How to get the shimmy on the fall?

[The Artistic Angler]

So I am making a little 3 inch spybait and I think most of them wiggle or shimmy when they sink. Does anyone know what causes this? I have a few ideas but nothing set in stone yet. Thanks!

[mark poulson]

I found there were two keys.

The first is having the belly flat, so there is more surface to force the water to the sides, which slowed the fall.

The second is having one third of the ballast +-above the centerline of the bait.  

I  needed to figure out how much ballast weight to use, and where it needed to be, to achieve a slow, level fall.

I built my spy baits out of PVC trim board, which is very buoyant, and drilled several 3/16" holes up from the belly to well above the centerline of the bait.  I used 3/16" lead wire for my ballast, and played around with different lengths and different locations until I achieved a slow, level fall.  Then I pushed the lead wire up into the ballast holes until it was partially above the centerline and made the bait kind of unstable as it fell.  

The combination of the slightly unstable ballast and the flat bottom made the bait wobble side to side as it fell.

It took some experimenting to get it right, but the PVC is waterproof, so I was free to change stuff until I got it right without worrying about water intrusion.

My biggest bass on one of my homemade spybaits is 7+lbs.

[The Artistic Angler]

10 hours ago, mark poulson said:

I found there were two keys.

The first is having the belly flat, so there is more surface to force the water to the sides, which slowed the fall.

The second is having one third of the ballast +-above the centerline of the bait.  

I  needed to figure out how much ballast weight to use, and where it needed to be, to achieve a slow, level fall.

I built my spy baits out of PVC trim board, which is very buoyant, and drilled several 3/16" holes up from the belly to well above the centerline of the bait.  I used 3/16" lead wire for my ballast, and played around with different lengths and different locations until I achieved a slow, level fall.  Then I pushed the lead wire up into the ballast holes until it was partially above the centerline and made the bait kind of unstable as it fell.  

The combination of the slightly unstable ballast and the flat bottom made the bait wobble side to side as it fell.

It took some experimenting to get it right, but the PVC is waterproof, so I was free to change stuff until I got it right without worrying about water intrusion.

My biggest bass on one of my homemade spybaits is 7+lbs.

Ok, that will be enough to get me started for sure. The centerline is from front to back, right? Just making sure I am understanding.

That knowledge of the centerline thing sounds like it could be used on other lures. Maybe even glide baits. I make some glides that will wiggle on the fall; I didn't do it purposely but its kind of interesting that a big 8 inch bait would do it too.

Right now I will just try drilling the weight hole past the center line and filling it up enough for a slow sink. I also feel like another part may be the shape of the baits profile, the round over.

Yes, PVC trim board is great but I cant seem to get a good finish with it. It has some air bubbles in it. If you work with it for a while it kind of roughs up the surface of the material. 

Congrats on the fish! Its always nice to get one on home made lures.

[Big Epp]

Funny you should mention glide baits...

I just weighted a 6" arowana glide bait and swam it today. This one is made of oak and has a single lead hole at the point of balance. The hole does (I think) go up past the centerline. It has a good side to side glide and a very nice shimmy as it falls.

Could flat sides have anything to do with the shimmy?

And yes, I believe the centerline goes nose to tail down the middle of the side.

@mark poulson i have never even seen a 7lb largemouth, so nice work!

[Flaswimbaiter]

In one of the engineered angler vids he goes into detail about this and talk about bad shape. I looked but couldn’t find which one. Sorry. 

[mark poulson]

I'd suggest you look at one of the successful commercial lures, and use it as a starting point.

You can always use PVC for prototyping, since water intrusion isn't a problem, and then move to whatever material you'd like to use for the finished bait.  That way, you can make as many changes as you want to quickly, without worrying about ruining your bait.