Best way to drill into circuit board lips?

[stumpjumper16]

I've been making crankbaits over the last couple of years; mostly shallow flat- sided divers with the line tie placed into the nose of the bait.  I'm getting ready to attempt a new bait/ deeper diver and would appreciate any advice or method/jig that you guys use to drill your circuit bills. From what I've read thus far, the placement of the line tie towards the front of the bill will impart more action on the bait as opposed to moving the line tie closer to the nose.  Is this true?  Also, does the width and shape of the bill also determine how wide/tight of an action that a bait will have?

[BobP]

In my experience, you have it backwards regarding the fore/aft position of the line tie.  Most baits work well with the line tie slightly to the rear (nearer the nose of the bait) of the lip’s fore/aft mid point.  Too far back and the bait will blow out to one side or the other.  Too far forward and the action will be dull or even nil.  Line tie position is often very critical. A millimeter fore or aft can have a big effect on bait performance.  The amount of ballast and it’s position is also important.  I generally build so the overall bait balance point is at the belly hanger or slightly in front of it.

A wide lip tends to  make the bait steadier, maybe too steady.  A narrow lip will tend to introduce a some body roll along with the wiggle, which I prefer.  Wide/narrow is relative to the width of the bait’s body.  Take a look at several commercial baits and you see that the lip width on many of them is just a little wider than the body.   That’s a good starting point.

I use a Dremel with micro bits to drill the line tie hole.  I want it just slightly smaller than the line tie  diameter.  I make the line tie from twisted soft temper stainless wire, bend it 90 degrees just below the eye so the bend is the same distance from the eye  as the thickness of the lip, then force it into the lip for a tight fit.  The wire on the bottom of the lip is long enough to fit into the lip slot, where I have drilled a small central slot to accept it.  Glue it in with the lip.

That’s what works for me.  Other guys have different methods and what works, works.  You just don’t want a line tie that flops around during use.

 

[mark poulson]

Bob,

A while back a squarebill with a self-adjusting line tie was the big thing.

Do you know how that worked?

[BobP]

Yeah, it’s billed as a self-tuning line tie that is free to flop back and forth.  I think it's made by  spro?  Not certain what it’s claim to fame is;  maybe that it never needs tuning.  Don’t know how a hobby builder working with wire would implement such a thing - or if there’s any real utility or advantage to such a design.

[mark poulson]

4 hours ago, BobP said:

Yeah, it’s billed as a self-tuning line tie that is free to flop back and forth.  I think it's made by  spro?  Not certain what it’s claim to fame is;  maybe that it never needs tuning.  Don’t know how a hobby builder working with wire would implement such a thing - or if there’s any real utility or advantage to such a design.

I don't know either, and I'm too cheap to buy one just to find out!  Hahaha

[jonister]

Here's a self tuning line tie. Works pretty dang good but I'm not sure how deep it dives or how it'll hold. Its some pretty strong wire though. The metal bill lure in the second photo is meant to take a snap, similar to some river steelhead lures. It works good too. All viable options. I have yet to get crafty enough with sheet metal like the ones on the spro lures. I always either melt the holes through with hot wire or drill with a very sharp bit, if you use a drill bit, make sure it is very sharp, or go slow, otherwise it can chip the circuit board. 

[stumpjumper16]

Thanks for the clarification and information from you guys; good stuff. So I guess my next question is if any of you guys are familiar with Jerry lohr's lures, how did he manage to get such a tight action on his baits; particularly the baby Jerry model ?  I'm sure there are many intangibles that attributed to this, but would like your two cents worth. I always thought his baits had tighter actions than the shad rap.

[BobP]

The short answer is I don’t know because I never owned one of his baits.  A lot of things go into a bait’s action, more than we have discussed above.  When I find a bait I really like, I go to a lot of trouble to make an exact copy, buying several examples, measuring and weighing components and even getting an X-ray to determine the internal features like ballast position and shape.  Many guys think building a copy that Sorta looks like an original is  going to get there but it won’t unless they really dig down to the details.  Crankbait performance is complicated and small differences can have outsize effects.  I don’t do this to steal a bait design and sell copies.  I’ve never sold a bait in my life.  It’s a hobby exercise to find out what makes a particular bait tick so I can learn how to build better baits for my own personal use.

[stumpjumper16]

I agree with you. I try to be as self sufficient with my fishing as possible to cut down on the cost of buying fishing lures. Sure there is the initial cost of getting into a particular hobby, but, once you find something that works it's not as expensive in the long run; or so I would like to think so. By the way, I like the X-ray idea.  That beats splitting a bait. Thanks for all the information

[jwfflipper]

I was told once if I didn't know what I wanted a bait to do I would never get the results I wanted. When I started in 2004 I wanted a balsa flatside crankbait that performed like a Cotton Cordell Big O (plastic bait) I had to understand what the bait was doing at a high and low speed retrieve and how it reacted when running into objects.  It took many prototypes to get what I was wanting. Anyone can take a piece of wood and put a lip in it and it'll catch a bass but to get the full effects of a bait you have to understand what you want, example the Jerry Lohr crankbaits you mentioned, and it's not what you think. I have many of his prototypes and learned what they do and why from studying them and the origin of the Le Bo plug which the Lohr crankbaits derived from.  Like BobP said there is a lot of little things that go into making a crankbait

[stumpjumper16]

Jw, thanks for the information. 

2 hours ago, jwfflipper said:

I was told once if I didn't know what I wanted a bait to do I would never get the results I wanted. When I started in 2004 I wanted a balsa flatside crankbait that performed like a Cotton Cordell Big O (plastic bait) I had to understand what the bait was doing at a high and low speed retrieve and how it reacted when running into objects.  It took many prototypes to get what I was wanting. Anyone can take a piece of wood and put a lip in it and it'll catch a bass but to get the full effects of a bait you have to understand what you want, example the Jerry Lohr crankbaits you mentioned, and it's not what you think. I have many of his prototypes and learned what they do and why from studying them and the origin of the Le Bo plug which the Lohr crankbaits derived from.  Like BobP said there is a lot of little things that go into making a crankbait

 

[JD_mudbug]

The Storm Arashi Square Bill and Deep Diver have a self tuning line tie.  They usually are $9. But, they are frequently on sale for less. I have some of the squarebills and divers. All of the ones I own run true.  After a few years of moderate use, I have not needed to tune one.  They have good action.  In my experience, they don't catch more fish than other lures with the typical fixed line tie. I seem to catch more fish on a standard 2.5 sqaurebill than the Arashi squarebill.

I assume the line tie has a hole in the end inside the bait. A horizontal pin passes through that hole so the line tie can freely move side to side so it will find the center when in motion. The hole in the lip is a bit wider than the line tie allowing it to move.