Thoughts On This Musky Crank

[wambeany]

I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions for me? I am new to bait building. Originally this one was built as a jerkbait, and never really liked how it turned out, I liked it even less when I tried using it (no action). So I thought I would try making it into a crankbait. Right now the bill is just sitting there, not epoxied yet. The lure is about 7.5" long and the bill is 1/8" aluminum and quite large. My questions are....

1) Does the lip angle look alright?

2) Should the line tie be moved down onto the bill?

3) if the line tie needs to be moved, any suggestions on anchoring it solidly into the lure body at this late stage in the game?

4) Is it worth my time and effort to even try converting it? if so any pointers on painting around my glass eyes for a repaint project?

Thanks in advance for any help. I really do enjoy reading everyone's post. This site is huge so if I missed some previous post on the subject I am sorry. The more time I spend on this website the more I realized just how little I know about lure building. I haven't posted very much so if my attachments are not correct, i will try to correct them as soon as possible

Thank You

Wambeany

[LEOLURES]

It's really hard to say if the angle for the lip is correct without knowing how deep you want it to run. First off you should atleast give it a try to see what it does. I sort of think where you have the screw eye in the front may be a little far from the lip. Might have to move it down a little closer to the lip but give it a try first and see. You had asked about what to do with painting around the eyes. Since your only doing one just get masking tape and firmly press it onto the eyes and press into the area between the wood and the eye real good. Then go with a razor and cut around it. After you paint it then remove the tape and then clearcoat it. Should be fine. Might not be the easiest but i have done that quite a few times on old repaints. Hope something here has helped you out some.

[wambeany]

It's really hard to say if the angle for the lip is correct without knowing how deep you want it to run. First off you should atleast give it a try to see what it does. I sort of think where you have the screw eye in the front may be a little far from the lip. Might have to move it down a little closer to the lip but give it a try first and see. You had asked about what to do with painting around the eyes. Since your only doing one just get masking tape and firmly press it onto the eyes and press into the area between the wood and the eye real good. Then go with a razor and cut around it. After you paint it then remove the tape and then clearcoat it. Should be fine. Might not be the easiest but i have done that quite a few times on old repaints. Hope something here has helped you out some.

First off, Thanks. I do most of my musky fishing in clear water lakes with cisco forage bases, so I would like it to run deep, but am not really picky about running depth this is kinda an experiment. Living in wisconsin is going to make it tough to try it, everything has 20" of ice on it right now. I will try masking on the eyes when I get that far.

Thanks Again

Wambeany

[diemai]

@ wambeany

Hi , ....welcome to TU !

The shape of your lure does not look bad as a glider jerkbait , I don't quite figure out , why it did not have a good glide , .........probably a ballast issue ?

Anyway , now being converted into a crankbait there seem to be new issues involved , as such thin bodied crankbaits may often cause problems .

At first I would try to assemble a temporary line tie somewhere below the chin of the lure ,..... just bend a piece of wire similar to a rod guide(or use a small rod ring from the start)and tape it onto desired location , ......try you lure in a bath tub pool or shallow bank , where you could easily recover it in case your assembly falls off !

This way you can determine , whether changing line tie position alone would let your lure work or you would need to make further changes .

Your lure is obviously thru-wired , so for a new line tie you would have to mount a screw eye , .........extend its pilot hole entry a bit bigger for up to 1/5" deep and apply epoxy glue , when finally twisting it in ,------- this way a kinda "glue plug" evolves in the hole extension making it much stronger , .............I had boated up to 47" northern pike on lures rigged that way without any issues .

A good choice of screw eyes you can find atMy link .

If this line tie affair alone would not work out , the next option would be to play with ballast , .....again tape some weights to the belly at fferent locations and test the lure , ........if you're satisfied with one option , drill a hole and glue in the weight with epoxy glue , ....sand smooth and paint .

But it also seems to me , that your lip is fairly large , you could also try to make it a bit narrower at its widest place , maybe even also shorten it !

I but remember to always test your lure after each working step , not that you would do "too much of a good thing" !

I strongly believe , that you could fix this lure with a change of line tie location and maybe a bit of minoring the lip plane , ........for future lure projects also check My link , there are some describtions and building plans there .

It is a Dutch site , but a version in English is also available . For newbies I always recommend a glider jerkbait called "The Roach" in there(it's original name is "Heiddy") , .......it is an "easy build , easy fish" sinking glider , thatz surely won't fail to nail them pike or even musky(don't know for sure about that , don't have them in Europe) .

PS :

I sometimes use homemade aluminium lips as well , but I have found , that these can get quite heavy and spoil the casting performance of a lure ,..... sometimes even it's balance .

I most likely build "screw-on" lips of aluminium sheet , if I want the line tie mounted onto the lip , ......in your case I would have used a lip of lexan , either homemade or purchased from the shop linked above .

good luck , diemai