Tuning Crank Baits

[Craig Plummer]

How do you know when you need to tune a crank bait and what are you supposed to do to tune one?

[TonkaBass]

Make a cast and look down the rod like your sighting down a rifle as you reel in. If the bait swims to the left or right, it needs to be tuned. Grab a pliers and very very slightly turn the eyelet in the opposite direction. A perfectly tuned crankbait will almost show you its belly at the end of a retrieve.

[Deitz Dittrich]

TB pretty much nailed it, I dont think you need to make a cast or anything, often times I just run the bait along side the boat for a few feet you can see if a bait is running sideways. Like he said, it doesnt take much...

On a similar note, when fishing docks I will often take a crankbait and tune it so it runs sideways intensionally. That way you can make a cast down a dock edge and it will then run under the dock and hit the posts.. I will often rig 2 cranks that run in different directions depenind on which side of the dock I am fishing. You can do the same thing to get a crank to run into a weed edge you are parallel casting as well.. However you give up diving depth.

Serious crankbaiters often search for a bait that will "Hunt".. this is a crank that for some reason will just kick out to the side.. and the side it kicks out to is random. I myself have had a few that did it, however, fo rthe life of me I have never been able to tune a crank to do it.. it just had to do it on its own.

[twitch]

Some cranks strait from the box will not run true.You can file the lip with a fine file to help it run straight also by sharpen the edge you can make it run a little deeper.Make sure you file a little at a time if you take of to much you cant get it back.By fileing you really can make the bait run left or right for the dock bite like Deitz explained.