The Bill (Lip)
by Chuck Bailey
Every kid who playfully sticks their hand out of the car window while it’s moving, inadvertently begins to learn that changing the shape of your hand and its angle to the wind has a profound effect on the air resistance encountered, and the direction their arm is pulled in. In your imagination, replace the child’s arm with a crankbait body, the wind with water, and their hand with a bill (or lip as it is often called), and the results are much the same. The bill now provides the major structure that influences the path of a retrieved crankbait. The lip’s width, length, shape, and angle to the body obviously affects the crankbait’s running depth. But these bill characteristics also help influence the distinct action (wobble, vibration, etc...) of a crankbait as it is retrieved through the water.
LENGTH AND ANGLE
Let’s start with some elementary basics; long bills make a crankbait dive deeper than those with short bills. One would think this would be an obvious conclusion, but it is not. Countless beginners, when choosing a crankbait, are more enamored with its color and size than the size and shape of the bill. Staring at the crankbait in their hand, a novice may still ask, “Well, how you know how deep it goes?” After a knowledgeable angler explains how bill size, shape, and angle affect the depth, they reply “Hmmm, that makes sense.” Apparently, the basics aren’t always self evident.
It’s also important to point out that a lip coming straight out of the nose of crankbait generally goes deeper that one angled downward from the body of the bait. Most of the deep divers on the market today are built with a long bill that is projected straight down the axis (the midline) that runs from the tail to the nose. The shallower a manufacturer intends a crankbait to run, the shorter the bill and the steeper it’s diving angle. Some shallow divers that wake just under the surface when retrieved, have a stubby bill that almost (but not quite) points straight down.
The bill angle also influences the action of the bait. A lip coming straight out of the nose tends to create a tighter wiggle. (Note: Master anglers often preferred to use tighter wiggling baits in cold water feeling it is more effective - the reasons will be explained in BODY SHAPE AND DESIGN). Whereas bills with a downward dive angle create more of a side to side wobble. (Preferred in warm water). These are all generalizations, and exceptions to the rule always exist, but these basics give an angler a place to start.
WOBBLE AND VIBRATION
As a crankbait penetrates the underworld, water is displaced as the bill is pulled through the water. The angle, shape, and surface area of the bill determines how much water resistance occurs – which obviously affects the depth. (Small-lipped baits are shallow running, larger bills send the lure deeper). But as the water flows up, over, under, and around the bill - it creates turbulence. Additional turbulence occurs as the water continues to flow over, around, and under the body of the crankbaits. Together the bill and body cause wobble and vibration. Any variation in the bill size, shape, or angle, affects the water turbulence – hence it changes the wobble and vibration.
As we will discover later, there are times and conditions when the fish prefer a wide wobbling bait over a tight wiggling one, and visa verse. The vibrations of a crankbait can be felt by the lateral line of a fish, and sometimes the fish prefer a low frequency vibration over a high frequency vibration. Bill or lip design affects the motion and vibration of a crankbait as it impacts a fish’s environment. Experimentation is vital – and it is important to “listen to the fish”; that is, present a variety of motions and vibrations until the fish indicate their preferences. To be a successful crankbait fisherman, it is essential that the angler increasingly becomes aware of how a crank’s bill affects wobble and vibration.
SHAPE AND DEFLECTION
Master anglers know that a crankbait deflecting off a rock, stump, branch, or underwater object will often cause an immediate reaction strike from bass because it creates an erratic change in movement and direction – symptomatic of real food. The bill (position and shape) is the number one factor affecting lure deflection. Round-billed cranks tend to hang up less, and are the most common bill shape. They produce a steady uniform wobble, even when retrieved at rapid speeds, common in trolling. Round bills are excellent in open water or when bounced over smooth muddy bottoms. But round lips are not the preferred shape for deflecting off cover.
Semi-round bills are also common but deflect differently. It’s important to vary your bill shapes when intentionally deflecting off structure, until the fish indicate that you have the most convincing crank tied on.
