In my previous post on this subject, Edward Truter gave some valuable advice and tips for Gabon, having spent a lot of time there. The first pattern he recommends is a Dahlberg diver:
1. Dahlberg Diver – long, heavy zonker strip tail and beefed-up diving head 4/0s to 8/0s. Fished on a sink-tip or up to Di5 line off the beach. Very good on the cubera. Clipped deerhair has a lot more fish-catching magic than foam.
Ed with an African threadfin caught on a diver and Di7 sinker.
The deerhair might be better and more chewable, but I’m a lazy tier, so I ordered shipment of diver heads and bass pops that arrived today. These diver heads looks fantastic and I cannot wait to test them on kob. The great thing about these slider heads is that they come in different sizes, allowing one to tie large patterns on 6/0 hooks.
A selection of Rainy’s Slider heads and bass pops in various sizes.
My original Spongebod, tied with golden olive hackles, olive bucktail and bronzeback SF Blend on a 4/0 hook. I always tie these as long as the hackles allow.
Another version of the Spongebob replaces the hackles with bucktail. First I tie a long tuft of bucktail onto 100lb mono stalk. This is then tied on the hook-bend of a 4/0 hook and given shoulders of darker bucktail to complete the transition between tail and shoulders. The SF blend collar completes the tie before the head is stuck on, resulting in a large (16cm) streamer.
My latest version of the Spongebob, using a large Slider head,tan schlappen, bucktail and a 6/0 Gamakatsu SL12. If you can find good quality Schlappen Hackle, you will be able to tie a very big streamer. Ideal for targeting trophy size African Threadfin ….
Large slider heads, to be used on 6/0 hooks.
If you are looking for these, and cannot find them, look no further. They are stocked by Craig Thom at Stream X in a large variety of colours.
Nice Conna…. those heads look fantastic!
That Threadfin??!!! :-0