The other day when I was fishing the post front, I had a crankbait tied on, which was running to its left. So I moved the loop to the right, and it seemed to fix it. Then, again, it started running left. I adjusted it more, and suddenly it was running way right. So I adjusted it back, and it was running left again.

 

This went on about 10 minutes, as I was taking my time messing with it since the fish weren't biting anyways. Well, I finally got irritated with it and was thinking bad thoughts about the Fat Free Guppy... when I realized, the split ring was positioned so that the opening of the ring were rubbing on the nose loop.

 

I repositioned the knot, so that the ends of the split ring were sideways, and the problem went away and I quickly had the crankbait running true.

 

I'd never experienced that before, as I always am careful to tie so that the knot is not on the split ring opening, and so the opening isn't at the nose loop of the lure.

I like to replace the nose ring with an oval split ring on most baits. Saves a ton of time over figuring out the position to keep the ring opening out of either the loop or the knot. 
 

 

Your other choice is to use a snap & that problem goes away. 

I remove split rings form all my crankbaits before I do anything else.  I will they would leave the off the baits.  

24 minutes ago, BassinBrett said:

I remove split rings form all my crankbaits before I do anything else.  I will they would leave the off the baits.  

What do you do in place of them? I have removed them and tied a loop knot in their place, but normally only when I want the quietest of presentations.

I use a snap on about 2/3 of my lipped cranks and all of my lipless cranks. No worries about my line slipping into the split ring or what happened to the OP. I will caution all that do use a snap, don't forget to check your knot. I'm guilty of being lazy about that and I've gotten bitten more than once.

Size 2 Owner Hyper weld snap for most crank baits, size 1 for jerk baits.

I also use the Palomar knot for snaps.

Tom

I use VMC Crankbait Snap or Decoy SN-17 Round Snap PG on all my crankbaits.  

I’ve never had this problem with split rings. Have I just never noticed it?

90% of my cranks are LuckyCraft and they come with oval, pre installed