Quick-Change Leader....

[Seafever]

Hypo situation:- there you are out on the chuck...you only have one of a particular hoochy and it happens to be tied at 34" Knot to nose.
It is tied tandem hooks and you have no extra line aboard.
You decide you want to run it at 42" knot to nose.

What would you do to lengthen it temporarily?

Add some bead chains?
Use an 8" wire Pike leader at the back end of the flasher?
Use anything you had to add that few extra inches?
Rob some line off another hoochy and splice them together?

 

[Fish Assassin]

I would just continue to use my leader the way it was and the next time remember to bring a spool of leader line with me.

I would never splice or try to extend my leader 8 inches with something else. You could mess up the action of the gear.

 

[Lipripper]

There are some easy tie tandem knots.
I always have leader line (and if you have rods and reels on board youll always have leader line )

 

[TheBigGuy]

I do not believe you mess up the action of the gear by adding an extra length of line to it. I tie hoochies with various leader lengths from sockeye & coho (short) to spring (long). If I find the fish preferring a longer leader I will often lengthen the leader. Simply attach a new section of line to a new barrel swivel. This will save you from having to rig up a new hoochie while on the water if you want to try a longer leader length. I usually add a heavy piece of mono like sixty pound test to impart as much action at the longer leader length. I have lengthened up to over 60" at times and gotten the biggest fish of the trip that way when the fishing was slow.

You never know what might work until you experiment. You can even try cutting the line 10" up from the nose of a full size hoochie, then tie in a small barrel swivel. Tie on the longer section of line, then add a small mini plankton hoochie onto the new section of line. Slide the MP hoochie down till it stops at the barrel swivel in front of the full size hoochie. Now simply tie on a barrel swivel at the tag end of the line at whatever length you want the rig to be. This looks like a larger prey chasing something smaller and can trigger strikes.

This can also be done with a wee tad Tomic plug in front of a large Tomic plug for the same effect (and it actually does work). It never hurts to experiment, you never know what might work.

If your stuck for leader line, rob it from whatever has the heaviest test line on it. It really doesn't matter, but heavier test is best for long hoochie leaders.

 

[Dave S]

cut off a little line from a reel and tie up a desired length.