suspending plastic lures

Rich · Post by **Rich** » Fri May 18, 2007 5:19 pm

I remember reading a yarn recently on the forum about someone catching barra on suspending soft bodied(plastic) lures. What makes them suspend?(obviously not lead!), and what sought of success have folks had with them?
rich

dodgyone · Post by **dodgyone** » Fri May 18, 2007 5:35 pm

2rods has some. Head seems to be still weighted but the body is hollow plastic.Body is a bit bulkier than the standard rubber. Want to give some a try shortly. Look ok.

Shane Doevy · Post by **Shane Doevy** » Fri May 18, 2007 5:44 pm

Yeah i got of the same - they look the goods - with my boat in dry dock for at least another week i wont get to look at them for a while. Then im on duty for a week so it looks like 2 weeks off the water forme!!

Shane

BarraBeast · Post by **BarraBeast** » Sat May 19, 2007 8:14 am

Last run off Tom Kontis outfished all of us one day using berkely prawns in white with no weight, just dangled them in the current. but the hooks were too flexible and he lost a lot of heavy barra. so ungrade to better hooks and they are good suspenders

Shane mate what's happening with your Xtreme? did the spark plug leads fall off?

Shane Doevy · Post by **Shane Doevy** » Sat May 19, 2007 12:19 pm

Yeah i reckon the hooks on the storm suspenders will need upgrading as well - they come with the normal hook and a treble but neither are overly strong so i think i will be upgrading them before i give them a run.

The XXtreme is no worries - the Suzuki has a busted gearbox - end result of a run in with a rock bar last friday - new gear housing etc on order - should all be back ready to rock end next week or early the week after

Cheers
Shane

Walkabout · Post by **Walkabout** » Sat May 19, 2007 1:12 pm

the storm fat suspending lure has a very low hook up rate! it has a fixed hook on top which does not protrude enough to hook anything. The treble below has the same problem cause the lure is so wide.

I lost 3 very solid fish to the storm so i switched to another rubber and smacko 110cm on a single hooked sinking model.

Post by **Matt Flynn** » Sat May 19, 2007 5:12 pm

Try the resin heads that are available at the tackle shops - stick these in a soft plastic body and you have a slow sinker, which can work really well in some situations.

I would like to see a big range of suspending and slow sinking lures in the shops, they have a lot of application on barra.

zedjack33 · Post by **zedjack33** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 12:07 pm

Hey all

I have been using Terminator Snapbacks as a floating/suspended lure.

They are reasonably easy to walk on the surface etc. Depending upon the depth I want to run em, I wack on a bit of Ã¢â‚¬Å“Sticky WeightÃ¢â‚¬Â

Night Stalker · Post by **Night Stalker** » Fri Aug 03, 2007 4:55 pm

Shane Doevy wrote
The XXtreme is no worries - the Suzuki has a busted gearbox - end result of a run in with a rock bar last friday - new gear housing etc on order - should all be back ready to rock end next week or early the week after

Shane, Did you have a stainless prop on?

John

slug · Post by **slug** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 9:00 am

[quote="zedjack33"]I have been using Terminator Snapbacks as a floating/suspended lure.

They are reasonably easy to walk on the surface etc. Depending upon the depth I want to run em, I wack on a bit of Ã¢â‚¬Å“Sticky WeightÃ¢â‚¬Â

rossco · Post by **rossco** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 5:23 pm

I've lost a number of big fish on the storm suspending plastics. The problem seems to be that the treble is not connected all the way through and it will pull out through the body. I did two big fish this year in the East like this. They are great lures though and I am looking at modifyling the hook connections for next run off.

bandit · Post by **bandit** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 7:06 pm

beef up the hooks on your HB's and they should suspend.

i do it on all my bong lures, its what sets them apart. works a treat. wouldnt go back to their floating cousins.

obviously this will not work on a 160 classic tho

meter_seeker · Post by **meter_seeker** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 10:41 pm

The most successful time i've had with using soft plastics is in the run off. I cant go past the resin head range that squidgees do, extremely durable. Gotta revert to the spinner at times with a light jig and plastic, but there ideal staying in eddies for a longer period of time without reeling in, a few quick twitches should see a hook up. Within that selection of gear its squidgees and kokodas for me, chasing barra anyways.

Richieboy · Post by **Richieboy** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 8:38 pm

It's an interesting theory "suspending" soft plastics.
In general you can choose plastics which will naturally suspend by there action if you look for what you are buying.
I'm talking profiles of big plastics.
Take for example what I've been into lately using large paddle tail style plastics up to 160mm long.
Now when I'm talking tails I mean fat.
Rig these internally with weights up to 3/8oz and the tail action will still supply enough action to slow there sink rate. We've been casting lures like this over the flats and getting barra up to 75cm and dropping bigger using this technique.
I have used Sticky weights alot back in Brissie but now I just buy suspending HB's out of the pack.
Sticky weight is exactly that, just moulded lead which you stick inder the bib or wherever you want to weigh the lure down. Careful, not too much or you will totally change the action of your lure and end up with a dead HB.
Depending on where you stick it you can get the lure to suspend nose up, down or even neautral bouyancy.
As for trebles used to suspend lures, very hard in my opinion. I'm getting alot of results on changing trebles on already suspending lures and getting them to actually have a very slow sink rate. Twitch up over some timber and then pause and watch the HB flutter down slowly amidst some timber until you're ready to twitch back up again.
I like these conversations....stimulates new techniques and ideas to try. rather than trying to bleed secret spots or edit pics, try gleaming new techniques and ideas to try. Besides I love sunset backgrounds and crazy looking snags.
The NT is a big fishery and there are alot of fish at your doorstep if you are willing to step out of your comfort zone. Tight lines lads.....

Richie

slug · Post by **slug** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 12:32 am

All good stuff Richie - as Jason said elsewhere, your becoming a wealth of new found thinking, & your results are certainly backing your trials.

I've never heard of sticky weight, but have now an added 'tool' in the box (didn't convince me for 'suspending' HB floaters like the classic, but has a $hitload of other applications I can use it for).

I'm now looking for a product like a syringe of helium (or +'ve floatation gism of some sort) to inject into your favourite weighted shad - 3 "Pearl Tsunami is mine. The thought of casting a small weighted shad at a snag on a 2 meter bank, and having it drift slowly to 1.5 meters & suspend gets me excited