North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

You are right in what you say there mate. One of the main features if this idea is the position of tow point. However I'm not really worried about getting more hookups on barra as they usually do it themselves.
This year with barra being slightly more scarce at places like corroboree I'm spending more time targeting toga with my clients. People who haven't fished much with weedless or for toga in general have trouble generating enough strike speed and power to push a hook through the upper sections of the fishes mouth. Toga are more of a bite feeder than a boof feeder and a downward facing hook when fishing with popper flies for example always produces more positive hookups.
It's all just talk at the moment though until I give it a good run on the water so we will see how things progress.

itsinmeblood wrote:

Barefoot Fishing wrote:I have been fiddling around with some jig heads that will present a weedless plastic with the hook point facing downward in the last few days, it looks good in the pool. time will tell how it goes in heavy cover, but im hopeful.

the idea is to target the weak/soft spot on both toga and barras mouths which is the bottom jaw, anyone who has ever examined a togas gob will understand why we drop so many when they jump. im hoping this little trick might come up the goods.
Testing begins on sunday!

good in theory mate, although there was some slow motion footage of a barra boofing a bit of bait on here recently and the violence of the strike and inhalation of it makes it seem unlikely anything eaten would stay upright long enough for the direction of the hook to make much impact....most bazz I get on plastics are hooked in the jaw hinge suggesting that they're hooked as they turn away from you after boofing causing the plastic to be dragged back out of it's throat and catching the point as it's drawn around the corner the line forms from rod tip to fish's jaw, rigging a plastic point up or down would give the same result as it'd be the location of the tow point to hook point that would determine the way it faces when a fish strikes...clear as mud
lots of smarter people on here in regards to the hows and whys of all things barra though be good to hear their take on the way barra are hooked

You are defiantly right in what you say about barra boofs. They are very violent indeed, however then underwater version in a cool dry season billabong is a much more sedate behaviour. A light tap or even a mouthing of lures can clearly be seen in good clear water, like that in the upper daly etc.

Saying that, this idea isn't targeted at barra particularly because the hookup rate is generally far better than that of saratoga.
This is in my opinion partly because of the method in which toga feed and partly because of the make up of the fishes gob.
If you check out this video:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=581892985183764
shot at Staaten river lodge where my little bro guides there is no doubt that toga are 'bite' feeders. they attack at speed open their mouth and then close it fast, the turn might or might not happen depending on the situation.
The other issue of mouth make up is easy to see, toga are in the family Osteoglossidae, also known as bony-tongues. The name "bonytongues" is derived from a toothed bone on the floor of the mouth, the "tongue", equipped with teeth that bite against teeth on the roof of the mouth. fly fisherman are a prime example of those who take advantage of the soft points either side of a togas bony tongue. When fishing surface fly or indeed many sub surface fly patterns, hookup rate on toga increases greatly, to the point where i would almost say you can catch more toga on fly in a day than any other method.

So following the successful hookup rates on fly i am playing around with downward facing weedless presentations. The tow point is a factor in determining which way up a hook will sit but the key issue is weight. if there is more weight above the tow point the hook point rides up and the same for the opposite. I have been spot welding, bending, braising and melting lead all over the joint and have come up with some half decent setups, although the best ones as in most things are the simplest.

All the talk in the world doesn't prove a point though and i can say from todays first field test, it looks great for toga! with a far better hookup rate and less damage to fish also.
As for the barra, ill have to find some first!
Cheers.

had plenty of tails nipped off plastics by togas, maybe a single hook trailing back might help

If you could post a couple of photo's of the mods that you have toyed with would be much appreciated. I have played with the idea my self especially with the bigger rubbers that seem to have a horrible hook up rate and retention when weedless but haven't found a definite answer.
The idea sounds good to me.

will do lads, once i have it all sorted it will be very public knowledge...

Great idea let's hope it works for you
Well done

Cheers Craig

Great idea let's hope it works for you
Well done

Cheers Craig