Modifying Crankbait Blanks?

[mattwv]

I purchased some unpainted crankbait blanks and the one that i liked i bought, painted it up, and tied it on, threw it, and it didn't run very well. My question is, the bill is rounded on the front am i able to take the dremel and square off the bill and sand the underneath to make it flat.

It looks like a flat sided lucky craft style. I really like the size of the bait but would like to get it to run better.

Anyone ever experimented with this?

[BobP]

Seems like you have nothing to lose! However, I rarely get good results reshaping lips. Another reason unpainted baits often won't run well is the ballast is insufficient to stabilize the bait as it swims. If that's the case, changing the lip won't fix it.

[RayburnGuy]

Some of the baits I've used over the years would have a single steel ball for ballast. It would be inside a small chamber and left loose to roll back and forth from side to side also adding sound to the bait. Sometimes there will be a small amount of glue from when they glued the two halves together that will stick this steel ball to one side. That is sometimes just enough to throw a bait out of kilter. If you find a bait like this you can whack the side of it against something and it might break the steel ball loose. Start out hitting it against the palm of your hand. If that doesn't work progress to something a bit firmer.

[BobP]

Yeah, I've also seen that defect in some plastic Chinese origin bodies. If there is excess glue at the center seam of the body, not only can it glue the ballast off center, but it creates a hump inside the bait so the ballast will not shift freely from side to side as it is supposed to, causing the bait to swim erratically. The knockoffs usually look pretty good on the outside, which is what catches fishermen. It's what's inside that determines how the bait performs and how it catches fish, and many of the knockoffs are lacking in that area.