Tuning and De-Tuning Crankbaits to Catch More Fish
You want more fish? Get more out of your crankbaits. De-tune them to add more tools to your fishing strategy, or re-tune them to keep them at top performance. Use this guide to tune your crankbaits to be irresistible to fish.
Tuning Crankbaits That are Swimming Crooked.
Crankbait manufactures make them sturdy to be banged up against cover. But, when you hit a piece of cover hard or hit a bridge with a bad cast, you can throw the bait out of tune. If you retrieve your crankbait in open water, and it comes back swimming to one side, it needs to be adjusted. When swimming to the right, you need to adjust the eye to the left. If the bait swims to the left, you need to adjust the eye to the right. Make slow, small adjustments using a pair of fishing pliers, being careful not to break it. Test after each little bend until the bait swims true.

Tracking right? Tweak left. Tracking left? Tweak right.
De-Tuning Crankbaits For Dock Fishing
Sometimes you actually want your bait to run a little crooked to the side. You should try this the next time you fish docks. You can make that crankbait turn and swim under a dock without actually casting under the dock. For example, you can tune your crankbait to swim to the left, and then throw close to the right side of the dock. That way your your crankbait swims under the dock and hits the pilings of the dock. You can bump a few pilings on each dock, which will give you more strike opportunities per dock that you fish. Make sure you choose a rod that will allow you to detect these bumps.
To de-tune your crankbait, do the opposite of what you would do to tune it for straight swimming. If you want it to swim to the left, adjust the eye to the right. If you want it to swim to the right, adjust the eye to the left.
Make small adjustments, especially the first time. Bend it a little and then see how it swims. Keep tweaking until it is swimming to the side just like you want it to.

To De-Tune crankbaits, tweak in the direction you want the bait to swim.
If you choose the best colors for the water conditions you’re fishing, and you match your bait pattern to the seasonal forage, you should be good to go. If you want to try more, test out these additional crankbait tweaks, like changing crankbait appearance to keep the fish guessing.