieGuy]

On 2/9/2022 at 10:11 AM, RiverSmallieGuy said:

I have been reading a large amount of topics where home builders are taking their first shot at making swimbaits, and I noticed a pattern; most of the questions that they had were about weight placement. So I thought I would post a topic about generalized logic and opinions on swimbait weighting systems.

*This is not a 100% guarantee for a perfect swimbait, regardless of category. This is just a starting point; a rough guideline.

-3 pc Swimbaits

These are a great entry level lure to build for your first swimbait, as they are more beginner friendly and less finicky  than, say, a 2 pc glider. When you weigh these, think of a lever. Is it easier to push a lever down at its highest point or its lowest point? Clearly its highest point. If you place all of your weight up in the head, or the back of the second piece, or even the back of the third piece of a 3 pc swimbait, you're essentially creating a lever that will prevent the bait from moving correctly. What you could do, however, if you want a slower, wider action, is place most of the weight very close to the joint, to free up most of the motion and then put a little bit of weight a little more toward the head. I will talk about utilizing this effect more later. Now, of course, there are ways to increase joint leverage, but I don't truly understand how to manipulate that. If you can find a way to increase the leverage that a joint produces, then that's great, you can place more weight up at the head and get a really slow, wide S pattern, not the S pattern of a glidebait, but the S pattern of a methodical, slower action 3 pc swimbait. These swimbaits can float, as well and have a very aggressive Triple Trout or Bull Shad style action to them. It is a little more complicated getting a 3 pc floating swimbait to function as you want it, because there is less water inside the joints to move them.

-2 pc Glidebaits

When you are weighing a 2 pc glidebait, based on my experience, they are the hardest lure to get right. Don't be worried about failure, though, take a stab at this, but don't expect to make a perfect bait on your first try. A good way to get into making glidebaits that I have found, is to make a 10+ inch bait, just to get the feel for it. It is far easier to get a 10+ inch (25.4+ cm) lure to work well than a 5 or 6 inch (12.7-15.2 cm) lure. I assume that this is because there is more water interacting with the lure. Back onto the topic of weighting systems, when you weigh these, you are looking for both pieces to have a very even fall rate where the centerline of the lure is parallel with the waters surface. This is very hard to achieve, especially if you have fins on the belly of your swimbait. You want the pieces to have identical fall rates so that there is no interference with the joint. When you are making a glidebait, specifically 2 pc gliders, you want a slower, more lazy action than say a 3 pc swimbait. To achieve this, we utilize the lever effect I spoke about above. You place a decent amount of the weight close to the joint, to free up more motion, then you place some ballast at the head to restrict some motion to achieve the slower, more methodical glide that we want when making these. A slower glide equals a wider glide as well. You want to make the chin of these bait very hydrodynamic as well, the chin isn't generating the action, the joints are. A hydrodynamic chin allows for a wider glide as well because of it's ability to travel better with less resistance from the water.

-Wakebaits (all varieties of joint configurations)

These are fun. You want a good beginner swimbait? These are about as good as it gets. You don't have to weigh these perfectly because of the large lip they have in the front, that lip is going to move the head of the bait regardless. Only if you place the line tie correctly and shape your lip properly. As for weighing these baits, remember what I had said about placing the weight close to the joint on a 3 pc swimbait? It is the polar opposite in wakebaits, because the joints aren't making it swim, the lip is, so you place majority of the weight right up close to the lip. You can always utilize the lever effect I spoke about above, but it is not 100% necessary because the lip is generating the movement, not the joints. The joints simply follow the movement of the head that is created by the lip and create that tantalizing lazy S action that you want out of a lipped wake bait. If you are making a 2+ piece wakebait, you want to put enough lead, or tungsten or whatever you're using to hold the other pieces upright so that that the buoyancy of the material you are using on the other pieces does't interfere with the movement of the joints, especially if you're using a very buoyant material like balsa or tupelo. One final bit of information on wakebaits is that you generally want a wider lip, not a longer lip, and you generally want that lip to be 75-80 degrees, rather than 90 degrees.

-4+ pc Swimbaits

These can be tricky, because you think about the 3 piece swimbait where you place the weight right next to the joint in all of the pieces to hold it vertical, and you try to think about the 4 piece, and you try to apply the same principal where you place a little lead in each piece, you don't generally want that on a 4 piece. You mostly just want to place enough lead in the first 2 pieces so that it sits upright and swims with that really smooth S action. You do not place any lead in the 3rd piece, if you have the hook on the 3rd piece. That hook is generally enough to hold it vertical enough to get the action you want. Continue to use the lever effect principle on these swimbaits, and you should figure it out.

-Crankdowns (all varieties of joint configurations)

These are very similar to the wakebaits. The primary difference in these is that the lip is less wide, but longer to aid it in diving. Another key difference with crankdowns is the weight, you put more weight in these to aid it in diving. The final difference is the lip angle. The lip angles on these can be around 75-65 degrees to help it dive. You also want to put the line tie fairly close to the lip to increase the action due to the increase in weight, which could prevent quite a bit of motion with the bait.

Forgot to mention. In general, if you want to make a great, smooth swimming glidebait, and if you want it to have that S on a straight retrieve, you generally want it to sink, be that slow sink, or fast sink. If it floats, I have found that it is hard to get it to swim on a straight retrieve, if it floats though, it could be a phenomenal large walking bait.