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bamabass

weight placement

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The only way I've ever gotten it right is experimentation. If you want a lure that has a "X-ing" action, mount all the hardware and then slowly push the lure off a flat surface until you find the tipping point. Ballast there puts equal weight in front of and behind the ballast and gives the lure "X-ing" action. Not saying that's the action you want, but it can be a departure point for experiments. With foam molds, you are in the perfect situation to experiment with ballast position and amount to get whatever action you like. That's not so easy to do with wood baits.

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I first place the weight where I think it goes. I then swim the lure and make a note of the line angle when the bait is swimming horizontal.

I then mount the weight at a position actually sitting on this line axis. If you read my article on death roll, this is actually a line of instability. It is also the line of maximum action. SO, to fine tune the final weight position, I build the second lure with 10mm eye extension, so that the eye can be adjusted up and down to get the best stable swim action.

On the third and hopefully final lure, I re-position the eye to my new tested position.

But at the end of the day, it depends on what action you are looking for.

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Not sure how this translates to foam lures but what I have done with wooden lures is this:

Prime lure and mount hardware (hooks and all). You want to be as close to the final weight distribution of the lure as possible to best determine where to place the weight.

Take the lure into the sink and using a finger on each side, find the spot where you can sink the lure while keeping it's back flat to the horizon. This may differ slightly from where you would balance the lure in the air since bouyancy differences of the materials and distribution of materials in the bait will make it float differently than it balances.

Mark this spot and drill out the hole for placing the lead. If you epoxy coat, this will make the bait slightly less bouyant so use slightly less lead than what it takes to get desired bouyancy at the primed stage.

When in doubt, favor more forward placement of lead vs back. This allows the bait to "back up" when you stop cranking which is handy for bouncing off structure.

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