glide bait not swimming well

[coreynov902]

Every now and then I get an itch to try and actually make a bait. Last weekend was one such time. I made a 5” (6” including the tail) swimbait/glidebait. I made it out of poplar. Even though the sink rate was faster than I wanted, it sank evenly when I was testing it at home. However, after sealing it, adding a light coat of epoxy, painting it, and then top coating it with epoxy, I took it to a local pond to test it out. I’ve made a handful of swimbaits before and this one by far is the best looking. But it’s also the worst at performance. I’m trying to figure out why so maybe I can fix it instead of junking it. It swims, but is very limited at the speed it will swim at. Too fast, which is not very fast at all, and it wants to jump to the surface. I tried chopping it with rod twitches or reel handle turns and it wants to twitch the same direction twice before it changes to the other direction. Then it twitches twice in that direction.

I’m including pictures hoping someone can maybe point me in the right direction of what to change. The two main things I’m looking at are the line attachment point and the tail. The line attachment is just under the nose and I’m wondering if I should move it to be just above the nose? And the tail is 1/8” polycarbonate and I’m wondering if I should cut that off and go with a brush type of tail? Any help from those that have created swimbaits before would be appreciated.

[Mr.Bass]

I make a bunch of swimbaits and some are glides

Not a big fan of the hard tail on my baits.

My guess is that your bottom weights are off. Try the storm lead strips on the nose section.

The bait looks good I usually use Azek trim board. Easy to work with

[coreynov902]

I make a bunch of swimbaits and some are glides

Not a big fan of the hard tail on my baits.

My guess is that your bottom weights are off. Try the storm lead strips on the nose section.

The bait looks good I usually use Azek trim board. Easy to work with

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually have some PVC board and it’s easy to work with like you said. I just hate how much static it has. Whether you are carving or sanding, the stuff sticks to everything. That’s why I decided to go with wood on this last bait. I made a swimbait out of the PVC a few weeks ago and used a thinner polycarbonate for the tail and that bait worked pretty good. Maybe I’ll cut the tail off and put a paint brush tail on instead.

One question…the bait I have pictured I used steel ball bearings for the eyes (used a drill bit with some black paint for the pupils). I like the way they look, but it adds a pretty decent amount of weight and the weight is above the center line. Do you think that will negatively impact the action of the bait?

[Mr.Bass]

The eyes are definitely an issue. All the weight needs to be spread out on the bottom of the bait in order to get a good glide
It is trial and error unless you use resin and master the formula

[okiemoman]

I have found that the line tie location play a big part in whether the bait will rise, dive or neutral swim. You mentioned that you already have a fast sink rate and looking at the picture the line tie is below the center line. Probably why it rises on retrieve.

[coreynov902]

Thanks for the help guys. I removed the eyes and filled in the location with epoxy. I'm going to try and insert the two ball bearings into the belly since I had water tested the bait with the eyes in and therefore the weight will be off if I don't put them somewhere. I'll see how it swims after that and then maybe adjust the line tie position if it still isn't swimming right.