i have not used teasers yet but i will this season, my question is does it wrap around the line when you cast it out or when you retrieve. the setup i plan on useing is a 5 foot length of leader with a 15 inch length of leader for the teaser. it just seems to be tangle prone to me, any thoughts on this.

When I ues a teaser I just tie a blood dropper in my leader about 2 feet up from the lure. 15" might be a little long.

I usually fish conventional and use a leader long enough to wind on the spool 3 or 4 wraps and still leave about a 3' from the rod tip to the lure.

fishpart, you use a dropper loop rather then another length of leader for the teaser. that sounds better then what i was thinking, thanks :D

DCF - I use spinners, and have done it a few different ways. Both have a barrel swivel on the main line. Then tie on your plug leader (maybe 3 feet) with a palomer, leaving the tag end long (long enough so that you can tie on the teaser, and have it a couple feet from the plug.

Does it wrap around the main leader - yes, occasionally, but usually not so often to be that annoying.

The other thing I've done, is the same as above, but leave the tag end long enough to make a double trace back to the swivel, and tie it again with a uni or half blood. Then, tie 3 or 4 overhand knots in the double trace every few inches. The advantage here is that the multiple overhand knots and the double trace helps the teaser stand out from the main leader, and you can also change teasers without retieing. (Just slip the end of the double trace thru the teaser eye, and over the hook). The disadvantage -I don't like the second knot on the swivel, and I also often wonder about comprimising the teaser leader line strength with those multiple overhand knots in it.

If you are using flies, what patterns are you using for the teasers?

I've been tying sparse bucktails with flash on 1/0. White, yellow, olive and different variations.

Any other suggestions? Also, are imitator patterns or attractor patterns more effective?

I use a high contrast hackle over bucktail most of the time. I have also had luck with small shad bodies, curl tail plastic worms, so I would say about anything will work.

if you do any jigging off of a boat either for cod or for stripers use one of those small shad bodies, 2" are wicked good. if your going for cod use the bigger ones at 4". caught most of cod on those.
i use a 5-7" dropper for my teasers and have no problem with it wrapping around the leader or main line.

Ditto on the dropper loop!

Dropper loops work fine when you have a double header of schoolies. When you have a 20# on the plug and another 20 on the teaser, you're in trouble

:hang:


I like a 9" trace tied to the top ring of a barrel. Use stiff leader material (Ande, Stren Hi-Impact) or flourocarbon and it won't tangle that badly around the main leader.

Ditto what Mike said. I would add that I use a higher lb test on the teaser. I will usually use a short piece of 50lb for the teaser.

I agree with Billy and Mike, anytime I use a teaser I tie both of them on with 50 or 60 # shock cord to the smallest barrel swivel (black) that I can find. The higher test leader also helps stop tangles.
I usually use this setup with a rebel swimmer or a bomber plug and a red gill teaser. Lately I've been having a hard time getting red gills, so I've been using Power Worms instead, which have been working out great for me.
Later,
Rick

great info guy's, i will use the 9" trace for my teasers. i use 20lb test for the main line and i use 50lb test for the leader. should i use 50lb for the trace on the teaser also, or should i go down in test on the leader?

I sometimes have trouble with the teaser wrapping around my line, like was mentioned flourocarbon is much stiffer and is less prone to it.

But my problems often come from the cast. Sometimes when I'm throwing conventional, I tend to throw side arm and it sometimes gets my rig spinning thru the air. Sounds weird but its true. I usually just "correct my swing" and go over the top and it stops.

As far as line strength... I used to use 20lb, but when you get a couple keeper size fish on, they can destroy that quickly.

I use 30lb. flouro minimum (actually I get my teaser rigs from fisherwoman and she uses 30lb, but if I was going to tie them and when I re-tie, I use 30lb.).

