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sallystrothers

Swimbait Swims Sideways

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The reasoning for my hook placement was based on the premise that 90% of strikes occur from behind for my specific application. I wanted the hooks to be as far back as possible. I do not know how placing the first hook closer to the front would affect the swim, but with the hooks where they are, my heaviest ballast is right under the nose in the very front of the bait. That may influence the tail only action.

I think your absolutely correct that if your weight is far forward into the nose it will dampen the wobble of the first section....no doubt about that.

I am still a little confused about the hook placement theory...no doubt if a fish engulfs the bait it will get hooked regardless of placement. My experience with bass and striped bass using big swimbaits (hard or soft) has been that they most often get attacked at the head area. I have some lures that just use a single hook under the chin and I get solid bone jarring hooksets. A lot of softbait guys will place their hooks on the back just behind the gills with the reasoning that bait gets eaten head first. I know there are exceptions and I have no idea what your application is but even watching video of bass attacking trout they all did the same thing...they grabbed the head right near the gills and held on for a moment before choking the trout down. It would make sense from a predators standpoint that to disable, catch, and eat a large bait you hit hard in the area thats going to most consistently disable the prey....the head. With this said, I assume your dealing with a fish that consistenly short strikes from behind?

Just food for thought....

John

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When the fish is making progress through the water, it is creating vortices and riding them. Here is a very good article on the subject and written in a very easy to understand form, easier than trying to read my explanations anyway: http://theartofnature.org/id20.html

I think this was the first guy to understand the function of scales, which was one of sciences big unanswered questions. I did actually figure it out, but he published a few months before I thought of it. Simples really.

Dave

That was an interesting read for sure, and I would have to think the author is on to something big there. The one point I have a little different opinion on is the "tail fin" of the fish being the result of another movement. I would call them simultaneous forces, and maybe give a little more weight to that of the tail since fish still swim in lakes with little current. Some movement has to get this whole vortice forming process underway in a no current situation. Something very interesting to think about though. I may have to take on a summer project in fluid dynamics to model this problem, but the software/hardware requirements would be immense.

Now who's going to be the first to make a bait that swims upriver all by itself? That will be the day ;)

Thanks for the read,

Zack

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That was an interesting read for sure, and I would have to think the author is on to something big there. The one point I have a little different opinion on is the "tail fin" of the fish being the result of another movement. I would call them simultaneous forces, and maybe give a little more weight to that of the tail since fish still swim in lakes with little current. Some movement has to get this whole vortice forming process underway in a no current situation. Something very interesting to think about though. I may have to take on a summer project in fluid dynamics to model this problem, but the software/hardware requirements would be immense.

Now who's going to be the first to make a bait that swims upriver all by itself? That will be the day ;)

Thanks for the read,

Zack

Yes, water has to be moving past the fish before anything can happen, so in still water, the fish has to drive itself forward. The fish powers itself with its tail and utilises the free vortex energy.

The mechanical fish has been done, a bit big for bass fishing though: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/meet-roboshark--the-mechanical-fish-that--has-netted-the-bbc-hours-of-ocean-footage-586862.html

I don't think anything would be gained using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software. The programs are very expensive and no where near advanced enough for this kind of modelling. It is enough to understand the basics of what is going on and with a little imagination, you can apply the theory to lure building.

Interesting about the nose ballast having the stabilizing effect, something else for testing.

Dave

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