dhype Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 (edited) Been slowly moving to using blades instead of plastics in the Bay and my go to blade is the zx35... love this shrimp blade with the trailing feeler hooks, great hookup rate which is very weed resistant. So, with this in mind thought i would "convert" a few of my tradition blades to the trailing style hooks, spent an hour on Saturday making my own feeler hooks with leftover bits in my tackle box. The original zx35 (its had a hard life!) on the top of the picture and the bottom 2 tails are the ones I made up. They came out pretty good and it now only takes me 5 minutes to put a set togeather. Anyway... went out today, Sunday in very crap conditions to see if they are any good...mmmmm... yes they worked a treat! Landed well over a dozen flatties in a few short hours... all the fish taking the "feeler" hooks instead if the W hook on the body itself. Hookup rate was also a lot higher than with the standard trebles on the VX blades. Largest flatty today was only about 60cm but there was plenty of them chasing down the blades.... very happy with the results of the feeler hook mod. On another note, my mate found a new patch of kelp and it had a few squid in amongst them! Cant wait to hit this new patch next week! Till next week! Trung Edited May 27, 2012 by dhype Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenno64 Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Great work Trung! I use the ZX40s and have success on them. Adapting your other blades is a great idea as the trailing hooks have an amazing success rate. What depth were you fishing today? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdol9 Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Well done Trung . Wasn't to nice in bay ? choppy? Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisg Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Out of interest what hook did you use for the ones you made up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkat87 Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Master of the Bay strikes again! well done Trung nice mods and even better to see them paying off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luderick Hunter Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 what line do you use to connect hooks? Thanks John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plumb Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Nice work on the blade upgrade, i recently did the same to some halco's, I reckon their heaps better. Up to 60cm is a great table size and a bag of squid too... Cheers Luke Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhype Posted May 27, 2012 Author Share Posted May 27, 2012 (edited) Great work Trung! I use the ZX40s and have success on them. Adapting your other blades is a great idea as the trailing hooks have an amazing success rate. What depth were you fishing today? Thanks Rob, Yeah the VX and ZX range work fantasic in the Bay, catch just about everything. Was getting the fish in slightly deeper waters , 3 to 5m. Well done Trung . Wasn't to nice in bay ? choppy? Chris 20+ knot winds = washing machine conditions.. plenty sh1t. Lucky I had the ipilot minn kota going otherwise it would have been impossible to fish today. Out of interest what hook did you use for the ones you made up? After looking everywhere I ended up buying some size 6 and 8 Gamakatsu hooks from the USA.. these are very very close to the original ecogear ones. Not too sure the model right now off the top of my head... Master of the Bay strikes again! well done Trung nice mods and even better to see them paying off! Thanks! Donut King is no more! what line do you use to connect hooks? Thanks John. Using Daiwa Boat Braid PE4 to attach the feeler hooks to the ring. It about 50lb breaking strain and the Daiwa line is very round and smooth... great stuff Edited May 27, 2012 by dhype Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jew Stalker Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 What knot did you use to tie the braid to the hook? It looks like a snell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adjustedpete Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Nice little setup there Trung,its good to see a plan working out.I have time on my hands at the mo',so Im gonna give it a go. I think the bream will love them too.I might make the tail a little shorter though. I like the single hook setup. I gave trebles away a long time ago. Not for any reason except I got sick of pulling the damn things out of my fingers, hands,jacket,shirt,leg,etc,etc.. i Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robofish Posted May 27, 2012 Share Posted May 27, 2012 Nice work Trung - I have recently had a good run with blades in Broken Bay and am going to give them singles a go. Mate you know that bay like the back of your hand. Dave Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quintrex480 Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 hey hey! donut man is no more... well done buddy! hope I can get onto them soon as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaysondanielgraham Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 What is better blades or Plastics? i always lose my blades and they cost to much to replace at the rate that i lose them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 I have been playing around with the same. From what I can find out the hooks are Mosquito hooks, although I couldn't find any of these and got some Black Magic fly hooks which have a similar profile. Even tried the trailing hooks on a Jackall Chubby & caught a nice flathead. Have also got the trailing hooks attached to other lures but haven't had time to try them out yet. So far I have used 20KG braid, but would like to try a lighter braid as I think the hooks would swing a bit more freely. The home made trailer hooks worked a treat last weekend on a ZX with plenty of undersized Bream, even had a double hookup a litle tailor on one hook with a little Bream on the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hnsgeq Posted May 28, 2012 Share Posted May 28, 2012 That's a legendary effort! Very impressive..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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