@ Gdille
In my opinion you have chosen the most difficult body shape for your first one , ......I've never tried to make a muskie/pike bodied bait .
A buddy from a German site has also tried his hand on one recently and it did not swim well , ....so he added a lip later to get it going !
I think , the problems about this particular body shape are caused the by the streamlined shape of the first section .
There is a thread in here about vortices generated by the first section of a bait , that would flow down the flanks of a bait irregulary and cause the trailing sections to move sideward , thus do the typical snake motion .
Dave "Vodkaman" had put up this thread in here awhile ago , and meantime I am also convinced about this theory making a swimbait swim well .
Don't remember the name of the thread , but you could utilize the search function in here , take terms like "vortex theory" or "Mandelbrot files"(Mandlebrot files) , you should find it then .
Or search all threads started by Vodkaman via the personal profile option .
Anyway , I believe that the streamlined head shape of a flat muskie/pike body does just not cause enough disturbance in the water to generate those vortices down the flanks , ...........this is why these kinda baits are difficult to work .
Jeep has recently put up a video and gallery pictures about his latest pike bait , that swims very well , ..........if you look very closely , you will see , that the head of this bait is somewhat wider with a flat and little hollow portion on top of the nose , ............I believe , that this is the key thing letting this kinda bait work , this little part of the head acts like a diving bill and also generates those important vortices .
But same time such bait must have its flanks sufficiently tapered down the tail , so that the trailing sections would not have too much resistance aginst the water , when pushed sideward by the vortices , ........rather more flat trailing sections do work better to "snake" .
Also the line tie position could play its part in the game , .........before I got convinced about Dave's vortex theory , I have thought(and also still do) , that a line tie placed in about center of the front section would not be of advantage , ..........I always like to place it in a way , that different pressures of the oncoming water would work above and below the line tie , creating a kinda leverage around the tow point .
If these pressures would be equal above and below , no leverage can occur ,.........if you look at my baits , you will see , that the line tie is most likely located low at the tip of the first section , the nose and forehead back portion is a lot higher and longer than the belly side below the tow point . Some baits with the line tie placed higher upward have a kinda scooped out hollow upper nose plane to act like a diving vane .
I also ALWAYS tend to keep that head portion above the tow eye quite plane , not round it off too much like one ususally would(just breaking the edges) , so that the oncoming current can engage better onto it generating disturbance and vortices .
This way leverage around the tow point can occur , thus causing the first section to break out sideward and trailing the following sections into a "snake" course .
Anyway , that is my personal theory about swimbaits moving , before I got convinced about Dave's , ...but probably both have a bit of truth in them ?
Anyway , I guess , that you could only add a lip now to get your bait to swim or make a new and wider head section(and maybe second trailer for smooth transition of flanks) to be able to furnish such little flat nose indention like on Jeep's bait .
Concerning the weights in a swimbait , ......the first section should possibly carry the highest amount of weight , thus being the thickest and longest section of all(more buoyant) .
The second section would carry less weight than the first(should therefore be less buoyant) , the third trailer less than the second and so on , ............this is why the baits flanks should taper down the tail to render the sections less buoyant , thus require less ballast .
Off course the weight of the joints and hooks requires to be taken into consideration , but really the hook positions are not that important for the action of the bait , they should only sit as far apart as possible not to tangle with one another(if possible at all) .
Just my
, .....if you should have further questions , I'd be glad trying to answer them , .........
good luck , diemai
2
, I really forgot about mentioning the increased length of the first section thoroughly !
