Can someone please advice when to use steel leaders during deep sea reef fishing. Normally, what should be length of the steel leader. When to use a sinker and when not to use a sinker?

Hi Hingol,

Good question.

Still use a sinker as you normally would...or would not.

Length of the leader will depend on a number of factors. But in real terms, for day to day fishing, what ever length you have is the right length

Shop purchased leaders often come in sizes at 20cm 45cm 60cm 90cm.

You can purchase DIY rolls of steel leader that come complete with crimps. They are usually available in 10 meter. 20 meter and 30 meter rolls.

Fish can smell...and I don't just mean when they have been left in the sun all day ...A blood hound can detect by smell a good 12 inches (30cm) into the ground. So you really need to bury that murder weapon a good 3 or 4 foot down .

Some studies have shown that some fish have a sense of smell some 10 thousand times more sensitive than that of a blood hound. Some fish, like sharks for example, have been shown in research studies, to be able to detect a few drops of blood in the water from several kilometers away.

Steel will and does react with salt water. Even stainless steel. It has an electrolysis reaction. Fish can smell it...all fish can smell it....So, the steel leader should be coated in nylon.

The reason for a steel leader, or as we call it here in Australia, a trace. Is to stop the toothy fish biting through it or cutting you off on rocks. Many sort after reef fish are ambush predators. They open their mouth and simply suck in what ever it was they were targeting...including 20 or 30 or 40 cm's of your line. Then the jaws of the ambusher come crashing closed with line cutting force...and it all happens within a fraction of a second.

So steel trace or leader when reef fishing, in my opinion is a must have.

Thanks itsaboat. You always come to the rescue. I use a Vexilar fish finder. The last time I went on a deep sea reef about 25 kms from the shoreline, the current was fast and the fish were between 20-30ft and the total depth was 110ft. I used a bottom sinker, the fish wont bite and when I tried vertical jigging, the strong currents wouldn't allow me. What would you do in such a situation. Got fed up and cast a dead mullet with hooks in it. We were night fishing. My friends woke me with a barracuda next to me telling me that I have caught the 6 kg barracuda.

There are several methods. You could use a heavy sinker as a dropper below the hook.

You might be able to get a hydrofoil. Not sure if that is what they are called. It is like a wing which dives when water current flows over it. If they have them in your local tackle store, they will be able to show you how to use it.

You could point the nose of the boat into the current then fish off the stern using a sinker heavy enough to go down 30 to 40 feet.

There is no reason why you cannot add a sinker above your jig. The jig will of course move a little different but it will still work if you add sinkers to the line.

I would say if you were getting down to the fish and they were not biting, then maybe you were using the wrong bait for that day.

I just remembered. The diving wing thing is called a paravane.