[Palmetto Balsa]

Friends tell me the Brians Bees deep divers (Bee20, Bee22, and Bee24) lose there action once they dive to the depth they are designed to hit.
I have always thought this was just the stretch of the line and resistance of the water against the line that caused them to feel like they have lost their action.
With what we know about weight placement, buoyancy, and the new enlightenment V-man had brought to the table (new to me). bouyancy change Page 2.
Could it be that a wood crankbait, with its superior action over plastic*, would have a much reduced action at deeper depths? Does the greater pressure cause the density of the wood to increase, in-turn causing the center of gravity to change and dull the action? Same way a balsa bait loses action if one applies too much epoxy as a top coat.
If the pressure does effect the action, would it effect a plastic crank near the same?
If it does change the action would it be enough to kill the action?


How many custom painted crankbait are on eBay today?

[Stringjam]

That's an interesting thought(?)

Although, I can feel Marty Burns' wooden crankbaits shaking like Shakira at up to 25'...

[Palmetto Balsa]

I can still feel her shaking 30 min. after I shut the computer down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygctbqBijFk
You old farts, give it 30 sec. and you will see some wiggle, waggle, X-ing, and shimmy.
Did I just kill my own thread.
and now after that short intermission, back to the question.

[senkoman85]

If I could get my crankbaits to shake like that, I'd be in business!!!

As far as depth being an issue on that, I don't think so (but by no means am I a scientist). The added pressure would force any air inside the bait to be condensed into a smaller area. But even then, how much air are we talking about in a sealed wooden crankbait? And 20 foot depths is not a big change. Each 30 feet in depth of water you traverse, is one additional atmosphere of pressure. So what you feel right now, is one atmosphere. Add another one on and that's the pressure at 30 feet. Not much difference, really.

If anything, hollow plastic crankbaits would have more of an effect at deeper depths as their air is contained in the middle of the bait and I would think that there's a lot more air. Again though, at depths of 20 feet, I just don't think pressure is coming into play.


I would think that once it achieves its depth that it is designed to run at, that there is a lot less resistance against the bait, as it is no longer able to track downwards. It is now, instead of diagonally (both vertically and horizontally) moving, it is simply moving on one plane (horizontally).

Just my

[Kribman]

That thing is crazy. I mean, its hard to find a good bass lake with fish suspended at 25 feet! How does it keep its wobble at that extreme angle when retrieving it.

[Vodkaman]

I too find this hard to believe. As stated above, it's only 20 feet. Consider a diver, swimming 200 feet down, we've all seen the documentaries. Never have I heard mention that moving around is more difficult at depth and they look fairly agile to me.

It was an interesting point though and I have thought about it in the past. The pressure is from all around and is therefore self cancelling (pressure from the back is cancelled by pressure from the front).

I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned the damping affect that the line has. This is more likely to be the correct explanation. The line is the limiting factor when it comes to depth. This is due to the line curving down to the lure. Once the curve angle reaches the lures tow line angle, the lure swims horizontal.

Before the lure reaches this depth, the line is straighter to the lure and any 'pull' is felt strongly. As the line bows, any pull is damped out by the belly of the line pulling across the water. Hope this makes sence.

[BobP]

The most rod shaking deep divers I've fished are balsa, like the Brian's Bee 24 or the Sisson P-20 and I think that's due to weight distribution, particularly the lower center of gravity in a balsa versus a plastic bait, just like on shallow divers. I do think the line at depth and at distance doesn't transmit thump very easily, especially the 8 and 10 lb line often used on deep divers. But I don't think the pressure at depth is so great as to "crush" wood or the air inside, else we'd be seeing mangled balsa deep divers coming back to the boat...and we don't. It wouldn't surprise me if the added pressure and water density at depth dampens the wiggle at bit. Back to PB's question, I think balsa and plastic deep divers will act the same, all other build features held equal (but they never are).

[Vodkaman]

The natural elasticity of the line will also have a damping effect. But that would affect all depths, not just deep divers. The more line out, the more elastic damping occurs.

[benton B]

If I'm not mistaken, Brian's deep cranks have straight lips. I find baits with straight lips kind of dead at any depth. Maybe braided line would be a better opiton for deep cranking. Might reduce the effects from line stretcha and resistance.

[Palmetto Balsa]

I think this one is solved. Thanks guys.
The Chaterbait will just about shake the screws out of you reel when you fish weed lines or run it like a spinner bait. Then when you drop it like a jig into 30+ feet you don't feel as much pulse/thump when you pull it. I think that the line resistance, and stretch dampen the feel of the action and not the action itself. The added pressure can't compress the chatterbait.