Square and coffin-shaped bills create the greatest deflection and are often chosen to trigger bites when others cranks fail to produce. Square bills produce a more erratic action. As water flows inconsistently around the sharp edges, the water turbulence causes the lure to occasionally kick out from its otherwise straight path, though it quickly returns to center. Some manufacturers claim that cutting the corners off a square lip increases this effect. A square lip with cut-off corners is called a “coffin-bill”.
The downside of square or coffin shaped bills is that they hang up more often when combined with a thinner body style, (especially flat-sided). But combine a square or coffin-shaped bill with a larger, rounder, and wider body shape that shields the treble hooks, and it can become an excellent choice for running through brush, sticks, lay-downs, stump fields, and trees.
In terms of bill position, popular thought suggests straight forward bills are inclined to snag less. This is because the forward bill actually contacts the structure first and tends to flip the bait lure around it. Not enough research has been done to prove or disprove this theory, though it appears fairly logical.
BILL VARIATIONS
Bill or lip variations abound. Some manufacturers of deep divers have curved their bills in order to achieve greater depth. Others have added small wings to the side of the bills to help make the crankbait more snag proof. (Similar fins are placed along side of the lure body, creating a greater width which protects the treble hooks underneath the belly.)
One manufacture implants a single round weight in their deep-diving bill to make it nose heavy. The theory is that after the crank lands on the water, the nose heavy crank will dive at a steeper angle, getting down quicker to its maximum depth. Others have experimented with splaying the bill, rolling its edges, molding divots or depressions in the surface, reducing its thickness, or beveling the edges.
BILL MATERIALS
There are a few older wooden baits, (now antiques), that didn’t require the addition of a bill because the diving surface was carved into the body shape. Soon afterwards, metal lips were added. Metal lips, while fairly rare, are still used today on specialty baits. But the vast majority of wooden baits today have a slot cut into their nose during manufacturing and a plastic bill inserted. Most are glued in place, whereas a few use a screw to hold them in place. This also allows the same body shape to be combined with several different lips – economically permitting a range of depth options for marketing purposes.
Most wooden crankbaits have used clear tough plastics, such as Lexan (polycarbonate), for their bills. Recently, smaller companies producing balsa or cedar baits are experimenting with the tougher, thinner, circuit-board materials such as mycarta and garulite for their bills. The use of these thinner but tough materials is being favorably accepted by modern tournament anglers looking for a slight edge. Some pros believe that a regular plastic bill absorbs too much of the impact when deflecting off a stump or rock, whereas circuit-board-like materials glance or ricochet quicker and harder; enhancing the chance of eliciting a reflex strike. Others claim the thinner lips modify the vibration given off by the crankbait – offering something different to the fish. Whether the use of these materials is a passing fad or a true advantage to the angler has yet to be proven. These bills are, however, easily modified with hand tools, such as a file.
Most plastic crankbaits do not have separate bills made of different materials. As the plastic is injected into the one-piece mold cavity, the same material forms both the body and the lip. Whereas most of the plastics used are clear, occasionally companies have experimented with translucent red or chartreuse colors, knowing that while the majority of bodies go on to get painted - the lips do not, and display the translucent or chartreuse colors. The debate as to whether the colored bills enhance or detract from a lure’s ability to catch fish still rages on. Professional fishermen stand on both sides of the issue.
SUMMARY
A word of caution here; while lip shape and position are the primary factors affecting the depth a crankbait may reach, other features can impact depth too. Line diameter, retrieval speed, buoyancy, and body size will also have a bearing on the depth a crank reaches. How the rod is held by the angler, (high, or rod tip submerged), influences depth to some degree. And a crankbait not tuned properly will run off to one side or the other rather than down.
Remember, the bill or lip is one of the primary influences affecting the path, wobble, vibration, and depth of a crankbait. But a wise angler must learn what part these other crucial factors (mentioned above) play in water penetration, if they are to put their bait where the fish are! The fish are obviously somewhere in the water column, and the ability to chose the right bait to explore all those depths is paramount. Naturally this begins with picking the right bill or lip for the job.
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