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Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) => Tackle & Techniques => Topic started by: Travis Heaps on March 30, 2008, 12:51:40 PM
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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.
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Nice idea Travis, however, do be careful.
You may find that this little 'fusilier' may start attracting unwanted teeth where they shouldn't be!
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: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 :)
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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
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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
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Thanks for the in depth reply Lance - so I suppose what you're saying is that if even braid to leader knots get attacked then my lil skirty thing definitely is a good contender to be sluiced off! :) Fair enough and yeahp i'm aware of that. But like you said even knots get attacked so three nail knots uncovered will definitely stand out.
New idea - we start using flourocarbon to tie the nail knots?! ???