Need more wobble!

[Yake Bait]

After making several imitations of existing designs, I thought I would venture off and try a crankbait of my own design. The result was not what I was shooting for. Works more like a jerk bait than a crank. It dives and chops nicely but no wobble.

What changes would I make to get more of a diving crank bait action?

The bait is 10" long made from cedar with some lead in the center to control bouyancy. The lip is 3" long made from 0.220" Optix acrylic.

[woodieb8]

hi. from what i see the lip is set to far back in the body. move it forward closer to the line tie. you will increase the wobble. looks great though.

[savacs]

move the line tie down a few milimeters

[rofish]

I had the same problem as you have now, Pete, but the other way round: I had too much wobble, and I wanted to make it tighter.

I make crankbaits which rarely are longer than 3", so there is a difference in action, but the principles are the same.

Take these ideeas into conideration:

1. The lighter the wood is, the more action you can give to a crankbait

2. Being a very long crankbait, try to place the lead more towards the nose

3. It is better to bring the lipslot closer to the tow eye, than to lower the placement of the tow eye towards the lip, because in case that the things inside the lure are not perfectly symetrical, the crankbait might roll over

4. Try a longer lip, not a wider one, and take into consideration the fact that the longer the lip is, the harder it is to tune a crankbait.

5. I am amazed at the thickness of the lip. 0.22" is 5.588 mm. For my lures, I use CD material, which is 1.2 mm thick. Of course you should use a thicker material than I do, but I think not that thick.

[Vodkaman]

I agree with Woody, the lip looks to be too far back, I tried something similar with the same unsatisfactory result.

The angle of the lip will be giving you a combination of 'wobble' and waggle' about 50% of each. The flat sides will be resisting the waggle and to a lesser extent, the wobble.

To maximise the 'wobble' action, you need a shallow angle lip. This will also help with the diving part of your problem.

The length of the lip looks too short in relation to the length, but my baits are only three inches long and I have no experience of such large lures.

It pains me to say it, but a lot of trial and error is involved. I suggest that you mount a temporary lip made of copper or brass sheet, glued with a soft rubber type cement. This can then easily be removed when you arrive at your final solution. The soft metal will allow you to try out diferent angles and is easily trimmed with snips to try diferent lengths and shapes.

Start off an inch longer and wider with a rounded end. Trim away until it does what you want. Take extra sheet with you so if you trim too much off, just super glue another piece on.

I agree with Rofish also. A thinner lip produces more pronounced turbulence which gives the lure the action. This can be done by cutting a 45 deg chamfer on the back side of the lip. Not knife edge, or you will cut the line.

Make lots of notes and diagrams.

Let us know how you get on.

[Swede]

this is what you can do if you already have cut out the lipslot on more baits just use a wider lip .try a round lip & i think you´ll be amazed of the action

[scoop10]

Pete, look at your bait and notice that your line tie, if you draw a vertical line down from it, is barely touching the front edge of the bait. The closer the tie is to the front edge, whether the tie is put into the lip, or in this case, is in the body of the lure, the tighter the action. The closer to the back of the lip, the more wobble.

I agree with the rofish that you will do better by repositioning the lip so that the slot is closer to the tie, rather than moving the tie down on the lure or making the lip longer. If you do that (move the lip up), you should get closer to the action you are looking for without any other problems. But moving the tie down, or extending the lip's length, could create other problems.

The other things you can do -- widening the lip or making it thinner -- will have some effect, but not to the degree that changing the line tie in position to the lip will. I wouldn't worry about these until you do the other.

[Yake Bait]

I started a new bait last night with the lip further up (see attached photo). I am interessted in some feedback on how this looks. After reading rofish's post, I suspect maybe I went too far the other way this time. Will also try to keep the front of the line tie even with the nose of the bait. I've got a drill press now so centering those will be much easier.

[woodieb8]

looks like a winner for sure. screw eye placement now is key.. nice job

[LaPala]

Looking at ur earlier lip & this one, u seem to have jutted out the top part of lip beyond ur lure body, that part could be causing unnecessary resistance to the wobble. Tapering from tip to flush with body will help too (slightly more triangular)

[jerkbait]

One more thing on the lip. If you use it in cold weather which I suspect you will, use polycarbonate instead of acrylic. Even very thick acrylic will be more brittle. Tapering the leading edge of a thick lip will increae the effect of it transfered to the action of the lure. Looks real good to me as far as shape and palcement go. I like a bait that will swim well just below the surface but also dive when really cranked or jerked.