Shaping crankbaits

[Deadly Buck]

When making your own blanks, what are some key design features that ensure a lipless crankbait will have a good action? Where should the weight be? 

[RiverSmallieGuy]

I posted a topic recently, and I will link it here, that was about lipless baits and something I had found about them. 

When you make your own wooden lipless baits, you don't need a super buoyant wood, because the lure sinks. You can definitely use light woods like basswood or cedar to make them and get a super stable bait, but they would be fairly heavy due to the large amount of lead needed in them, especially if it is a bigger lipless. When you are carving your lure don't round off the head of the lure too much, you want that surface to be flat or concave. Also, if you round your lure's head off too much, it would reduce the amount of surface area that would be catching water and causing it to vortex properly on your lure. All of the other chamfers on the lure are fairly normal as well when compared to standard lipped crankbaits. Another key design element is properly tapering the lure so that you have less material toward the back and very slightly taper it toward the head to make it more natural. When I say slightly, I mean just barely noticeably tapered to help its aesthetic presence. As for weight, if you look at some of the plastic lipless lures that are mass produced that have the transparent colors, you see that the weight is in the lowest part of the belly and slightly into the head. You need to consider buoyancy of the material you are using, and determine how much weight the lure needs and use the rough guidelines that I described above. You can learn a lot by looking at the plastic lures, but take it with a grain of salt as it is ABS and not wood or resin. Overall, though, the best teacher is experience. Don't be afraid to make a bad lure, bad lures teach you what NOT to do.

[Hillbilly voodoo]

Simple trick with lipless crankbaits move the weight up from the belly. The instability will give a wider shimmy. About 1/4 up from the belly often works well

As for shape wider forehead wider wobble. Thinner will be faster and tighter 

Slope of the forehead plays a roll too

best thing to do is make a few basic designs and test a few different things till you find what you like. Then make a nice one with paint and clear coat

 

 

[RiverSmallieGuy]

9 hours ago, Hillbilly voodoo said:

Simple trick with lipless crankbaits move the weight up from the belly. The instability will give a wider shimmy. About 1/4 up from the belly often works well

As for shape wider forehead wider wobble. Thinner will be faster and tighter 

Slope of the forehead plays a roll too

best thing to do is make a few basic designs and test a few different things till you find what you like. Then make a nice one with paint and clear coat

 

 

Yes. I forgot to mention the slope of the forehead. I should probably do some testing to find what that changes about the lure.

[Hillbilly voodoo]

5 hours ago, RiverSmallieGuy said:

Yes. I forgot to mention the slope of the forehead. I should probably do some testing to find what that changes about the lure.

I learned a lot from screwing up building lures over the last 25+years. I didn’t have YouTube or much information it was just carve and see if it works

There was a 10year period I built min 10 different lures a day and tested them in my personal pond. Most crude or completely odd looking lipless lures

My point don’t just rely on available information only because it will limit your knowledge. If you have an idea try it experiment screw up and adjust.

[Hillbilly voodoo]

I know for a fact there is some very smart members on this forum that are staying silent 

If you use the search function there has been some very good information posted  regarding action by them over the years. 

[RiverSmallieGuy]

1 hour ago, Hillbilly voodoo said:

I know for a fact there is some very smart members on this forum that are staying silent 

If you use the search function there has been some very good information posted  regarding action by them over the years. 

X2

Edited March 27, 2022 by RiverSmallieGuy

[Travis]

2 hours ago, Hillbilly voodoo said:

I know for a fact there is some very smart members on this forum that are staying silent 

If you use the search function there has been some very good information posted  regarding action by them over the years. 

 Definitely can find a lot of important information with the search feature.  Additionally it doesn't take long to come up with a few names that if serious about lure making one will just skim through their replies. 

 

[Fishin Big]

I use my cut offs and scrap pieces of wood, just to mess with what might work. 

[RiverSmallieGuy]

1 minute ago, Fishin Big said:

I use my cut offs and scrap pieces of wood, just to mess with what might work. 

Smart. I am assuming you do that to where you do not waste any better pieces on lures that may not work.

[RiverSmallieGuy]

When it comes to shaping lipped lures, does anybody have any niche designs that make the lure do different things?

[Hillbilly voodoo]

6 minutes ago, RiverSmallieGuy said:

When it comes to shaping lipped lures, does anybody have any niche designs that make the lure do different things?

More than a few lol

[Travis]

7 minutes ago, RiverSmallieGuy said:

When it comes to shaping lipped lures, does anybody have any niche designs that make the lure do different things?

Excellent question.  Many will make or modify baits to do different things. Anglers have always modified baits to make them do specific tasks.  Frits (Bassmaster articles) probably did the the most to bring this "new" concept mainstream to the general bass fishing public with the Poe's cranks article.  Most general anglers would never make use of those baits especially during that time.  Still  guys (even with all the technology) never have really cranked deep water and certainly not in a manner targeting deep water structure. 

Some of the first cranks I made were for fishing a local small river during college.  The river was very shallow (more of creek) and initially I was modifying store bought baits.  I wanted small cranks and wanted the bait nearly vertical do just plow through the gravel.  Nothing was really available so I was picking up Risto Raps and Bomber Model A's and slapping lead strips on the lips  and switching to smaller rear trebles to get them to do what I needed.  They rarely got hung up and the bills were strong enough they didn't snap. 

Suspending jerk baits were the other thing I did a lot of, especially during winter on main lake points and modified a lot of traps to fish a small lake that rattles seamed to send fish fleeing.

