Fine-Tune Your Lures To Improve Performance Story & Photos By Don Wirth
The frustration of using lures that don’t run properly can be downright discouraging. The good news is that you can take steps to correct this. By tweaking and tuning your lures to perfection, you can ensure that they will run effectively and achieve their optimum action so you can catch more and bigger bass.
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Why Lures Don’t Run Right
Most bass anglers expect their lures to run perfectly straight out of the box, but sometimes they don’t. This may be due to several factors, including manufacturing imperfections, packaging errors, improper rigging, line connection problems, damaged goods, etc.
“Hard baits, especially plastic lures like crankbaits and topwater plugs, are made from multiple components, including split-body sections, diving lips, propellers, etc.,” says expert guide Jim Duckworth. “When these aren’t properly installed or assembled at the factory, the bait may not be perfectly aligned and won’t run right as a result. Unless excess plastic left over from the molding process is trimmed away prior to painting, the lure may not perform right. You see this fairly often on the scooped-out faces of topwater poppers and chuggers.”
Plastic worms and lizards can develop a crook in them while sitting in their packaging. This can cause them to roll over when retrieved and lead to monumental line twist.
“And how many times have you bent up a brand new spinnerbait while trying to rip it out of its package?” asks Duckworth.
In order for a soft-plastic lure to work right, it must be rigged properly. An alarming number of bass anglers haven’t a clue how to do this.
“Often a lure won’t run right simply because your line or knot isn’t positioned properly in the hook-eye or line tie,” Duckworth adds.
In addition, some hollow lures develop leaks and become waterlogged after extensive use. Diving baits may suffer broken bills after being repeatedly banged off the bottom or submerged objects.
Tuning Crankbaits
“The secret to achieving the best possible action from any lure, hard or soft, if to make sure it’s properly aligned when you fish it,” Duckworth says. “And there’s no lure category where alignment is more critical than crankbaits. More bass fishermen have trouble getting their crankbaits to run right than any other class of lure. A crankbait’s diving bill must be aligned just right or the lure will run to one side or the other, maybe even roll over.”
Many alignment problems occur at the factory during the manufacturing process, especially when the crankbait’s diving bill is glued into the lure’s body.
“If it’s off-center even slightly, the lure won’t run right,” Duckworth explains. “Other alignment problems occur in the course of fishing the bait. Repeatedly bumping a crankbait off the lake’s bottom or off submerged rocks and stumps can knock it out of alignment. I’ve also seen where hooking a big, hard-pulling bass can mess up how a crankbait runs.”
Duckworth recalls what the head designer for one of the largest lure manufacturing companies once revealed to him concerning the tuning of crankbaits.
“He pointed out that the most common reason a crankbait runs off-center is because its lip wasn’t glued in straight at the factory,” Duckworth says. “Retrieving a crankbait with a lip that’s not properly aligned is like driving a car with a bent frame. There’s no way it’s going to track straight. The manufacturer dodges the real cause of the problem by printing instructions on the package telling you to bend the eye that the line is tied to in the direction that the lure is running. Even if you do manage to get the lure running straighter by doing this, you haven’t solved the alignment problem and often make it worse. Now the lure’s line tie isn’t properly centered, which will negatively impact both the bait’s action and depth potential.”
According to Duckworth, the line tie in this situation won’t stay in an off-center position for long. After repeated attempts at adjustment, it usually becomes loose and may strip completely out of the lure.
“Eventually, you toss the crankbait in the trashcan and buy a new one, which is exactly what the manufacturer wants you to do,” Duckworth says.
He has found that the surest way to get an errant crankbait to run properly is through some careful filing of its diving bill.
“If the lure is running to the left, take a file or the rasp that’s part of your fishing multi-tool and make a couple of passes with it down the edge of the right-hand side of the diving lip,” Duckworth explains. “Then make a short cast and check how the lure is behaving both visually and how it feels through your rod. Often one or two licks with the file is all it takes to align the bill properly so it runs true while maintaining its optimum action and depth potential.”
Sharpening the leading edge of a crankbait’s bill is a tweaking technique that tournament anglers often use to attain more depth from their lures.
