Weight Distribution failures

[tyrmzz]

Hi Guys,

I've recently got into making custom jerk baits and have stumbled across several failures / successes and would like to open this question + learnings to the ones who come across this/these situations and hopefully resolve a few:

Just to preface: I'm referencing a 45mm / 3-4gms max weight lure that should swim fairly quick and nimble with a pretty tight action.

Lip angle and size - I've found the thinner / sharper and shorter variant to help with the overall action.
Weight Distribution - This is where I find this process to be of most trouble. I achieve a decent cast distance and an awesome shimmy that banks beautifully when 'drowning' (left / right action). However, I find that either making it too heavy in the front or rear or equal in that sense won't give me the right movement (swimming action). 

So, while iterating the over all design several times is of no concern to me with accuracy, I can't figure out what could make my lure:

- Swim to the top when I reel it in fast — it simply pops up and when I slow down the reeling it 'decides' to then continue with the swimming action
- How might I figure out the right weight distribution?

Is this because it is simply a 45mm and the accuracy in this case would be higher than that of a 80-90mm lure?

Any tips / pointers would be much appreciated at this point — knowing that I've gone through over 200+ iterations in the last 2 weeks already

I'd be happy to share photos of the prototypes, but I'll hold off for until it is really required.

[Flaswimbaiter]

The way you describe it coming to the surface is a problem I have with swimbaits, I started moving the line tie higher On The nose and that worked with most of them.  Not sure how you test your weights, I use hot glue to attached to the bottom and then change up the weights till I have the desired action. 

[tyrmzz]

Thanks @Flaswimbaiter for the reply. I’ll try giving the line tie higher a shot. I always tried getting it closer to the lip and never once thought of moving it up. I’ll revert with my findings…

[Outlaw4]

45mm is pretty small. I'd get a small rapala the same size and compare, to see if it's a user function or if its bait function. If the Rapala and your lure both dont do what you want then you'll have to work more on design.

I'd think at that size you could make big changes with suspend dots made by storm.

when you over power a lure they will blow out. 

[tyrmzz]

@Outlaw4 that’s a brilliant idea!! I would have never in a million years assumed that there would be such a thing. Thanks a lot for this. I did some tweaks from what Flaswimbaiter had mentioned, it did help quite a bit but I believe the minor suspension accuracy could really hone in on the distribution