Softbaiting on overhead?
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Saltwater Fishing
Forum Name: Soft Bait Fishing
Forum Description: Anything to do with this latest and greatest way of catching our favourite species
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=131784
Printed Date: 12 Dec 2019 at 1:17pm
Topic: Softbaiting on overhead?
Posted By: _jackrw_
Subject: Softbaiting on overhead?
Date Posted: 29 Aug 2019 at 9:27am
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Just bought myself a Penn Fathom 12 Star Drag with ambitions of straylining and jigging. Its one of the best overheads in its size/price range in terms of casting, so that got me thinking about its softbaiting possibilities. In theory, wouldn't overhead be more effective for softbaiting? You can thumb the spool on the drop and feel every twitch, and you can put the breaks on a strike much faster compared to flipping the bail arm on a spinner. Or does the more resistive free-spool of an overhead impede the softbaits action? |
Replies:
Posted By: Telecaster
Date Posted: 29 Aug 2019 at 9:52am
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I sometimes use my Okuma Citrix 364 for softbaiting but find it difficult to cast anything lighter than 1/2oz on it. Being able to thumb the spool is great especially in deeper water. |
Posted By: MightyBoosh
Date Posted: 29 Aug 2019 at 10:55am
| If you're talking about casting soft baits (rather than dropping straight down) and you can cast your chosen weight of jig head, then it would work, but it's a pretty big reel for soft baiting. |
Posted By: Rozboon
Date Posted: 29 Aug 2019 at 2:25pm
| The issue is the inertia of the spool. Just way too much weight to get moving with a light jighead, especially once it's full of line. |
Posted By: Muppet
Date Posted: 29 Aug 2019 at 2:28pm
| Fish 1 ounce jighead deeper water no worries. |
Posted By: Structfab
Date Posted: 29 Aug 2019 at 4:49pm
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Bass & Barramundy Fisho's use O/H for casting softbaits (and crankbaits etc), especially in shallow water areas where you want a crank on immediately on splash down, instead of having to deal with a bail arm first. Generally they're all low profile baitcaster types tho...like a curado. If you can cast the Fathom ok....why not? but as said above....you might loose alot of distance with the big spool |
Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 29 Aug 2019 at 7:55pm
It's certainly amazing watching the Aussie o/h experts casting softies in the estuaries for bream, mangrove jack, barra, etc. Check out the mylurebox guy on YouTube - he can skip lures on the surface under covering trees etc, then clicks into gear. They are wizards and prefer the accuracy of the o/h in tight cover, around pontoons, oyster racks etc. But as you say, low profile overheads. |
Structfab wrote:Posted By: smudge
Date Posted: 29 Aug 2019 at 8:35pm
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All the really good soft baiters I have fished with use the smallest weights they can get away with. and the lightest gear they can get away with. A larger reel will make that tricky, but the bigger reel will have less effect in deeper water - such as 50 or 60m -------------  Best gurnard fisherman in my street |
Posted By: Sanchez
Date Posted: 29 Aug 2019 at 9:41pm
| I much prefer my little tatula to my spin rod for softbaiting. I thumb the spool and turn the handle to set the hook rather than strike which also obviously puts the reel in gear. I can cast as far as I ever want to also. Almost no birds nests compared to a curado I owned. Almost perfect. |
Posted By: _jackrw_
Date Posted: 30 Aug 2019 at 12:12pm
With the fathom 12, upon switching to freespool the spool disconnects from the spindle and other reel innards, supposedly lowering resistance/weight. Would that make much of a difference? |
Posted By: Keith C
Date Posted: 30 Aug 2019 at 2:33pm
Yes, it most certainly does. As long as the weight of the jig head you are using is sufficient to take line off the spool whilst in free spool, you are fine. You can test on the boat by putting on the jig head and holding the rod at 45 degrees to see if line will run out whilst in free spool. (I only use overheads & baitcasters for soft baiting and go down to 1/8 Oz. Some times I need to loosen the spool slightly on the bigger reels.) |
Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 30 Aug 2019 at 4:10pm
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i have read a couple of articles in NZ Fishing News by PJ, (forum member PJay?)who uses o/h for shallow water soft baiting in the Bay of Islands and swears by them. And obviously there are some exponents posting above. But they are definitely the exception. I think the differentiation relates to the style of soft baiting people do mostly. Those who fish 5-15m reefy zones and find that better success comes with long distance casting (mainly to avoid spooking fish) mostly use spin. i'm in that camp. Maybe my skills are deficient, but no way could I cast the same distance with my little o/h Lexa using the equivalent jighead weight. But those who fish deeper zones and lob ahead, or drop and bounce, or drag in the channels, can do equally well on o/h. I use a nice overhead rod from Muppet and my little Lexa for dragging in the Tamaki Strait in summer. Does the job nicely. |
Posted By: shaneg
Date Posted: 24 Sep 2019 at 10:03am
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Hey TK what size Lexa have you got? Reason I ask I just acquired Lexa 100 size reel, old stock and picked up on special. Have not used it yet but was thinking I might try to softbait and micro jig with it out of yak. Was hoping would pair well with quite light Diawa rod I have suited for baitcaster. I am a huge fan of small overhead baitcasters like Calcutta 200d but probably wouldn’t try softbaiting with that as doesn’t cast really light weights quite as well as spin, but is my favourite for straylining baits. Like you most my inshore softbaiting apart from dropping down deeper in boat has been on spin. But I thought if I could scale down with a 100 size low profile baitcaster and even lighter braid then casting light weights would be easier. Guess I need to try it to actually find out. |
Posted By: The Tamure Kid
Date Posted: 24 Sep 2019 at 11:27am
Hi Shane, I've got the 300 size, still pretty compact in the hand and on the rod - certainly compared to the Daiwa SH20 I used to use on my slow jig rod. Nice to have a level wind when you're fishing deeper too, I think. The Aussies really get their overheads fizzing, even with light gear. They appear to favour a very fast back and then forward overhead whip with the rod almost straight in front of their face. MyLureBox and Drew M are two exponents I've seen on YouTube light lure fishing for bream, jack, flatheads etc in the Sunshine Coast/Gold Coast area. i think you can adjust the reel spool to spin easier, but probably a fine line (no pun intended) between that and getting overruns!
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