Bait head leaders

[bluewater]

I got a bunch of Rhys Davis bait heads I wanted to try running but i'm not sure how long the leaders need to be from the flasher on these can anyone help me out with this. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Paul Czarnecki]

A general rule of thumb that I use is to tie the hooks on, slide on the bait head and let it dangle so that the hooks just touch the floor. I then cut the leader at chest height. Of course, I'm 6'3" so it might be different for you. Try 50" and you'll be in the ball park.

[bigweenies]

For the big paddles try 42" for the big fish shaped flashers try about 50" like Paul says. A big thing on Lake Mi is a small 8" paddle or dodger with a 30 to 36" leader, works very good. Hope this helps, BW

[Tim Bromund]

Back when I was running cut bait regularly when the Ryes Davies (sp?) cut bait was available, we found that you selected leader length based on if you wanted numbers or size. If you just wanted to catch fish, then 4-5 foot leaders worked fine, if you wanted to target less numbers but big kings, we stretched the leader back to 6 feet, sometimes a bit more. That was behind the big 11" paddles (hot spots or oki big shooters) or 13" fish shaped flashers.

When we ran meat it was usually for big guys, we all found that less is more and we ran a minimal spread usually just 2 riggers, minimum of 15' separation between the rigger depths and leads between 20 and 30 feet. We seldom ran dipsies or junk lines , just the 2 riggers with meat, it seemed like the more you had in the water, the less you caught. Many days in august when the meat bite was on, 2 rods was all you needed.

With the arrival of VHS and the relative unavailiability of meat and the advent of spinnies and flies, I seldom ever run meat anymore, though I have had some good luck with the familiar bite whole alewifes when I've run it.

Tim