Thread: Big Danny Help
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Old 02-06-2006, 12:50 PM   #41
PASurfer
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: SE Pennsylvania
Posts: 55
Every swimmer has a pivot point in it's wiggle... some -- like those classed as finnish minnows -- are near the nose and normally can't/shouldn't be weighted without destroying or modifying the swim action. Shapes like a Danny will tend to pivot more centrally in the body, very near if not dead-on the body's balance point.

I always look for the balance point with the lip and tail that I intend to use mounted on the body, but without a belly hook. NIB says he balances them on a pencil. I use an old hacksaw blade (cutting edge up) clamped in a vice. Not real scientific, but you just "feel around", moving the body ever so slightly forwards or back, until it balances on the blade. Then I press down gently, while rolling the body side to side, and get a perforated mark that shows were the balance point is. I do this with virtually every new proto I start to work on, just to get a reference point on the body. Sometimes, that's where I want to set a single belly hook. Sometimes, as is the case with a Danny. that balance point where I would normally put a hook might be a little too far back from the head, so you need to add a bit of lead (as a counter weight) somewhere behind the weightless balance line... where and how much lead depends on how far "up" I want to hang the hook... but the objective of this is to keep the body balancing at the original point.

I'm not a big fan of multiple belly hooks, but if it's got to have them to look and swim right, then placing the hooks an equal distance fore and aft of the balance point will usually get you in the ball park of their final position.

Hope that's clear enough to give you some ideas.
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