[hurltim]

I learned a valuable lesson the other day about balancing your crankbait to be exactly neutrally boyant. I tweaked one and literally the next cast caught my first eye of the year. I tried out an xrap and that sucker sunk like a stone. What do you do to fix a crank that's a little to heavy?

 

[crankn101]

Is it broke and filled with water? If not try lighter and or smaller hooks and split rings.

 

[hurltim]

It might be broken. I remember them floating slightly if anything. Picking up some smaller hooks today. Ill see if that works.

 

[colonative]

k, since you ain't been on in awhile...WHERE WHERE WHERE! j/k. I never even thought about balancing a crankbait, and I'll go 1 step further, what do you mean by neutrally buoyant? Is that just under the surface, or on top? Just askin.

 

[Zman]

It suspends dummy!...lol

 

[TthePikester]

Timmy, take that crank and hang it in a sunny hot window at home hooks down. Let it heat up in the hot sun, as it warms up take a tissue and swab the points that could leak looking for moisture on the tissue. This will let you know where the leak is if any and if you do find one let hang until no more moisture then seal in that area with a dab of super glue. Or just throw the POS away and spend a few bucks and buy one that works correctly!!! :thumb:

 

[kirbydog]

"swab the points that could leak looking for moisture on the tissue"

Its a little late to check that thing for leaks after you've used it.

We always used the blow it up like a balloon method.

 

[TthePikester]

"swab the points that could leak looking for moisture on the tissue"

Its a little late to check that thing for leaks after you've used it.

Nope it's not! Letting it sit in the sun warms it slow, expands the plastic opening up the leaking spot and allows it to seep and dry and then you seal it back up. Heating up to hot and fast screws them up because it causes the glue on the bills to get brittle and break off real easy and can cause malfunction of the eyelets to start leaking. It takes awhile to do but can save a bait...done it a couple times! But like I said...is easier to trash the POS and buy another! :thumb:

 

[Biggie Smalls]

I learned a valuable lesson the other day about balancing your crankbait to be exactly neutrally boyant. I tweaked one and literally the next cast caught my first eye of the year. I tried out an xrap and that sucker sunk like a stone. What do you do to fix a crank that's a little to heavy?

I believe most people sell them on ebay. I shore have gotten a lot of sinkers from that place.

 

[kirbydog]

Tony,

I made a joke. Guess I'm not that funny.8)

 

[TthePikester]

Tony,

I made a joke. Guess I'm not that funny.8)

I got it after I replied bud...been a f'kd up week...long!!! :wacko:

 

[hurltim]

@Tony: Neutrally buoyant is when the bait stops for a pause, it neither floats nor sinks. Basically, the bait's density must match or be close to that of the waters density. The density of water changes with temperature. It gets less dense as it gets warmer. If you really want to be accurate, or if you have no life (LOL!) you can calculate how much weight you have to add to your bait at every temperature. When you add suspend dots to a lure, you are adding a lot of weight compared to a relatively small addition in volume thereby increasing its overall density. All density is, is the weight (mass) of an object divided by its volume (or displacement) lbs/cuft for example. The closer the density of your bait is to the density of the water at a given temperature, the more neutrally buoyant your bait becomes.
I picked up a couple of xrap #12's yesterday and headed to the Crack for some experimentation. The 12's initially sunk at the pause so I swapped one #2 hook for an EWG #4 hook, added 4 suspend dots and voila--neutrally buoyant. Thanks to my boy Kraz's encouragement, I realized that once you get the stickbait neutrally buoyant, you can fish big, deep running baits at just about any depth you want for twitch-pause type fishing. I always wondered how CONeal could fish those monster baits shallow without loosing a dozen a night. I get it now.

 

[TthePikester]

@ Tim....DUH!!! My reply was in response to crankin's post on your bait being full of water from a leak! Tell me Tim, where do you think the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is? : :thumb:

 

[tl1000r]

i have a friend who if a baits not working right, suspending etc. its done, he's done good with that technique.

 

[BuckMaxx]

I usually bang em off the rocks a few times to get them to hunt the way I like em.

 

[hurltim]

It was full of water when I looked at it during the day. I have a cure tank at work so I get to play around with tuning cranks. Kinda fun if you have no life like me.