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KrawdadBill

Rear hook and hunting?

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:idea: Alright you guys and gals, a quick observation and question to ponder. Some of the wooden lures that I have made possess the hunting characteristic. On those lures I placed the screw eye for the rear hook at a vertical position, (you can see through the eye from the side 8O ).

I have noticed that on some of the commerical baits such as Bagley's, Lee Sisson's, Poe's... etc., the rear screw eye is placed just slightly off a horizontal position, (you can see through the eye looking down from the top or up from the bottom :rolleyes: ).

Would this slightly off horizontal position cause the split ring and hook to slide differently, as in a more erratic movement? :?: Since the split ring would slide back and forth, hanging in different places. Where as the traditional vertical eye placement the split ring would always hang straight down in the same position.

Has anybody noticed and or experimented with this aspect of lure design? Or have I confused you guys and gals along with myself? :?

Oh, by the way I have made a batch of lures from scratch, with the rear screw eye in the horizontal position, but have yet to test them. You know scratch is getting harder to find these days. :lol:

bill

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Interesting...I was just thinking about this yesterday while tuning some of the flat sides I have posted pics of in the last month or so. I built mine with thru wire brass, and the rear eye is turned horizontally to the body of the bait (or you can see thru the eye from the top).

I tuned 4 of 8 baits yesterday, two of four ran perfectly, two needed front eye adjustment. Of the four, three have that "kick" to the side and return to center. Don't know if that exactly fits the description of "hunting" but it is pretty close. These are baits made from 1/2" stock, with a large profile & wide square lip. They are also a fairly heavy bait: balsa body, thru wire, lip, about 3/16oz of a mojo weight, split rings and #4 gamakatsu RB's, plus the paint job...sealer, paint, clearcoats. A much heavier bait than you might expect.

The one that did not have that "kick" was a little lighter, and was made using a slightly narrower lip. Water was also pretty cold...about 44 degrees. Might have had an effect.

When adding the hardware, it seemed like having the rear eye in the horizontal position might cause some more side to side variation in action, as the split ring's vertical position causes more side to side hook swing with less up and down swing. Would seem to be opposite of your results so far, at least with respect to your vertical eye placement. Very interested to find out how your baits with horizontal rear eyes perform.

Seems to me like it might be a combination of body thickness, eye/wire placement, and overall lure weight. Obviously the lip design is going to play a role as well.

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You may be absolutely right. I have made some white cedar lures with metal bills and the rear hook hanger in the traditional vertical position(you can see through the eye from the side) and they are awesome hunters.

The lures that we (me and my son) tested yesterday had the rear eyes positioned so you could see through from the top or bottom and had lexan bills. All ten ran awesome, but only one showed slight hunting characteristics. Of course it would have helped if our freinds pool didn't have leaves mixed in with his water. Guess you could say that added a natural enviromental texture (like in the fall season) to the test. :rolleyes:

Only problem with any of the ten lures was that my son broke a bill on one lure when it landed hard on the concrete instead of the water. But it still ran because the wire in the bill was holding it some what together. Put the Dremel tool to work last night and cut out the old bill and hope to get a new one epoxied in before the next test. :wink:

Will try to get some photos uploaded soon.

bill

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