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bbduc

Swimbait won't swim

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@bbduc,

Wow, that thing swims like a- well, a fish! Awesome looking bait. I've been kicking around the idea of a swimbait for awhile and I'm gonna give it a try soon. Thanks for sharing your trials and successes with this bait, I'm sure you have helped many of us to grasp a better understanding of what is needed it get a swimbait to swim.

Also, I loved your song choice for the video, it took me back...:yeah:

jeremy

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That's great! It swims beautifully.

I taper my baits, thin at the nose to full thickness at the back of the first section, and then back down to thin at the tail.

I just copied what had worked for others.

Now that Vodkaman's gotten into my head, I think the tapered head splits the water, creating higher pressure at the thickest point, and the reverse taper creates a low pressure area, like a wing shape, and the vortexes created at the thickest point pull on the tapered rear sections because they are in the low pressure area.

Probably, too blunt a nose forces the vortexes too far out away from the body to initiate good swimming action.

Can't wait to see the finished bait!

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Thanks for all the kind words. It's really is gratifying when it all comes together. I did learn a great deal on this build and will start with a fresh bait this weekend. I think the reverse joints will work and plan to give it a try. I did attempt the reverse joint on this test and that's what started to kick the bait into "s" mode. Shortly thereafter that modification was dust on the floor but it was working.

Cheers

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Mark. My thoughts were that a blunt nose and along the back of the first section was required to create the vortices, as the flow could not turn the blunt corner and started turning.

But this lure, with the front edge taper kinda' goes against this idea. Well, we are all learning with every post. Thanks bbduc for teaching us all a little more.

Dave

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I've been reading this thread, day by day, watching this story unfold and I think the end results are outstanding. It's made me a believer that 'the Power of TU Compells You!" into problem solving as a group. When the power of the group exceeds the sum of the individuals, that is a very special thing to have happen. I'm getting all misty now...if I can just get rid of this urge to take a hot bath.

*****in' song too!

Here's a thought for those struggling to make a living at this-tub toys. No hooks, no hardware, no exotic paint schemes (unless you want to). Specialty toy stores would eat them up as will the mothers of tots at tub time. Diversiving in this economy may be necessary until it all blows over. Just a thought

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A quick thought I had about vortices after the last post; I think removing the beveled edges from the segments had something to do with the overall success. It allows the edges to catch water which turn starts the loading and unloading process to begin (pressure builds on one side, unloads then builds on the other side until swimming begins).

For those interested in learning more about vortices, there is a book entitled "An Album of Fluid Motion" by Van Dyke. Amazon has it. Amazing photographs of what happens to water when it encounters various shapes and objects. I'd upload some scans but copyright laws have earned my respect.

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Birdman I believe that may have been part of the problem for sure but my biggest gains of "s" action came when I tapered the sides beyond the bevels. There was a intermediate stage before I really went crazy sanding off the sides and still had plenty of material to work with where I tried a reverse joint. I carved/dremeled out the joint that catches water and did see action from this move. I took it slow and did a little at a time so when the bevels came off I did see a noticeable change but the fluid movement seemed to be more of a weight to resistance ratio. I did not weigh the bait between alterations although in hindsight that actually would have been nice to have.

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I would love to see a top view of the bait, just the back side. I'm curious how the tapers aid in the 's' action.

My initial observation was your point of line attachnment. I too thought it was too high on the nose. Many times when I was about to throw a design away, just a simple bending down of the nose wire solved everything. Very subtle but makes all the difference.

There are many lessons in this build we can all benefit from. Nicely done.

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There is plenty of info on karman streets behind an object in water flow. Most of these diagrams are of a static object. Considering that a lure is dynamic you will soon find out that there is much more to it in regards to a lure action. Be prepared to do plenty of reading!

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Weighting is your problem, remove some of the weight from the second segment and potentialy from the head. That form should swim without any issue.

I agree with Nate, that shape should swim without any problem. Try changing the weight, if that doesn't work, my suspect is the hinge mechanism. Take out the through-wire and try the old standby of one screw eye connected to another and see if that works.

