There is no doubt in my mind, Ive used Jack Erskine's twisted leader for number of years without a complete failure...have had on strand cut and the other held...The last 30cm for the gill rakers and the rest of the leader about rod length to protect against barra doing any knitting amongst the trees. Im getting a new spin combo and am toying with going single strand 80lb Penn or Jenkai leader only time will tell.......Thanks for the reply Scott...Cheers Whitto
the problem with sp's, if you can call it a problem, is a majority of fish are hooked inside the mouth???????, thus the leader failure on single strand???
excuse my lack of knowledge, I just havent fished a lot of softies for barra, well, havent done any really
cheers
brian
gday whitto, since Ive been useing single 80 penn 10X, leader wear on structure is greatly reduced, but I do throw HB's, not softies, so thats why I was askin re the hook in mouth thing with softies, just something I dont know a lot about........yet
not a big fan of clips, so lure changes would drive me crazy, or broke, if I went twisted leader
oooooooook, so next question, why is a softy so appealing that it must be inhaled, compared to a HB bait fish imatation that more often than not ends up hooked outside the fishs mouth.
I understand the differant profile/action/size thing, but still.......
Is a slow roll, from what Ive read the most common form of SP retrieve, a more potent fish deceiveing retrieval technique than the the twitch and pause
Ok good question Brian I will have a crack I am not a placcy user either as you know but I gues its the way a barra in-hails thier prey look at a plastic one single hook pointing forwad so it will hook up once its be in-hailed, and then you have the hard body which either gets cracked and with the trebbles in most occasion three of, they get snagged up as it is draw into the mouth. ok well thats my guess anyway.
Cheers Nath
I think you'll find that size 100,110 & 130mm , flexibility & a single hook ..... allows it to be inhaled ( & exhaled ) easily .......... a usual straight roll also may have something to do with it! ( attacked head & back)
Now compare a 120 HB ..... with 2 & 3 sets of trebles ....... that is darting to & fro ......... Gets inhaled & there is a lot more to get caught up on the way in ( & out)
An explosive strike will see a fairly high percentage of placcys missed ...... while the HB could still connect in the cheek or gill plate
That's how I see it
Chris
Good question Brian. I am interested in some of the answers from others. I was always of the opinion that barra's general instinct is to smash a bait with their head to stun it before inhaling it, hence why HB often lodge in the side of the face.....but now we see SP getting inhaled (and exhaled) in a split second and if you snooze you lose!!
SO why are they inhaling SP with a far greater % than HB. (I have had several HB inhaled..but its by far in the minority compared to side of face hookups)....very interesting. I used to think the inhale/exhale hits on Sp's that guys think they are missing fish ARE actually fish slapping the lure to stun it...and no hookup due to hook position.... but chaffing on the leader would indicate the lure HAS been inside the fishes mouth!!!
Or, the rattles, actions ect in HB create more of a 'reaction attack' rather than a feeding attack, where as SP really look and perform a closer action to that of a bait fish hence get inhaled as a 'feeding attack'
more questions than answers for me!!! Awoonga plastic gurus..please explain and put us out of our misery!!
steve
hear ya nath, but with a mouth the size of a bucket, and youve seen the amount of water a big girl can inhale, not to be confused with displace, on a surface strike, youd think a 120 HB would dissapear straight down the hatch first time every time, or at least most of the time, especially on a twitch pause suspend retreive where theres plenty of time to eyeball a juicey peice of plastic just sittin there waiting to be crunched, line it up like Petro on Willie, and then smash it.
is it a SP retrieve , whether slow roll,or burn, leaves no choice but eat or miss out?
oops, sorry steve, asked the same Q as you re modus operandi of attack on softies
I think you feel a double tap with plastics ....... The inhale ( stop) as the plastic is pulled up by the leader & exhale!
Sometimes there is a more tentative tail nip though !
Ahhh is this stuff fun
Nagg