Disappearing soft plastics

[Testlab]

Had a somewhat frustrating session about 3 miles off Broken Bay last weekend around the 50m mark. Almost as soon as 4 inch gulp or squidgy plastics hit the bottom they were torn to shreds with nothing but the bare jig head and hook coming back up. Several times we lost the entire terminal tackle with several feet of leader too and there was no sign of being snagged or bottom fouled.

I was thinking leather jackets although I have never seen anything demolish soft plastics that way and so fast. The loss of the whole lures could have been a couple of flatties biting us off (only using mono leaders) but a couple of other times the line was bitten or broken quite some way off the bottom.

Any ideas?

PS: I only have the 50 kHz sounder working at the moment so the bottom definition is not clear enough to see whats down there. Lesson learned... When installing a new dual 50/200 kHz through hull transducer, don't drop it. Now I have to wait until the boat is slipped again to replace it.

[brettmann86]

Hey mate definately leather jackets there, huge schools of them, they will destroy tackle, lures, jigs, terminal tackle and whatever else gets fed down to them!

[Juggs]

Definatly jackets nasty little bastards

Just pack up and move

[Testlab]

Thanks fellas. Little buggers were everywhere that day.