Back leads

[Chris Allcock]

Who uses back leads, would they be of any use on the middle Severn? And what is the best setup for one?

Thanks

 

[Howard Cooke]

I do Chris (on the Kennet) on a downstream rod if I am fishing close to the near bank. I use a pallatrax stone or similar. I find them quite a pain to cast and worry about their effectiveness if I want to fish mid river or beyond. I am still in two minds about the need to backlead and have had mixed responses here to this question. When fishing close in my instinct is that it can give you an edge so it just becomes a confidence thing. Otherwise, particularly during daylight and when the water is failry clear, I will use a leader material to help pin things down behind the lead (which I prefer to having a long hook length). A lot of this says more about my general casting ability than anything else though!

 

[Neil Smart]

Have thought about this under circumstances previously mentioned, fishing near bank, but not realy sure if there is any real benefit, perhaps keeping the tip low and a longer hooklength is as effective.

 

[Gary Downie]

Have many uses including keeping the line out of the way if there is a lot of boat traffic.

 

[Darren George]

On middle severn I reckon the least faff to snag up the better. I'd go with a longer hooklength, but I understand long HL's are getting quite popular...

 

[Neil Blood]

I very occasionally use them close in (fishing down the side) when drifting weed and other debris a problem. In normal conditions, if you want to keep feeding fish away from the lead and main line, go for a long hooklength of anything upto 6ft, with 4 feet being more the norm.

There's an interesting clip in Barbel Days and Ways, where the underwater footage shows Barbel spooking when they touch what's effectively a trip wire between the main lead and back lead.

 

[Howard Cooke]

I very occasionally use them close in (fishing down the side) when drifting weed and other debris a problem. In normal conditions, if you want to keep feeding fish away from the lead and main line, go for a long hooklength of anything upto 6ft, with 4 feet being more the norm.

There's an interesting clip in Barbel Days and Ways, where the underwater footage shows Barbel spooking when they touch what's effectively a trip wire between the main lead and back lead.

Neil-possibly an odd question, and its possibly my technique, but with your long hook lengths are you fishing swims where a side/overhead cast is used? Most of the swims I fish require an underarm lob action and I find casting a long hook length something of a challenge in order to get good accuracy.

 

[Andrew Boyne]

There's an interesting clip in Barbel Days and Ways, where the underwater footage shows Barbel spooking when they touch what's effectively a trip wire between the main lead and back lead.

I've not seen the clip but would agree with that, having spent hours watching them, taught mono causes panic - be it at an angle through the water or pinned down. If you are going to pin it down, cover it up with some tubing and/or fish as slack a line as possible - hard in moving water but possible with some thought.

 

[Neil Blood]

Neil-possibly an odd question, and its possibly my technique, but with your long hook lengths are you fishing swims where a side/overhead cast is used? Most of the swims I fish require an underarm lob action and I find casting a long hook length something of a challenge in order to get good accuracy.

Yes can relate to what you say and especially with my 11 ft rods on a small river like the Dane. Where an under arm lob is required, I attach one of these to the lead, and hang a PVA mesh bag from it:

Avid Carp PVA Metal Clips

I then place the hook in the mesh, thus halving the length of the hook length on the cast/lob. You can also do this with the anchor leads where you tuck a PVA mesh bag under the rubber ring. Also works best with stiff hooklength materials.

 

[Justin Cubberley]

Does anyone have any links that illustrate how our mainline acts in flowing water? Better still if shown with slack line, tips up and down? I would be interested to view.

 

[Brian Willson]

I hate the thought of using backleads, but if you are fishing a nearside swim and there is a lot of weed coming down then they are a must,
Keith Humphreys popped in with Keith Little the other day for a chat and a cuppa, and he showed me his idea of clipping a backlead onto the line after the cast has been made, the backlead is 3ozs and is attached by a cord to the rod rest, on top of the lead he has screwed in a stainless steel adapta ball indicator by solar tackle, so each one costs about £7.50, so off i went and bought all the appropiate gear and made one myself, Keith uses mono and has had some success, i will try mine out tomorrow, i use braid so i am hoping that it slides down the line ok, i have attached mine using some unwanted lead core that i no longer would use for fishing, so the idea looks spot on, now for tomorrows big test.
So when my monster Barbel picks up my bait and tears off, the back lead should pop off the main line, if it don't, then when the rod is lifted it should come off then.
I then net my 20lb Barbel unhook and return it to the water, i then retrieve my back lead by pulling it back in via the tied leadcore or cord,
Now to recast for another monster or throw the backlead away because it didn't work.......................fingers crossed.
Brian.

 

[Marty Mulcairn]

i use backleads a lot, for me there are 2 different approaches:

1) freesliding backlead - as light as conditions allow, sometimes an 1/8th oz is all you need.

2) captive backlead (with linegate) - heavier the better! the heaviest (3oz?) Fox jobbies are fine for stillwaters and slow moving waters but ive made some of my own with 5oz of weight for fast/deep waters. The key is for the backlead not to move when lifting the line, and for the anchor line to be under very slight tension.

99% of the time i opt for option 2, if set up right its almost infallible and allows you to place backlead precisely.