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Posts: 149
| I have a 7.5" Phantom Softail and I have been practicing with it in the pond at my house. I have tried several different methods....Retrieve, pause, retrieve..... Quick jerks....... Sweeps...... Straight retrieve. What is your favorite way to work a Phantom? Is there a wrong way to work it? |
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Posts: 4266
| Like any glide bait, your rod tip should be low to the water, even splashing in it, but never more than 6" above the water. You, and your rod and reel should be facing the lure with your arms hanging loosely from your sides, and your hands at your belt buckle or crotch, depending how long your arms are. After you cast, KEEPING YOUR ARMS, HANDS, REEL and ROD pointing straight down, you gently twitch (snap) the slack out of your glide which makes the lure begin to glide. After the twitch, you allow the rod tip to move back toward the lure promoting the gliding of the lure and producing more slack for you to snap out. If you pull it forward on a tight line, you defeat the purpose. My usual retrieve is snap,pause,snap, pause,snap,5 second pause, snap,snap pause. If you keep the rod tip down and your arms relaxed and hanging down, you will produce small amounts of slack in the line to snap out and hence the lure will glide side to side. Don't forget to pause. 5 seconds is good, as the water cools in fall, I'll pause 10 seconds after 2 or 3 snaps. I catch almost all of my fish during the pause on the drop.
One other thing. Regular gliders are designed to slowly drop perfectly horizontal during the pause. I make my gliders with a flat belly just so the lure will shimmy as it drops and produce that 'dying fish sink and struggle' action.
Softail gliders should sink in a nose-down attitude so the tail will swim as the lure swims to the bottom. I've had problems with some softail lures sinking improperly. It was an easy fix for most, simply by changing the front hook one or two sizes bigger to get that nose down attitude and swim because of the extra weight. If a bigger hook won't get it swimming nose down, add a sinker to the front hook shaft or drill a hole and add weight between the hook and the nose if there's room. (See the Boys in The Basement if you need help.
So, arms and hands relaxed and hanging....and keep them there! Light taps,snaps....whatever. The harder you yank, the less chance of the lure gliding. Watch the lure in the water to see if you get a side to side action on the snaps and a downward swim on the pause. Make sure to pause, unless you just want the fish to follow your lure.
Beaver |
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Posts: 149
| That is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thanks for taking the time to provide such an in-depth answer.
The water clarity is about 6 inches in the water where I have been working this lure, so I am having trouble seeing exactly what happens when I twitch, sweep, pause, jerk, etc. It does seem that the nose comes up when I twitch it, so adding weight may be a good idea.
Is adding a split ring to the nose to give the lure more play something that you recommend? |
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Posts: 4266
| I have split-rings on all of my gliders.
Take a look around the site, I did a dockside seminar on working gliders up at Spring Bay a few years back that Sworrall recorded and put up here somewhere.
Good luck,
Beav |
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Posts: 1416
Location: oconomowoc, wi | no split ring.. won't glide side to side like it is supposed to. check out phantom's website for some videos about the softtails.
some guys like split rings on em i guess. experiment with it a little. |
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Posts: 4266
| Mine seem to glide very nicely with a split-ring instead of a snap that's not round, and depending on the leader loop, it might restrict the movement. |
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Posts: 149
| I'm using a 100# fluoro leader with the Phantom, mostly because it's the only leader I have. I have seen others say only use a wire leader for gliders. Any thoughts on the leader material? |
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Posts: 210
| My favorite way to work a softtail Phantom is to leave it in the box and use a Muskie Treats. |
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Posts: 1288
Location: WI | Wire leader works better, but I use both. I had trouble with Phantoms, but after using Hellhounds a lot I figured them out. Not a fan of the non-softtail Phantoms, they don't seem to glide as easily. |
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Posts: 4266
| I use lots of gliders, and I make my own leaders. I put good split rings on the nose of every glider that I make or use, and make my leaders with a barrel swivel on one end and a wire loop one the other. Split rings are round and won't ever impede the movement of a glider......they won't open either.
Beav |
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