…Crankbaits. How many of you shave the bills of your cranks to tune them in, make them dive deeper, track better? Any tips on what you use to shave with, angles, how not to ruin a 6$ bait, etc.
I’ve been messing around a little with some of my older baits, shaving with a #2 swiss file to get them running better. It seems really touchy and is definitely something that you have to be doing “on the water”.
This doesnt have to do with shaving them but over the years we have noticed that almost every fish we catch have been on the back hook of the rapala. So alot of our rapalas we take the front hook off and this makes them swim alot better.
i thought forsure this was gonna be about james head yesterday on the show 
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How many of you shave the bills of your cranks to tune them in, make them dive deeper, track better? Any tips on what you use to shave with, angles, how not to ruin a 6$ bait, etc.
Are you messing around with the eye of the bait prior to try and get it in tune? I would take this approach prior to shaving anything off the bill.
Or are you looking to get your baits down a little deeper, cut the water better, etc…
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Are you messing around with the eye of the bait prior to try and get it in tune? I would take this approach prior to shaving anything off the bill.
Or are you looking to get your baits down a little deeper, cut the water better, etc…
Yes to all these questions.
When I have a bait that is not running true, I mess with the eye of the crank. Generally if the bait is turning left on your, turn the eye right and vice versa for the other way. you generally don’t want/need to move the eye much at all to get the desired correction to the bait. As you mentioned in your post, there is not an easy way to see if your correction is having the desired effect until your try it in the water.
I have not messed with any of my cranks too much in the modify portion. I have shaved the bill a little to get a little deeper and to cut the weeds better. In all of my attenmpts, you make the changed/filing/cutting to the crank and then you are going to need to make the correction to the eye of the crank to get it to run true.
I would careful in regards to cutting/shaving the bill too much off the deeper diving cranks. These bills generally are positioned to allow the baits to dive, off kiltering the bill to much could permentantly effect the baits running even with all the adjusting you do with the eye.
Just my two cents. 
also if u shave the bill just a little bit it will wear away when u come in contact with structure, making that bait only effective for so long.
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also if u shave the bill just a little bit it will wear away when u come in contact with structure, making that bait only effective for so long.
Doesn’t this happen anyways…expand a little please
i mean that when you shave the bill on a crank you take away that protective round shape and as soon as you start to bump cover the bill will wear away causing them to be useless after awhile.. shaving bills is not a bad idea tho. I read a bassmaster one time that said some pro shaves all his bills.. it gets them down a little deeper and they wiggle just a little sweeter. of course this pro probably has a basement and a rv full of crankbaits that he can afford to get rid of..
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