Pvc Swimbait Broke By Bass

[capt mike]

I've been doing great on a 6.5 inch swimbait made out of PVC lumber from Lowe's (NOT AZEK). I caught about 10 bass on it and it finally broke inside of a 4 lber's mouth after a violet head shaking fight right next to the boat. It tore the tail off at the hinge pin. The material actually broke clean through and the pin fell out.

I did not paint or clear coat this bait. I was using it raw with hooks and a set of eye balls. I'll post pics of it in the gallery.

Question: Is AZEK material fairly hard or dense. This material i'm using is pretty soft. It almost carves like stiff soap. Wonder if the coats of clearcoat would have giving it enough strength, or, maybe the bass just tears a lure up once in a while.

[Vodkaman]

Just out of interest, how far in is the pin hole, from the edge to the hole centre?

This part of swimbait design has hardly been touched. You should post the pic in this thread and lets have a discussion on it. I mount my rear hook on the next section along, so the hinge that gets loaded has a lot more meat on it. The tail section hinge just looks too flimsy on my baits.

I just checked out a few of your baits and see that your rear eye placement is similar to mine. I'll wait for the pics.

Dave

Edited April 20, 2011 by Vodkaman

[mark poulson]

The AZEK brown is harder than the white. Both are hard enough for my bass lures, but I would only use the brown if I were making a bait for the salt.

I use sst screw eyes for my hinges, and found that I need to make the pilot holes just a little smaller than the threaded part of the screw eye, or they act like wedges and tend to split the AZEK. If I see cracks develop when I insert a screw eye, typically when I screw in the hook hanger into the thin tail of a crank, I make sure to coat that section in crazy glue, which penetrates and makes the PVC stronger.

The only lure failure I've had is when I beat one into a concrete pier repeatedly, rather than make the proper cast beneath it. That lure did split along the screw eye line, which prompted me to go to one size larger pilot hole.

[capt mike]

The AZEK brown is harder than the white. Both are hard enough for my bass lures, but I would only use the brown if I were making a bait for the salt.

I use sst screw eyes for my hinges, and found that I need to make the pilot holes just a little smaller than the threaded part of the screw eye, or they act like wedges and tend to split the AZEK. If I see cracks develop when I insert a screw eye, typically when I screw in the hook hanger into the thin tail of a crank, I make sure to coat that section in crazy glue, which penetrates and makes the PVC stronger.

The only lure failure I've had is when I beat one into a concrete pier repeatedly, rather than make the proper cast beneath it. That lure did split along the screw eye line, which prompted me to go to one size larger pilot hole.

I'll try to get a pic, of the broken tail, up tonight. Dave, the pin hole is pretty close to the edge. If I situated the pin deeper into the lure material, I guess I could just back the eye screw out further from the next section to line up in there. Mark, I did not make a pilot hole for the screw eye. I bet that would help in other situations. The part that broke was the face of the tail section. There is no weight or hook attached on this piece. Just a skinny piece of material between the pin and joint. I guess the fish will ultimately teach us how to improve our baits. Here's a pic of the bait before it got clobbered.

Edited April 21, 2011 by capt mike

[Vodkaman]

I can see how it failed now. I am guessing the bottom half of the joint tore out. There is a strong lever at work here, of about 10:1, plus the leverage that the fish gained. Could easily be 100Lb loaded onto just the bottom half of the joint.

There are a number of design changes that can be made to reduce the chances of this happening again.

1 - a soft tail fin material. This would reduce the length of the lever.

2 - pin and soft glue the tail fin. This would allow the fin to rotate away under load. Not a good solution, as you will be continually repairing the tail. With no glue, out of the water the tail would rock up and down, but once in the water, it would have the correct alignment. I am going to try this on a bait, after this experience.

3 - larger diameter pin. This would increase the bearing load required to tear it out. A thin pin will tend to cut through the material.

4 - install a sleeve for the pin. By inserting a length of brass sleeve, you greatly increase the bearing tear out load.

5 - change to brass hardware. The steel pin-eye combo that you are using has no 'give', it is too strong. A brass twisted eye would have distorted and possibly saved the lure could easily be bent back into shape.

Dave

Edited April 21, 2011 by Vodkaman

[mark poulson]

I think Dave's on the right track with the leverage idea.

You might try putting two smaller screw eyes in the tail section, to spread the load, and cut down on the rotation.

I typically use .092 sst eyes for the first and second joints, and .072 eyes for the third. Having two, spaced eyes, even if they're pretty close together, takes away the leverage that the tail section has against the hinge pin.

[capt mike]

Thanks guys. That's some good info that I didn't know before. Your'e right Dave. It tore out the bottom and the pin fell out.

I'm thinking about trying two sets of screw eyes for the tail joint and eliminating the slot and pin altogether. The tail section is so small on this bait, I don't want to remove any more material than I have to. I am going to experiment with a sheet foam tail fin. It comes in colors and various thicknesses.

I understand what you mean regarding the lever effect from a single eye connection point. Too much range of movement at that spot. When that bass shook his head, the tail section was not in his mouth. So it was flying back and forth and rotating in every direction with each shake..and a bass can shake his head incredibly fast.

Getting an education here. Thanks.