# What's the deal with blades?



## skorgard (Oct 6, 2007)

A few weeks ago one of our SA stalwarts Samboman posted a picture of a 1 m mully caught in suburban Adelaide. Some of the fanboys tried pump him for info and he stated that it was caught on a blade. So I thought I would look into these. Before putting up a post like this I did a search which picked up 86 pages most of which had nothing to do with lures. So here goes:

1. I suppose that one advantage is that they sink and so you can get down deep along the bottom. Can they be used in a vertical manner like a jig?
2. Being sinking, they are likely to snag the bottom. When I had a look at some in one tackle store recently I noted that one brand had books which were dual, like trebles with the forward facing one missing and the other two slightly rearward . Are these are good idea? Do you miss strikes with these?
3. Size. Samboman named the brand of blade and looking it up it only comes in 3, 5 and 8 g size. These would all be pretty small. How does one select size? My target quarry would be salmon, flathead and snapper but I would have a go in West Lakes for mulloway.
4. Casting. I like using baitcasters but clearly they will not work for the small soft plastics or small floating hard bodies. Will the blades work with bait casters, or if they get side onto the wind do they suddenly stop and give you a lovely bird's nest?
5. Any specific recommendations? Any other tips?

Thanks


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## Barrabundy (Sep 29, 2008)

Designed to part you from your hard earned $$$$.


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## Brez (Mar 2, 2012)

1. yes you can jig them 
2. yes they do snag up . double hooks are less snagggy , singles even better and hookup rates will improve not diminish ;-) 
3. 1/8 to 1/4oz blades should do the job for you , select size the same way you would for sp's . big fish will eat small blades too ( even jews) ;-) 
4. no idea , im a threadliner 
5. start with brands like TT's or strikepro ( there are plenty more ) work them similarly to your sp's , different retrieves can work on different days . remember they catch just about everything 8)

hope that gets you started


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## punchanello (Oct 6, 2011)

1. I suppose that one advantage is that they sink and so you can get down deep along the bottom. Can they be used in a vertical manner like a jig?

Yes. Millonario hooked a pb bream simply dropping the blade and letting it flutter to the bottom. I also find them very useful on the troll.

2. Being sinking, they are likely to snag the bottom. When I had a look at some in one tackle store recently I noted that one brand had books which were dual, like trebles with the forward facing one missing and the other two slightly rearward . Are these are good idea? Do you miss strikes with these?

Blades are snag nmagnets. Go for a single hook IMO. Doesn't seem to affect hook up rate.

3. Size. Samboman named the brand of blade and looking it up it only comes in 3, 5 and 8 g size. These would all be pretty small. How does one select size? My target quarry would be salmon, flathead and snapper but I would have a go in West Lakes for mulloway.

Blades come in different size and weight varieties. Select the size for your species then select the weight accrding to what you are doing. I like very light blades for slow retrieves on Bream but heavier ones are useful for ripping and burining for flatties for example.

4. Casting. I like using baitcasters but clearly they will not work for the small soft plastics or small floating hard bodies. Will the blades work with bait casters, or if they get side onto the wind do they suddenly stop and give you a lovely bird's nest?

Not sure about baitcasters. But I can say that they cast better than any small lure there is. Just be careful not to feather or stop a cast before it hits the water or it will foul up at the end of your line.


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

Blades are cool.

1. Yes they sink, and yes you can vertically jig them. There are many ways to fish them and the switched on angler can fish every level of the water column from bottom to top with the one lure. I personally like to cast them out as long as I can forward of my drift and slowly hop them back towards me. Slowly means just a couple of flutters through the rod tip, maybe lifting it <6 inches at a time and then taking up the slack between hops.

2. Yep you betcha. The ones I use (3-8g models) have tiny needle sharp hooks that catch on everything, best thing is you rarely get a strike from a fish on a blade and not hook up, but, this also means they catch every piece of crap on the bottom too, meaning lots of snags. I find though if you paddle back over the top of your snagged lure and try pulling it back in the opposite direction you can often get them free though.

3.I've caught snapper to 60cm on 1/8 tt switch blades that are 38mm long. I've hooked potentially bigger fish and lost them too. Often though the hooks are cactus after one fish like this. Replacing hooks is the way to go but I'm a bit lazy with this sort of stuff....

4. Depends on the size of lure your looking at using versus the outfit you're throwing it with. Only you will be able to judge this. But I predominantly use threadlines so can't help here. But I would start with the smaller ones for the flatties, snaps and sambos as these will all hit the smaller lures readily.

5. I once saw an episode of ifish and in between the rampant flogging of stellas, miller rods and nitlon leader Paul Worstelling actually gave a tip on casting blades that was extremely beneficial. Basically if you use a pendulum cast with nearly a rod length of line off the tip of the rod, it gets the blade to straighten up prior to the actual cast and prevents them tumbling mid flight and tangling themselves up before they hit the water, it also streamlines them a bit to improve casting distance.

Kev


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## skorgard (Oct 6, 2007)

Thanks all very helpful.


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## rino88 (Sep 10, 2011)

Blades are awesome, they work in fresh and salt waters and I've had success with catching fish in both.

Cast them into snags and retrieve slowly, you'll know they are working as the tip of your rod will vibrate. Lift and retrieve works well on Bass I've found. Red/White and Greens have been the most successful colours for me.

Only other tip I can suggest is to buy decent quality blades, there are some great cheap ones out there (I can PM you an eBay link if you want) but nothing compares to TT and Damiki for quality and performance every time you use them.

Cheers!


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## GlenelgKiller (Mar 13, 2012)

I bought a Japanese one at BCF the other day, looks fairly cool! Hopefully the fish agree. It is a Jazz Sonicboom. Mainly chose it as it only had souble hooks instead of trebles so hopefully a few less snags!

Cant wait to give it a go. If I like fishing with the blade i will upgrade to some of the more expensive recommended ones.

Worried i may have gone too heavy at 14g though?


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## eagle4031 (Jan 29, 2010)

patwah said:


> here you go
> 
> AKFF Tackle Box - Blades


great link - thanks


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## skorgard (Oct 6, 2007)

Many thanks again. I can't seem to find the Tackle Box on the forum although it comes up when I click the link.


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## skorgard (Oct 6, 2007)

Thanks.

PS is it not "ejaculator" not "ejaculater"?


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