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Are leaders essential?

THE length of line directly near the hook or lure is called the leader. In a lot of modern lure fishing with braided line a length of leader is attached to the braid as a matter of course. People do not even think about it, it is done as a matter of habit. There is an overarching idea that the leader makes the lure or bait less visible to the fish. I am not sure this is true, and I have recently been experimenting with the idea of removing the leader altogether and connecting the lure directly to the braided line. Most of this work has been done when estuary fishing for flathead using lures, both trolling and casting. I have noticed some important advantages that come with ditching the leader. At first it feels uncomfortable, but after a few sessions it becomes clear that the number of bites you get does not decrease at all, and the fish do not seem at all put off by the braid being connected directly to the lure.

Without a leader a hard bodied lure will dive significantly deeper by a factor of around 10 to 20%. This is a significant advantage when trolling smaller lures for flathead. The second advantage of removing the leader is increased sensitivity. It is surprising how much sensitivity is dampened by even a metre of 6-kilo fluorocarbon leader. Without a leader rigging is a lot simpler as well and there are less points of failure in the entire rig. The main change in the rig is that I now use a small Fastach clip tied to the end of the braid with an eight-turn reverse blood knot. The main braid I am using is Sufix 832 in 6 or 10 lb breaking strain. I find this braid quite dependable and thin for its strength. The clip allows the lure to maintain its full action, as tying a loop knot in the braid is quite difficult.

Did I get bitten off by using this unusual rig? So far, the results have been quite positive when using hard bodied lures, vibes and soft plastics. Some species, such as tailer and pike, bite through light fluorocarbon leaders with ease, but while they will bite through thin braid, it takes them longer. I have had flathead swallow the lure down deeply and am yet to have one bite me off. It is still early days in

this quite radical experiment, but it is encouraging so far. The areas I am fishing are free of rocks and other abrasive items, but I am aware that hard structure requires abrasion resistant leader. Removing snagged lures with my tackle back lure retriever can be trickier that normal with the leaderless rig as the braid can twist around the tackle back and can take a while to sort out.

This experiment has made me think a lot about other types of fishing where leaders are used. I remember Col Cordingley used a black Halco wire trace tied directly to six or eight kilo fluoro yellow Platypus nylon line. Col was a legend of the Daly River. He was one of the best barra anglers in the Northern Territory, and he won multiple big tournaments and caught world record barramundi using this simple rig. The wire trace prevented barramundi from fraying the line with their abrasive mouths and stopped him getting gill raked by the sharp gill covers. Col never felt any additional leader beyond about 40cm served any purpose, and he felt that the potential under water visibility of this rig made no difference to the number of bites he would get. At first, when I saw Cord’s terminal rigs, I was horrified! Now I think he was visionary. He used just enough leader to counteract the potential problems of cut offs. He saw a longer leader as unnecessary. He used wire because as a leader material it provided the best abrasion resistance of all.


I have recently been experimenting with the idea of removing the leader altogether…

In situations where leader is required to protect the line from teeth and rough jaws, only a short of leader is needed. Two of the best Spanish mackerel anglers I know, Steve Ward and Ben Job, fish a 20cm length of fine mono

wire tied directly to their nylon main line (25-pound Schneider mono) and use no other leader at all. Mackerel have very sharp eyesight and in heavily fished waters can be very leader shy, and this rig gets hits when other anglers miss out. The wrong sort of leader can cost you a lot of mackerel strikes.

Bite leaders are a very useful strategy when chasing species such as big flathead and barramundi. I am keen to try using shorter leaders of suitable hard fluorocarbon tied direct to the mainline, or a length of lighter leader. If

I am brave enough, I want to chase barra with the braid tied directly to the lure. I just do not know how badly a barra will fray the braid!

Black marlin, particularly in heavily fished waters, can be quite leader shy. When live baiting using leader as light as fifteen kilos can be a good strategy. With circle hooks the fish is usually hooked in the corner of the mouth and the risk of abrasion is reduced. With marlin, a lighter leader generally gets more bites but puts you at much greater risk of being busted off.

The use of leader in all types of lure fishing has become a very standard approach. What
I have found is that less is better, and that a thin mainline of braid or monofilament will often be all that is required. I am experimenting a lot with this concept, but it is already clear that fine braid connected directly to the lure gets plenty of bites and the abrasion resistance is actually pretty good on most fish. While I am not advocating this approach for species that go charging into the snags, it is worth trying on most of our smaller estuary species.

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