Designing Fishing Lures
2

Question

Designing Fishing Lures

TackleMaking (Marine/Ocean)

(OP)

14 May 02 15:35

Hello All,

I am collecting information for a series of articles I am writing about design considerations for fishing lures. I've searched high and low for information about this topic but haven't been able to find anything worthwhile. I apologize if this is a little off topic, but I would truly appreciate any tips or book suggestions you could provide on the topic of lure design. I am particularly interested in learning how the shape of a fishing lure affects its underwater motion.

Thank You!

- Erik Moore
TackleMaking.com

KernOily (Petroleum) · Answer 1 · 2002-05-14 17:39:36

I can guarantee you that the vast majority of those things are designed and built by trial and error. For example, on a diving lure like a Quarterback that runs just below the surface, there is no way that those guys used any analytical models to get the design right. They just started with a hollow plastic minnow-shaped body and then added the bill to make it dive upon retrieval. It's then a matter of setting the angle of the bill to control the depth of dive and the sideways wiggle: trial and error. I might be wrong, but I doubt it. Most of those lure companies were started in someone's garage in Arkansas or Texas. Think they got tools like CFD?

Thanks!
Pete
pjchandl@prou.com

Hush (Mechanical) · Answer 2 · 2002-05-14 19:12:33

I suspect 74Elsinore is right, I met one of the succesful lure designers years back and he was a grain farmer who wanted something to keep himself busy during the winter.

However if you wanted to go high tech, fishing lures are more or less hydrofoils. You could try searches on submarine or hydrofoil design. A primer on fluid dynamics may help. You might also want to try starting a thread in the aerodynamics forum.

TackleMaking (Marine/Ocean) · Answer 3 · 2002-05-14 23:08:14

Thanks for the help. It's much appreciated! I suspect your right about most of the modern lure designs being "gut feeling" and trial and error. I've spoken with some of the early lure designers for many of the big name tackle companies and they confirmed that most of the early designs originated in a garage woodshop and were picked up and marketed simply because they "worked".

I'll look into the engineering principles you mentioned.

Thanks again for your assistance.

- Erik

butelja (Mechanical) · Answer 4 · 2002-05-15 10:02:10

Just to add to and agree with previous statements. Consider how much computing power it would take to accurately model a lure that has interaction with the air/water interface. Modeling the unsteady interface and lure dynamics would take enormous resources and education in CFD. Try making the economics of that design fly.

Now, if you want to go high tech designing a lure, how about a barb nosed remote controlled torpedo like lure with TV camera in the nose that lets you hunt down those scaley suckers like an attack sub going after a Russian boomer. Just skewer them in mid swim and have it bring them back to the boat. Now that would be high tech fishing.

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Designing Fishing Lures
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