RM

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I agree with Nate, that shape should swim without any problem. Try changing the weight, if that doesn't work, my suspect is the hinge mechanism. Take out the through-wire and try the old standby of one screw eye connected to another and see if that works.

RM

Riverman, I tried messing with the weight but couldn't get it to go.

The hinges work great, the line-tie and taper seemed to be the culprits. I did get it to swim.

Check the video out:

YouTube - Swim Bait Proving Grounds

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Your bait swims great and I respect the time and effort you put in getting it to work, but all the theories of tapering, line tie position and beveled edges do not always apply.....if so these would not swim, and they swim great...check this out, the triple jointed swimbaits, no tapering, beveled edges and line tie right in the middle of the nose.

Google Image Result for http://www.danczyk-lures.com/DSC07422_op_800x558.jpg

just my observation....

Rod

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Rod, I do agree with your post. I have been keeping a close watch on swimbait posts. It seems that anything from centre and downwards works. Having the tow eye below centre is a safe bet.

Ref post No33, I have re-examined the after pic. The back width is wide and square towards the first joint, this is plenty to generate vortices, so now I feel less confused about the whole issue.

The apparent success of the taper could be an inertia thing, but the pics that Rod posted were parallel bodies. It could be down to the wood choice.

Dave

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If Putting A Lip On A Swimbait Is Cheating Then Someone Needs To Tell Matt Servant To Get Off The Roids!

Ha ha I havent taken roids since my early 20's Lol. I put bills on my baits becuase thats EXACTLY how I want them to swim. I also have non billied baits that swim exactly how I want them to. There is no guessing.

I used to guess, but after many very controlled experiments and proto types I pretty much know what they will do before I see them swim. I dont get too many suprises. Just takes working out the bugs

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Some good points coming up in this thread. I think Rod's comments are valid and makes me wonder why I got absolutely zero movement with the exception of the final section on my bait. This thread started as a simple plea on how to save this one swimbait and has evolved into a bigger conversation which is a great thing. I may go back to my original design, I liked that shape much more than what I ended up with and make a couple miner mods that align with Rod's and many others input and see if I can get it to work. In the end we saved the bait and personally I gained loads of info.

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Your bait swims great and I respect the time and effort you put in getting it to work, but all the theories of tapering, line tie position and beveled edges do not always apply.....

Rod

I agree...........every swimbait I have built has beveled edges and I generally always start with the tow point in the center and nearly all of them work perfectly. It just goes to show that we are still learning here on TU. :lol:

Beautiful action on your lure by the way, looks great!!!

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You really didn't move the tow point very much.......I'm curious if the lure will still swim fine with the two point bent back up to where it was originally.

The tapered head and body is probably what made the lure work......good for you for figuring it out!

The other thing is, did you change the weight? If not then you essentially "added weight" because you removed some of the buoyancy when you removed some of the wood.

Jed

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You really didn't move the tow point very much.......I'm curious if the lure will still swim fine with the two point bent back up to where it was originally.

The tapered head and body is probably what made the lure work......good for you for figuring it out!

The other thing is, did you change the weight? If not then you essentially "added weight" because you removed some of the buoyancy when you removed some of the wood.

Jed

I did try try the line tie at different places, up high, down low and where I landed seem to give the best movement. It was nice to have the bendable line tie at that point because I could make big moves, test, move again and judge the results in a very short time frame.

It seemed the best results were at or just below the nose.

The ballast weight remained the same throughout the testing. Originally I had weight in the 1st and 2nd sections. Early on I got rid of the second weight .5 oz and kept the .7 oz in the first. The bait does sit a little lower in the water.

You and Vodkaman maybe onto something though with the weight and the wood (red cedar). Maybe it was a matter of finding that point where the force of water was greater than that of the wood. I'm not overly scientific on building. Lots of trial and error. Things seem to stick to my brain best by hands-on experimenting.

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