Lures don't swim/wiggle correctly

[wcc248]

I've made quite a few lures now and it's been fun. My 9yo son has been having fun coloring them. We finally got out to try them and we're bummed. Only half of the lures wiggle and the other half go into a barrel roll. It's frustrating because they all look really good. We don't see any major differences but only half really work correctly. Any ideas on what to look for? I'd like to increase our quality so more of the lures are actually useable.

Thanks,
Bill

[aka anglinarcher]

Lures that don't swim/wiggle correctly usually do so for one or more of several reasons. It might help if you take pictures of the lures and post them on photo bucket and give us a link to see them.

First, some designs are just really tricky. For example, deep divers need to have their ballest weight just right, need to have their diving lips square, not to strong of an attach angle, not too large of a lip, etc. Even on minnow style designs (stick baits), if the lip is too large, or two small, you also have issues.

Next, uniformity is key. If the weight is not the same on all lures, then some will work right but others will not. Ballest weight and location is critical, very critical.

The alumilite materials are perfect for making copies of lures, like Larry's videos show, because it helps you get the correct overall shape and size, and it helps you get lips, etc., correct. Still, ballest location and weight will require experimentation.

My suggestion would be to look at the lures you have made that work and try to figure out what is different from those that don't work. Too bad you don't live near Spokane Washington, I would love to help you, but .......................

Maybe Larry Dahlberg and others can help as well.

[Mike - Alumilite]

From experience ... another major factor is tuning. Tuning the connection point is fairly critical. IF everything else is the same, put a critical eye on the nose of the bait and play around with tuning them.

Mike

[dahlberg]

There are several factors that come into play and they are all relative to each other! Change one and all the others might change too.
Key factors are: buoyancy, center of gravity, lip length, angle, and position and location of the connection point. Think of a lure like you'd think of a kite. The bridle position is critical for stability and is similar to the connection point. The tail of the kite is the rest of the lure, which flops around behind the connection point.
Any element of the lure that interrupts the laminar flow will act as a control surface and affect the way the lure moves in the water.
best,
L

[wcc248]

Sorry for my delay in responding. I've been out of town. The location of the center eyelet we thought was the problem as well so we moved that around. The ones that didn't work still don't. Weight is going to be the same now with the ones we make from here on out. We put in a BB to make some rattle so maybe that was giving us issues. But some rattling ones work and some don't. So it's a mix right now. I'll make a few uniformed ones and see if we can't get something figured out with making tweaks here and there. But our mold started sticking to the cast so we'll make a new mold and see where that takes us. I'll keep trying some things to see if it gets better. If not, I'll post up some pics for some more advice. Thanks!