Keith, or whoever, what type of heads do you find best?
I know the Bachi is popular but those really are a tad pricey, especially with an xlayer attached, to be losing them quite frequently.
Yep, Bachi are expensive but great. However, for serious HRF you cannot start worrying about end tackle loss.
Whilst xlayers etc are superb lures, save em for known territory. On exploratory missions I run owner 'football' heads in various sizes as they have nice strong and smaller hooks. Also the heads from AGM can be good but get round bend, ball type. Sabot heads would be great if we could find any that were any good.
Ideally, you need a head with a strong but medium wire hook. It needs to have a line tie that allows the lure to move as you want it. Fishing OTD really requires a tie that is 90 degree's to the shank but it isn't always the best when you want to do 'bottom work'. A tie that is 45 degree's or 60 degree's might be more beneficial. However, I will hold my hand up and say that we too are learning at an exponential rate and stuff I thought was right last year has almost been discarded as we have gone on to learn more.
Remember, me and Kev have been jig fishing for a loooong time but mostly with bucktails and the head weight is often offset by the bulk and floatation qualities of the hair. This said, we are convinced now that our standard 1/2oz bucktail was in actual fact, too heavy.
Go with affordable quality if you want any advice. We are going to mould our own sooner or later for HRF. Ball jig is one that you cannot really be without and I'd suggest get ones with round bend hooks and no collar with a 90 degree tie. Try to make the physical size of the head larger than the soft lure itself because otherwise the touchdown is dulled by the lure hitting the bottom first. I use a tick and flick over the rocks that allows the lure to drop more rapidly than when after Pollack. This ensures the jig/sp combo dives head first into the rock or bottom structure.
This is a very fluid situation right now Andy so please don't take my suggestions as absolute rules because they are not. We are still learning what is right and when and where too.
Tackle isn't that much different is it, although there is some slightly more job specific stuff.
Actually Ben, it can be. Some rods you pay serious money for just will not transfer bottom information to the angler. It's hard to explain but it is real. Some rods are just totally dull, some are lively, some are just ok. In fact, some hollow tips read bottom way better than some solid tips. And yet, the assumption is that a solid tip is more sensitive. For HRF, the good old bushwacker reads bottom like a £150 rod. Yet other £200 + rods just cannot. It's not a fault. British Sea lure rods just have never had bottom reading as part of a design brief. As a consequence, some will and some won't. I can guarantee that those that do, weren't meant too. It's just a bye product I think. This is why the Japanese and US sourced rods seem to have more feel. It IS part of the design brief.
