Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) > Tackle & Techniques

my little take on covering nail knots

(1/2) > >>

Travis Heaps:
While finishing off a twisted leader I recalled people saying they use shrink wrap to cover/hide the nail knots.  I didn't have any shrink wrap so did this with some strands off some spinnerbait skirts.  Supposed to look like a baby fusiler.

Luke Wyrsta:
Nice idea Travis, however, do be careful.

You may find that this little 'fusilier' may start attracting unwanted teeth where they shouldn't be!

Travis Heaps:
 :D  gday luke again.  Totally agree.  (insert slightly unrelated story here ->) On the first day we were out I had a couta snip my brand new $60 lure off before it had even risen a strike at the leader - representing a ridiculous investment (in a single lure) for me I was devo'd however it floated to the surface and went on to claim some nice GT's (in fact it managed 3 in 3 casts :)) So when tying this fly like contraption getting snipped off was at the forefront of my mind.  However....whats the likelihood of a GT being turned off by the sight of a say 1.5inch length of shrink wrap in front of the lure?  Low....and then whats the likelihood of a fish targetting a 1cm piece of "baitfish" moving at say a metre every 2 seconds instead of the 20cm popper a foot behind it?!?

I rated the snip off likelihood as less than then the fish being deterred likelihood so I went for it.  Its all about progression and innovation right?  ;) :D Its impossible to say if it worked or not but I caught fish while using it and didn't get snipped off  :)

Luke Wyrsta:
Some of what you say is true Travis - and I applaud you for your innovative thinking.

Just be careful of large Spanish Mackerel charging you at the boat!!!! :o

Lance Ng:
Hi Travis,

I like the innovative thinking, and I might just try it myself too. Also, I would like you to know that your generosity in sharing has been appreciated.

On a recent trip to Sulawesi (Indonesia), I was fighting what I guessed to be a reasonably-sized fish (from the way the fish fought, old salts on board speculated that it was probably an Oil fish), when the line suddenly went slack. I reeled in the line to find that my leader was cut just about 1 or 2 cm away from my leader/ braid FG knot.

On the same trip, I experienced another similar situation, but this was on light tackle (12lbs line). My line broke a few times so I ran out of line on my spool & resorted to joining a length of spare line. A fish took my jig, & somewhere through the fight, the line went slack & I reeled back to find out that the line was cut 1 cm or less from the joining knot between the 2 lengths of braid.

On a trip to Maldives, I was casting light spoons when I saw 2 cudas chase my spoon and my braid-leader knot!

In Maldives, some Maldivian fishermen use "rubber octopus" (attached image) as to great success on many species of fish including big dogtooth & GTs. They use young coconut leaves to tie to dead corals & they hook the rigged rubber octopus to a leaf then they toss the rig overboard. when it sinks to the bottom, they give a hard jerk on the handline to get the hook tear through the young coconut leaf, then they retrieve the lure quickly. Hit-rates are very high with this technique.

These accounts give me the impression that even knots do attract attacking fish, less to say rubber skirts. 
Also, I think since rubber octopus can be so effective on the species which we target during popping, there is a high chance that rubber spinnerbait skirts might get attacked too since they do look somewhat similar to me. 

Cheers,
Lance

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page