During the past days in my work breaktimes I sketched down some new designs of "Banana"-style lures , today I put the first one of these into practice , the others hopefully would follow up during the next days and weeks .
This one is approx. 3 1/4" in length .
The difference to my previous "Banana's"(pls. check gallery) is , that I made the lip a little different , not plane and long like I used to , but short and a little cupped this time
.
I wonder , wether there would be differences in any aspect of the lure action between the two variations
.
To save time , I used light teakwood for this lure , not abachewood as usual , the latter requires time-consuming treatment to render it waterproof .
But I am aware , that this lure shown might probably turn on it's back , maybe even a balance weight won't help , since the body is pretty much curved .
The other models , that I sketched down so far , don't have such a pronounced shape .
There are some essentials about such "Banana"-lures to be considered , that I have found out through the years , since I like such baits quite a bit and made a lot of them for myself and friends :
1. The lip portion has to be slim , thus less buoyant .
2. The rear has to be more voluminous , thus more buoyant .
3. The cross-section in general must be either round or slightly oval(width more than heigth , not vice-versa) .
4.The lure should float up with its two ends level or little head-down , not tail-down !
5. A pronounced body curve generates more wobbling action , but less diving depth , on the other hand a very curved lure tends to overturn and swim on its back , less curved "Bananas" vice-versa !
6. The position of the tow eye is very important . Such lures are shallow runners , it does not work out to attempt to place the eye higher towards back of bait to make it dive deeper , the one and only result is overturning
!
On straight-lipped "Banana's" the towpoint should be located quite near the front end of lip .
7. A small balance weight placed into the belly in front of belly hook hanger most likely improves the balance and action of the bait in terms of a stable running , on oval cross-sectioned lures these are even essential to prevent the lure to probably float up lopsided .
OK , maybe , this little excursion into "Banana"-bait dynamics would be useful to someone around here .
I went through many headaches to find out about the statements above for myself , though they may neccessarely not be complete or even a bedrock .
Greetz , diemai