“Here, you’re grinding more plastic away than you are when you’re just touching up the side of the bill with a file to make the lure run straight,” Duckworth says. “This will get the bait down deeper, but it makes it a lot more fragile. Of course, if you’re a pro fishing for $100,000 in a big tournament, that extra foot of depth is more important than a $5 bait, which you probably got for free from the manufacturer to begin with.”
Faulty
Connections
Sometimes a hard bait’s errant running characteristics are due not to some glitch in the manufacturing process, but rather to how it’s tied onto your line.
“Most popular-priced crankbaits have round wire split rings,” Duckworth notes. “If your line or knot works into the split part of the ring, this can make your lure track either to the left or right. Many bassers report this happening frequently when fishing suspending jerkbaits and small diving crankbaits on light monofilament line.”
The surest way to prevent this is to either solder your round split rings shut so your line can’t work between the wire coils or to replace them with oval split rings, the type often used on premium-priced Japanese hard baits.
“An oval split ring automatically centers the line at the narrow end where it can’t work under the wire,” Duckworth says.
Tweaking The Action
To entice a bass into biting a plastic worm, jig or tube bait, you must manipulate the rod tip with a pop, gentle twitch or shake to impart some action to the lure.
“Most single-hook baits have little or no built-in action, but crankbaits are different,” Duckworth claims. “They’re designed to wobble when you reel them in with a straight retrieve. But this built-in action may not be exactly what is needed to draw strikes on a given day.”
If your crankbait’s action isn’t turning on the bass, it’s probably coming off as too intense to the fish.
“The crankbait’s profile and color pattern could be fine, but if it’s rolling, shaking or rattling too violently, it appears unrealistic and bass will turn their noses up at it, especially on highly pressured lakes,” Duckworth says. “You can tone down the lure’s action either by switching to larger hooks or by using larger-diameter line. Conversely, fishing a crankbait on smaller-diameter line and using one size smaller hooks will often give the lure a shade more action, but you’ve got to be careful that the reduced hook size doesn’t sacrifice the bait’s ability to stick fish and that your line is strong enough to handle a big bass.”
Spinnerbait & Buzzbait Fixes
“Spinnerbaits, like crankbaits, must be properly aligned to work right,” Duckworth says. “The top wire, lower wire and hook all need to be lined up. The top wire should extend above the hook at the proper angle. Otherwise, the lure will roll over on retrieve or won’t have a natural, fluid swimming action.”
Duckworth claims that aligning a spinnerbait is actually quite easy.
“Just hold the lure with the blades up so you’re looking straight down at it, then gently bend the top wire so it’s directly above the hook, not twisted to one side or the other,” he says. “Often the top wire is elevated too far. It should be at a 45-degree angle from the bottom wire. If it’s too high, just push down on the top wire to close it to the proper angle.”
Another spinnerbait modification that Duckworth often employs is adding an “eyeball” to the reverse side of the blade.
“I’ll take a piece of weighted tape, stick it to the blade close to where it attaches to the wire frame and paint a dot in the center so it looks like an eye,” he explains. “This gives the lure a different and more realistic appearance. It also adds a slight bit of weight to the blade and causes the bait to put out a different vibration, which can trigger strikes.”
If Duckworth is faced with muddy water following an overnight deluge, he’ll alter a spinnerbait by cupping its blade.
“This works especially well with a Colorado (rounded) blade,” he notes. “Just press your thumb firmly into the reverse side of the blade to dish it out a little more. Cupping makes the blade thump harder, so the bass can feel its vibrations more intensely in murky conditions. Lashing a worm rattle to the spinnerbait’s shaft with nylon wire ties further increases the lure’s noise output.”
Duckworth also suggests an unusual modification to buzzbaits with double blades.
“These are awesome lures for fishing around boat docks, but you can make them twice as effective by modifying them to run either to the left or right so they’ll bang repeatedly into the dock upon retrieve,” he says. “A stock double buzzer has counter-rotating blades so it’ll run straight. Swap one of the blades on each lure with an identical blade from the other lure, so you then have two blades that are turning in the same direction on each bait. One of these will run to the left and the other to the right. Paint ‘L’ and ‘R’ on the appropriate lure so you know which one you’re tying on.”
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