Sp's: fish stop biting

[Floyd2006]

Hi, I went out twice recently flicking sp's for bream and flathead and found that the fish would hit it a few times and then nothing would touch the plastics after that, is this normal? I was using pumpkinseed gulps in 3inch shad.

The first day i failed to hook a fish even though the sp was mangled. The second day I had the tail bitten off so I threw it back out and got a big hit that was snapped off on the rocks, I changed to some heavier gear with the same SP and no hits at all. Ive not had this problem using bait such as yabbies and whitebait.

Floyd

[turley]

Not an uncommon occurance. Fish are pritty smart creatures and they clue on pritty quickly when something isn't quite right. I've always found that once they go off the chew it's time to try a different area for a while. And as for losing your sp, have a look at the bite marks on the plastic and figure out what saught of jaw is biting the plastic. I find that usually it is toad fish that will make a mess of my SP's.

[Archer]

Bream and flathead dont generally mangle a SP(least not untill a big lizard has had it in its mouth for a few minutes trying to get off)....Was most likley either small tailor or toadfish.
When you say you upgraded to heavier gear how heavy we talking?
With SP's (any lures really) lighter the gear the better after all your trying to fool a fish into eating a peice of plastic.

[nabs12]

Hey
I think that once the fish are off the bit try different plastics and different weights or try a different area.
Once reason that they may have stopped is because you changed to heavier gear..
With SPs you are supposed to use as light gear as possible as the fish can be very finnicky and will be put off if they can see a difference or something....
Hope this helps

[Floyd2006]

Thanks for the replies, I was using 6lb braid with about a 40cm 10lb mono leader (is that light enough for sps?) because I got broken off I changed to 10lb mono with approx 50cm 30lb mono leader. I thought it would give me more of a chance against what ever it was that broke me off on the rocks, unfortunately that chance never came

Floyd

[Archer]

Your first setup sounds fine 6lb main 10lb leader. You could use the 10lb line but IMO your not going to get a touch on SP's with a 30lb leader....Not from Bream or flatties atleast. That may well have been the problem.

[fish2eat]

I agree that 30lb leader for estuary fisjhing will be a big turn off factor. Better to be prepared to lose an occasional fish than to get no takers at all.

[gogecko]

Dont use mono for leaders, fish can see it. Use fluro carbon leaders, like Berkley Vanish in 6-10lbs if you are targeting bream. They have the same light refraction index as water, and are virtually invisible to fish.

I use 20-30lbs vanish in some situations when Im only expecting big flattys and dont care about bream.

Dont reuse mangled SPs, they dont swim right. Fish wont bite it if it doesnt swim with the proper action.

That should sort you out.

Andrew

[aquarius]

Floyd try the pumpkinseed gulps in the 2" size for Bream and keep the hook small.
light flurocarbon leader say 8lb should be ok.
Cheers Brent

[moater]

I use 20-30lbs vanish in some situations when Im only expecting big flattys and dont care about bream.

Dont reuse mangled SPs, they dont swim right. Fish wont bite it if it doesnt swim with the proper action.

That should sort you out.

Andrew

Strewth!! What have I been doing wrong these past 34 years in using leader material from 10lb-30lb to catch flatties!!??..often caught some monsters over 10lb in weight while using no leader at all..just 6lb mono & not flourocarbon in any case....K.I.S.S??

Re mangled plastics,I've found that they may not look as sassy but can certainly go a long way to representing a mangled baitfish etc.Suppose it's how you deduce how things look under the water surface.

moater