Heavy leaders?

[Breambo1]

Hey guys. Just wondering, what lb would be the max I should go in heavy structure and shallow rock bars? I've always called 6lb to be heaps but after getting demolished on my panish yesterday and having other fish all under 32cm coming within inches of dusting me I'm wonder how heavy would you recommend before I'm going to heavily decrease the bite? And what brands do you recomend in heavy stuff? The water I fish is the Onkaparinga here in SA and one google search will show you the chocolate goodness of the system.

[olistevo]

Sunline rock 8lb. Its what I use for gnarly snags.

[vegasbreamman]

Yamatoyo best leader on market hands down
I fish heavy structure a lot and 8lb holds as best as you can get

[CK]

I reckon, only your own experience will answer that question brembo. I have fished upto 10lb without any noticeable ill effect, but the fish were switched on and the water cloudy. Like you I think 6 is plenty these days, i used to fish 4lb exclusively. Only way to satisfy your own questions, is to change up or down on the day and see what YOUR results are.

[HB tragic]

I have to agree with CK. It is a matter of trial and hopefully with little if no error. I fish 4lb and have landed more good fish than lost. Having said that I have lost good fish in my local to 4lb and 6lb leader as neither appreciated being dragged across the rocks. That is the chance you take. None of my spools loaded for breaming go any heavier then 8lb and I tend to only use that weight around the pontoons that I fish. Pleasing to here that you lost your hb to a fish. The few times I have fished the Onkaparinga had me finding more snags than fish. Also worth noting that in trying to get off my break tended to happen at the leader knot rather than at the lure. At the time I was using 6lb. As an aside I use Yamatoyo Harris Fighter fluro. Look forward to reading how you go. Regards, HBt.

[ruski]

You can go all the way up to 20lb if you think it's required. Water clarity and structure will dictate what leader i tie on.

I used 17lb Unitika flurocarbon on the weekend on pre-fish morning at Nelson as I couldn't be bothered re-tying after a recent mulloway trip - still caught legal bream

[Zeus]

I'm fairly new to bream fishing,only started around 6 months ago cause I wanted to get into comp fishing for something new. What I have found is I'm using 4lb more consistantly compared to when I first started I was Using 6-8lb. The type of bream fishing I do is mainly structure based pontoons,pylons,rock bars,slipways and so on. I was loosing fish on the 6-8lb set ups and not getting as much action.so as I got a little more familiar as to how these fish fight I saw myself going lighter to get more of a bite . Now I pretty much just fish 4lb with plastics and 6lb in heavy structure when I've got a hard body on. (They cost more) and yeah I get dusted sometimes but I've also pulled some nice 40's too. The big thing for me was that I sat back and looked at how I was fighting these fish (coming from a bass fishing background it's go hard or get done) so I changed to a more soft approach. Instead of trying to reef em out I fished them out changed rod angles, instead of pulling with the rod I just kept reeling just things to change there thinking. Since I have started doing this I have been getting more bites and less busy offs.So maybe look at changing your fighting style. Cause at the end of the day just cause you go heavier doesn't mean your not going to get dusted either.

Dane ...

[Breambo1]

Yeah. I'm currently using 6lb Yamatoyo Rock fish and love it, but might try some 8lb. I just wasn't sure how much of the bight I'd loose. I usually go 2.5-3lb straight thru for most of my breaming including pontoon work and have pulled fish to 37 with it but its just so hard with 6lb at this spot as water is between 30cm to 1m deep depending on tide and the bream drag you over rocks whatever you do. As HBT mentioned the onka is snag mecca although I wear waders now so I just go and fetch snagged lures (it's only a shallow river where the deepest part is 16 foot and 10 metres wide).

[dirvin21]

I use 8lb platyl pretest seems to hold up to a fair amount of abuse from snags and still get plenty of hits

[redfinfisho]

Certain factors will dictate what leader I will use. Things like the type of lure I'm fishing, water clarity etc. I've fished 10lb with cranka crabs and have caught bream np but I'd never use that with small bibbed hard bodies, if the waters dirty u can get away with a stronger leader but 6-8lb for structure work generally. 4lb for most normal fishing applications.