Belly Wiggle

[Chris]

When crankbaits where introduced they where made of wood. A very popular lure for anglers was a bomber mud bug. With this lure because the lip was made of metal and the way it was weighted the lure had more of a downward posture in the water before you started reeling. The lure posture changed when you started reeling the lure and because of the downward pressure of the water on the tail made the lure not only act like a crawfish because the tail bobbed around but that downward pressure lifted the lip to give the lure a better sonic vibration than other lures. The lure was designed to be a heavy cover lure. If you ran the lure into cover you could let up on the pressure from you pulling the lure so that the lure would float tail up out of the cover. The designer of the lure had the design patented. If you look up that patent there is as part of the patent document the line tie metal clip that if bent or straight was still covered by the patent. With this lure if you bent the line clip the lure would wildly hunt.

Search- move a short distance left or right while still swimming upright.

Hunt- acts more like live bait and has a more erratic less predictable action.. the lure doesn't swim upright the whole way and every cast is completely different and acts like a jerkbait without the pause.

The secret to this bait was the way the lure was weighted thin bill, and bill angle. Fred Youngs Big O was weighed the same or under the same principals and when the lure was made into plastic the weight was placed different because of the properties of plastic. The lip angle was also different because of the properties of plastic. This means if they built the plastic Big O the same as the wooden Big O the lure wouldn't run correct. The demand for the Big O was to great that to make the public happy they made it plastic to fill orders. Fred Young's Big O design was a way to make a lure of the same quality as the mudbug and the same action as the bent line clip to go around their patent. Most of the "special" Big O's where the lures that the weight was off center and made the lure act like a live shad. The problem with the Big O's design was because that belly would swing unpredictably which gives the lure a wild action the lure could not run deep. The second problem is when the belly is moving wildly because the weight is slightly off center it hangs cover more. The third problem was that the lip would over time soak up water which would change the balance of the lure and make the lip more heavy. So anglers put up the lures that wildly searched for more open water areas or places where your not going to get hung up as much like nothing banks. Lures started being built with a belly weight which pins the lure with more upright so it has less drag from it flopping around which gives you more depth. By pinning the belly down and the amount of hook the body of the lure covers the hook you can hit cover head on and between the bill and the belly down position you clear more cover without hanging your lure.

When you take a lure that has the belly weight and you overpower the lure with speed the belly starts to shift to one side which changes its direction slightly what they call searching action. You also lift the bill slightly because you putting more water pressure on the tail making it swim more flat. Because of the weight of plastic or the amount of belly weight and lip angle and weight of the bill in wood it makes it hard to get the lure to plane which makes it hunt if weighted right otherwise it just searches. If you off center the weight in the right place you make it hunt at slow speeds. This is something you can not make a plastic lure do because the air is not distributed the same. Many shallow wood crankbaits are made like plastic in respect to where they weight them which really is not giving you the best of what a wood lure can offer. Many "pro's" would take a wood lure and sand one side of the lure to make it hunt. Some would weight it different to make them do it. Bagley did it by mistake when they didn't line up the lip right or did they change where they placed the weight because they brought in Lee Sisson and wanted a lure that would dive deeper. I guess it depends on who you hear the story from I wasn't there it was before my time. I do know if you bend the eye on a original Big O made out of wood weighted other than a plastic lure center of the body the lure will hunt. I have also made lures from scratch that hunt and you don't build them with a weight set at the belly. Lures that search tend to break up the vibration pattern. It is that break up in vibration pattern that make fish commit to the lure. It also makes the bass think it is real. Lures that search will still hit cover head on provided that the lure is built correct will hang up less than a lure that wildly hunts. Wild hunters are not the best lures in cover but do catch fish in more open areas and clear water. If they are built with a round body with the same wild action you can use them in heavy cover if built right the body and lip deflects hang ups. Some "pro's" use smaller size hooks to make sure the lure covers the hook which is why they say they loose fish on crankbaits. The real problem is that they are using the wrong designed lure in cover instead of using something built like the old wooden mudbug or built with the same design principals. Crankbaits are tools and using the right tool for the job can make all the difference.

[Crestliner2008]

Excellent! And very accurate. Thanks.

[brushhoggin]

cool read man, appreciated