Crankbaits

[Fishwhittler]

I had a request for some deep divers, and here's what I came up with.

[NateFollmer]

Nice as always... What's that last one dive to? 800 ft? What a lip!

[Steven Ladner]

The lip on the last one looks insane, nice work FW

[CKFishin]

big ole lip on the second one looks good

[Big Bass Man]

Nice work!! How far will the last one dive down? :blink:

[BIG M]

Great looking divers Ben. Here's a little tip for future baits, G-10 works better than lexan for the super long bills. It will not flex as much with the water pressure.

Some guys don't like the yellowish color but 20+ feet down that lip color doesn't matter.

Have you put the big boy in the water yet?

[zenyoungkoh]

Nice work!! How far will the last one dive down? :blink:

Im guessing, depends on how much line u have out!

[Fishwhittler]

Thanks!

I think 800 feet is a little optomistic (), but I was aiming for 20' plus. I don't know if this one will hit that, but that's what I hope to reach with the final version. The lip is 4 1/8" long when measured from the nose of the lure body, and the bait's overall length is 7 3/8". Weight is just over 1 ounce.

Big M, I figured G10 might make a better lip material than lexan for super-deep divers, but I didn't have any while I was building this one so I used lexan. The flex isn't too bad, but I think that G10 will definitely be the way to go in the future.

I've also heard that baits with G10 bills dive deeper than baits with lexan bills, because the G10 is thinner than lexan. Is that correct?

I have done some testing with it, and it has a tight action with a pull that's surprisingly light. I'd say the pull is a bit harder than a DD22, but by no means unmanageable. It dives quickly, but I've only tested it from the shore in a pond that's 12-15' deep at the deepest point, so I don't have an accurate readout on how deep it will run. I sent this bait out for testing on Monday, so the tester should have it pretty soon and be able to determine the diving depth.

[BIG M]

From my experience you will get more depth using G-10 for the lip. I've never tried a lip that long on a bait. The lip I use on my big diver is right at 3.5 inches long.

From my testing I found for every inch of lip off the nose of the bait you will get approx 7-8ft of depth. The key to a deep diver is being able to cast it far enough so the bait can reach max depth and spend a little time at that depth. With a super long lip you need the bait to be weighted so it will fly like an arrow. You want the lip to aide the flight and not act as a sail catching air. I hope some of that makes sense to you Ben.

[Fishwhittler]

Thanks for the tips! I haven't made a serious attempt at a 20'+ diver until now, so I really appreciate any help.

What you said makes perfect sense. This bait isn't particularly bad when it comes to casting, but it's not very good either. It's already ballasted just about as much as possible without turning it into a sinker, so I may have to experiment with some larger body designs.

Thanks again!

Ben

[Vodkaman]

It is an accepted fact that G10 gets deeper than polycarbonate. I assumed that this was due to the smaller thickness. But the difference in thickness between 2mm poly and 1/16" G10 is not that great. So, after BigM mentioning flex in post No6, I did some bending calcs. It turns out that 2mm poly bends 4x as much as 1/16" G10.

This all makes sense, as bending absorbs energy. The same energy that is used to create depth and action. You probably already knew this and didn't tell me. Now my head hurts and I will have to lie down.

Dave

[BobP]

Dave, I use 1/16" polycarbonate or 1/32" G10 circuit board and the G10 is definitely stiffer than the polycarbonate though it is half as thick. I think the thinner leading edge of the G10 also has an effect. Some deep cranking afficionados file the lips on standard crankbaits to make them sharper, to dive faster/deeper. FW, a thin G10 is also significantly lighter than a thicker polycarbonate lip. That doesn't seem to make a big difference on shallow crankbaits but it's something you have to figure into the equation on ultra-deeps because the overall longitudinal balance of the lure is critical to its action. BTW - those baits look great!

[Vodkaman]

Bob - I put those numbers into the spreadsheet and yes, the G10 was slightly stiffer. I need to do more research into the Young's modulus figures for this application.

I was also thinking of doing a swim test comparison between a square edge and a sharpened edge. Even in my shallow tank, if there is a significant difference, it should be visible. I will get around to it soon.

Dave

[BIG M]

Dave, I'm not even going to tell the story of how I figured this out. Let's put it this way, a dumb redneck will eventually stumble over the shovel he left laying the yard. I like your method but I'm not smart enough to figure it out. I'm just glad the numbers worked in my favor this time.

Ben, how's that long lip working when you cast that bait.

[Vodkaman]

I don't have access to all those materials, otherwise I too would just flex them between finger and thumb. The numbers thing just allows me to check out different materials and thicknesses against each other, before I hunt them down and buy.

Dave

[Fishwhittler]

The bait casts reasonably well due to its weight, but it does have some tendency to windmill. There's definitely room for improvement, so depending on how the bait works for my tester (I can't do the testing myself, as I don't have access to water deep enough to tell how deep the bait runs), I may try some different body profiles to see if I can make it a bit more cast-able without sacrificing any depth. I think the bill profile is going to work pretty well, so probably the only changes I'll make to it will be using G10 instead of lexan.