YOU'RE SLIPPING
Shock leader line from different manufacturers for powerful casting can vary. Even the same make of leader, but in different colours, can differ due to the different dye used. This can affect knot performance.

The most important thing to check with your leader material is that is marries well when knotted to your favourite brand of main reel line. Even if you use the same make of line on the reel as the shock leader, that doesn't mean they will always knot together well. Neither does it matter which knot you use. Lines either knot together well, or they don't.

If you experiment you'll find that a few leaders will dry knot okay, but most need that all important flush of saliva to pull in really tight and hold firm. The saliva acts as a lubricant and prevents friction burn between the two lines when the thinner reel line is drawn tight to form the knot.

Now test the strength of the knot fully. Assuming you're using typical beach fishing 15lb main reel line, wrap the reel line around one hand and the leader round the other with the knot in the middle. You need to pull hard enough that the 15lb line actually starts to dig in to your skin and hurts. Don't go too hard though or the mono can cut your hands.

What you're deliberately doing is to apply almost full pressure to the knot to a point only a little way below that of the 15lb lines breaking strain. Some lines will then start to slip and slide over the surface of the leader line until the knot comes apart. At full pressure it doesn't matter, but some lines will start to slide at just half the main line breaking strain or less. I've seen knots slide apart just pulling small rafts of weed back ashore. It was nothing to do with bad knots, just incompatible lines. If this happens, check the end of the pulled through main reel line. If it has a twisted piggy tail, then it's pulled apart by slippage.

Run the pressure check, and if you find that your leader and reel line don't marry well, then start switching brands. Greased Weasel or 50lb Maxima Chameleon are good ones to judge others by.

This simple but all too often overlooked aspect of shock leader slippage is vitally important. You're fishing for flatties and you can haul these in all day. Then a surprise specimen bass in to double figures or big ray grabs the bait. Will that leader knot hold so you can successfully land the fish of maybe your lifetime? You need to know 100% that that knot is secure and just how much pressure you can apply to it to land these big fish should they happen along.

TIPS AND TRICKS
Anodised alloy spools on reels eventually suffer corrosion when salt from wet line gets in to any scratches in the anodising and starts to eat away at the alloy underneath. This will still occur even if you wash the reel underneath the tap immediately after use as the salt is trapped between the tight layers of line. There is though, a simple way to minimises the effects of this.

When you buy a brand new reel or spool, before you load the line, it's well worth giving the whole inside of the spool where the line will sit a few good coats of quality car wax. The best wax to use are the paste type waxes, I like Johnson's Rally Wax as it seems to last longer than others I've used, but Express Shine is a good spray on version.

If you build up say three or four coats, polishing in between each coat, when it comes to putting wet and salty line back on the reel after fishing, the multiple coats of wax act as a protective block or skin minimising direct contact the damp and salt has with the spool helping to minimise corrosion problems.

DOWNTIDE TACTICS

The common approach to fishing from the stern of the boat is to pick out a lead heavy enough to anchor the bait on the seabed almost vertically below the boat and wait for something to follow the scent trail up and take the bait. This method will catch fish of course, but is too hit and miss for real success.

You will probably have two or three other anglers alongside you also fishing the stern. Any fish coming towards the baits will undoubtedly take the freshest bait with the strongest smell. Don't leave any bait in the water longer than 15 minutes, and in a really strong tide run where baits will wash out quicker, change after ten minutes to ensure you have a bait still giving maximum scent off downtide to make your bait more attractive than your neighbouring anglers.

Carry a range of sizes in lead weights. This gives the opportunity for you to choose a lead light enough that with tidal pressure on your line, can be lifted with the rod tip and "bounced" off downtide releasing a little line each time. This means you can both explore the ground well downtide of the boat trying to seek out little patches of ground or weed that might hold a fish or two. Bouncing baits off downtide also lets you put your bait out on its own away from other baits giving you a far greater chance of catching fish when they first enter the scent trail and come towards the boat.

Another trick to try is to have the normal sliding boom rigged on your line and attach a longish hook trace, say 6-feet or more to it. Instead of fixing the weight directly to the link on the boom, tie in a two foot length of weaker mono and then add the lead. As you bounce this downtide, the bait will flutter up above the seabed, then settle. This added movement can often draw a fish to a bait that it may otherwise ignore if sat static on the seabed. This especially applies to spurdog and sometimes rays.

It pays to advertise too. Use attractors like flashy sequins and rattling Booby Beads a few inches above your bait. The reflections of light off the sequins, or the noise of the bearing rattling inside the Bobby Bead will advertise your bait and draw fish away from the other anglers baits nearest to you.