I don't think in the bass fishing scene anyone is making a lure that is frankly unique or novel.   Guys like to claim unique motions all the time and historically the fishing industry always is coming up with "new" things (funny how they don't stick around).   To be honest for many guys it is unique to them based on their experiences or where they fish.  

  

 

[RiverSmallieGuy]

3 minutes ago, Travis said:

Excellent question.  Many will make or modify baits to do different things. Anglers have always modified baits to make them do specific tasks.  Frits (Bassmaster articles) probably did the the most to bring this "new" concept mainstream to the general bass fishing public with the Poe's cranks article.  Most general anglers would never make use of those baits especially during that time.  Still  guys (even with all the technology) never have really cranked deep water and certainly not in a manner targeting deep water structure. 

Some of the first cranks I made were for fishing a local small river during college.  The river was very shallow (more of creek) and initially I was modifying store bought baits.  I wanted small cranks and wanted the bait nearly vertical do just plow through the gravel.  Nothing was really available so I was picking up Risto Raps and Bomber Model A's and slapping lead strips on the lips  and switching to smaller rear trebles to get them to do what I needed.  They rarely got hung up and the bills were strong enough they didn't snap. 

Suspending jerk baits were the other thing I did a lot of, especially during winter on main lake points and modified a lot of traps to fish a small lake that rattles seamed to send fish fleeing.

I don't think in the bass fishing scene anyone is making a lure that is frankly unique or novel.   Guys like to claim unique motions all the time and historically the fishing industry always is coming up with "new" things (funny how they don't stick around).   To be honest for many guys it is unique to them based on their experiences or where they fish.  

  

 

When you say Fritts, are you talking about David Fritts, designer of the Berkley Frittside (which is an excellent mass produced flat sided crankbait)? Were you fishing the Model A's the way that bass guys fish the Wiggle Warts? (just grinding the bottom) Why were you adding lead tape the the bottoms of the lip? Was it making it dive faster or steeper?

[Travis]

10 hours ago, RiverSmallieGuy said:

When you say Fritts, are you talking about David Fritts, designer of the Berkley Frittside (which is an excellent mass produced flat sided crankbait)? Were you fishing the Model A's the way that bass guys fish the Wiggle Warts? (just grinding the bottom) Why were you adding lead tape the the bottoms of the lip? Was it making it dive faster or steeper?

I was getting near vertical presentations with the Model A's and the risto raps were better due to the lip geometry.  Weighting also caused a very slow rise allowing me to  also get down to the two to three feet and then disengage the reel and allow the current to wash the crank back into undercut clay banks.   

Wiggle warts wide wobble and ended up hung up more catching little branches.  Didn't use them much in smaller waters but always one of my favorites in early spring on the larger lakes in the area.

Yes the same David Fritts... just need to rewind 30 years. 

Edited March 27, 2022 by Travis

[RiverSmallieGuy]

5 hours ago, Travis said:

I was getting near vertical presentations with the Model A's and the risto raps were better due to the lip geometry.  Weighting also caused a very slow rise allowing me to  also get down to the two to three feet and then disengage the reel and allow the current to wash the crank back into undercut clay banks.   

Wiggle warts wide wobble and ended up hung up more catching little branches.  Didn't use them much in smaller waters but always one of my favorites in early spring on the larger lakes in the area.

Yes the same David Fritts... just need to rewind 30 years. 

Makes sense. Thanks Travis!

[BobP]

Just to answer Deadly Duck’s original post, good baits are symmetrical and have their hardware exactly on the center line of the body.  This suggests you mark a center line all around the bait after the blank is first cut out but BEFORE you start shaping and rounding it.  Weight placement is variable but in my experience, many commercial custom baits use a one piece belly hanger/ballast weight.  Lurepartsonline sells them.  Of course, you can weight your bait wherever and however you want and build your hook hangers and line tie however too.  But generally I like mine at the hanger with any additional ballast placed in front of the hanger.  

[Fishin Big]

On 3/26/2022 at 10:00 PM, RiverSmallieGuy said:

Smart. I am assuming you do that to where you do not waste any better pieces on lures that may not work.

Exactly. I do a lot of woodworking and save almost all of my scrap pieces.

[Big Epp]

I too use scraps. It's fun to work with different woods and have to adjust accordingly. 

One thing you can try is making the front face of the lure concave, flat, or convex. Each of those will give a different swim.

Additionally you can adjust the distance of the line tie from the nose of the bait to change the action (quite dramatically!).

Thickness of the blank matters too. A thicker bait will require more lead to get your preferred sink rate.

One thing I do is try to use the same pattern for different baits. With this pattern I can make 2 different glide baits, a lipped crank, and a lipless crank just by adjusting the position of the lead and the line tie. 

[Flaswimbaiter]

Weight placement. I took a crank I made and converted it to a lipless just by moving the line tie and moving the weight forward. Top right corner of photo. 

[BobP]

wood choices:  most builders experiment to settle on the wood they want to use on their crankbaits.  With experience, you realize producing a crankbait that performs well requires limiting the variables that can otherwise screw things up.  One important variable is wood density and the workability of different wood species.  It doesn’t matter which wood you decide is right for you.  What matters is gaining experience using it.  How to shape it, how to ballast it, how to finish it.  Eventually you need to settle on a limited number of wood species because if you don’t, your baits will tend to disappoint you.  At least that’s been my experience building baits for 20+ years.