LOOKING AT DEEP DROP BOAT LEADS
Any old boat lead will do attitude is  commonplace, but you’re making life difficult for yourselves by not adhering to  some fundamental design shapes.

To get the best from your bait, tackle and  technique the weight needs to be streamlined, both going down, and coming back  up. The main one to avoid is the old fashioned bell shaped weights. These fall  slower than they should for the given weight as they have a flat nose that  creates maximum resistance to the water. Also avoid any disc shaped leads which  sheer off at angles when descending, and pyramid shapes that create resistance  on the flat side when coming upwards.

The best shapes are, no surprise, bomb  shapes. For very deep water and heavy tackle, go for the DCA Bopedo type in  sizes 12oz and upwards in 4oz increments up to 2lbs. These go straight down and  strait back up with minimal resistance and are good if you need to work baits  lift and drop as they won’t veer off at angles through water pressure. You can  also utilise these for drift fishing when you want to advertise your bait.  Their flat back edge will kick up sand as it drags along the seabed.

For rubber eels on flying collar rigs, then  use the 5oz Supazoom, 6oz plain bomb, the 8oz Aquapedo or the 10oz Supazoom. Also  good is the Adjusti 3-9oz bomb. All are streamlined and dense making for a free  fall in the water and with minimal water friction when retrieving lures.

Watch shaped leads are useful for drift  fishing rigs when targeting flatfish. Their design helps keep the bait hard on  the seabed and again the shape of the lead will create puffs of sand as it  travels along. Carry sizes from 1oz up to 8ozs, though these leads are getting  harder to come by of late unless you have the moulds yourself. I also carry a  few drilled ball weights in sizes from ¼oz up to 2ozs. These are used for  varying things, chiefly dropping sandeel down over deeper reefs on light line  when I want the bait to work a little in the water. A few ½oz to 4oz plain  bombs cover me for light ledger work for bream and other species I can target  on very light gear.

For uptiding the DCA Uptide bomb in sizes  5, 6 and 8ozs covers 90% of all UK  uptide fishing requirements. These have fixed bendable wires extending from the  nose of the lead and will grip, given enough free bow in the line, in any  conditions. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I used the 8oz, as the 6oz  grips in almost anything I simply by releasing more line, and that includes the  Bristol Channel with one of the biggest tide  ranges in the world.

All the above are available as moulds for  smelting your own leads, though be aware of health risks if you make leads at  home.

TIPS AND TRICKS
When baiting up with half a sandeel, or  when cutting the head and tail off to get more scent out most anglers make a  cut straight across the body.

It looks neater, encourages more scent to  leech out, and sits on the hook better if you cut the sandeel at a sharp long  angle, and is more streamlined for casting. When you mount the sandeel on the  hook, the hook point will push through the angle neatly without breaking up a  soft sandeel so much, plus when bound on with bait elastic, this style of  presentation keeps the hook point well away from the bait for maxim mum contact  with the fish as it takes the bait.

You’ll get a neater angle if you use sharp  kitchen scissors or a craft type knife, rather than a typical bait knife.

Winter huss can be big. They prefer a water  depth of 30-feet or more straight out from sheer cliffs over a rough ground  seabed, but the bigger fish tend to be in 50-feet of water and are often close  to areas of rising rock pinnacles, kelp beds and around the mouths of small  rocky bays. Top venues are the Cornish headlands, the rocks at St David’s in  west Wales, around Anglesey  in North Wales, and the cliff ground along the west coast of Scotland.

You need tough tackle to bully the huss  from this ground. Choose a powerful beachcaster capable of casting 6ozs, a reel  loaded with 30lb line and a 50lb shock leader, and tough pulley rigs made from  60lb mono with a good strong hook like the Mustad Viking 79515 or the Varivas  Big Mouth.

Huss feed best at night in a sea with a  good swell. If they feed by day it’s usually during overcast even drizzly  conditions, though in water deeper than 30-feet this is less important. They  often feed on the latter stages of an ebbing tide, and also either side of low  water and high slack, but not necessarily the slack water period itself. They  have a tendency to stay around freshly laid lobster pots where the smell of the  bait will lure small fish in that the huss can prey on.

Top baits for huss are mackerel and squid  cocktails, fresh pout, whiting, rockling or poor cod fillets, but above whole  launce sandeel. Huss have tough mouths and strong jaws. They often hold on to a  bait without the hook getting a hold, so strike hard and keep your hooks ultra  sharp.

Huss fight by using their weight initially  to try and hug the seabed, but constant rod pressure and a little bullying will  get them moving. Once they are off the seabed, keep them coming as they are  adept at using their sinewy bodies to wrap themselves around kelp weed stalks  and then you risk losing them. If a huss snags itself, give it slack line as  they will often free themselves and swim off when they think danger has passed.