I use a double rig all the time fly fishing as well as conventional. You've got to keep the dropper 3-4 inches long at max. This should alleviate any tangles. And yes use a stiff mono for the dropper. Keep it short:D

I went to the Frank Daignault school of teaserdom. I leave at least 48" between lure and teaser. I use big wood as the weight and make my own teasers out of things you can buy at walmart. The argument for the extra long leader is that if a LARGE bass moves in on your teaser you don't want the plug whacking her in the belly and spooking 'er! I use 50# fluro for both leaders tied to a 75# barrel. I have had some instance of wrapped leader however.

-Dave

Drumcorpfan, everybody has there own preference on length of leader ect. What I would suggust is that you give a couple of different lengths a try and see which one works best for you depending on what type of gear you are using.

If you are using a 7 foot rod, you don't want your leader so longs as to not be able to properly load and cast the rod. Obiously the longer the rod the longer the leader you would use. We only use 30# seagar florocarbon, we use a small barrel swivel and tie 2 seperate knots, in that same barrel, one for the teaser itself and one for the main leader, that way if you get 2 fish on at one time and one is very large or both. this will prevent you from losing both fish, because the lines are not attached together. At the bottom we attach a small snap to the main leader, so that you can change to any lure you want.

Sometimes you will have the lines cross, but with the stiffer leader line they unravel pretty quickly, this will aslo not hinder your hookup ratio as to the fish this line is invisable. Mostly this happens from casting out and also depends on what type of lure you are using, the more aerodynamic the lure the less cross you get. The one you need to worry about is when the fly leader moves up over onto your main line because if you hook up this could break your main line and you could lose the whole rig. So that is the only time we worry about the line crossing. When we are boat fishing we will use heaver leader if the fish we have come across are bigger. But we have landed many doubles with both fish weighing about 20lbs each on 30# floro. But the choice is yours. I would just recomend trying different lengths, you don't want the leader so long that you cannot cast properly, so keep that in mind. Our main leaders are about 30 inches long and the fly leader is about 1/2 of that. Hope this helps, just my 2 cents.

thanks fisherwoman, i will try a few different versions. i will be starting with my 7' spinning outfit first. then learn on my 9' conv. setup. great info i copied this down, thank you very much.:D

Your welcome Drumcorpfan, just hope it helps explain a little better on the set up. Best of luck, If you are going to the MSBA show we will have a booth there, come by and say hello and I will show you how we tie them up as We will be selling them at the show.

I still don't get the 48" thing FD talks about...sounds awkward.

I use those little spro swivels and I tie my line to one end and the floro leader to the other...I leave a large (about 9" or so) "tag end" of the leader and attach the teaser to that. The tag end from the leader knot naturally hangs out at 90 degrees from the leader and this minimizes the number of knots and lines I have.
I don't have tangles or twisting. And I can't recall loosing any fish in the manner FD talks about.
I suggest you find what works for you and use it.

I never got FD's thing about bass getting spooked by bumping the plug either--like a 48" bass has never bumped other baitfish in the school when feeding :confused:

I've seen fish literally "shoulder" other bass aside to get to a popper.

I use 50 or 60 LB Ande and tie a loop using a double surgeons knot. I attach the main line at the loop and tie the teaser off about six inches long on the tag end. with that heavy leader material , I'm not worried about the leader failing at the plug or teaser.

I like two teasers in particular. One is high contrast , black hackle over white bucktail. The other is the graded teaser which you see under my name on the posts.

Almost forgot. i leave about 3 feet between the teaser and the plug.

Originally posted by Saltheart
i leave about 3 feet between the teaser and the plug.

Hey Salt,

If you leave 3' between teaser and plug, how long is the leader you use for your plug???

Rob

I've lost fish when using the tag end of an improved clinch, 40 lb flouro. This will only happen if you have two biguns on. Without a reel drag to protect the knots, the two fish only need to pull maybe30 lbs to break a knot pulling on both the intentionally strong main line end of the knot, and the convenient tag end. But to lose two fish who can pull thirty pounds is enough to make me cry. I always tie seperate knots for plug leader and teaser leader, because I look goofy standin on the sand crying. If you use heavy leaders, which you should with teasers, they won't knot up too much. " learn from my mistakes".......longshot