If you haven’t done it yet, you haven’t been fishing for long enough. That fish of a lifetime hits the lure, fly or bait and as soon as you feel the weight of the fish through the rod, you know it is a monster. Whether you chase bream, trout, marlin or barramundi, the adrenaline charges through your veins and then you go and do something completely stupid and loose the fish.

Preparing tackle before that rush kicks in is vital for success and with barramundi fishing, preparing some tough leaders will go a long way towards ensuring the next metre-long fish is landed.

Twisted leaders are nothing new and I recall buying Harro’s barra leaders and thinking how cleaver he was to come up with such a design. The ones I tie are a little different and were made a lot easier by the help of Berkley’s Matt Fraser who gave me my first modified drill bit to plait the line with, but it is a simple system and works an absolute charm.

Just why twisted leaders work so well on barramundi is probably due to the fact that there are four pieces of line all twisted or plaited together. Using a single strand of nylon leader, if a strand gets nicked or cut the nylon will stretch excessively at the weak point and break. With twisted leaders, the other strands that are intact give you considerably more abrasion resistance and limit the stretching at the weak point.

Well, that is the best explanation that I could come up with on short notice but no matter what the reason, barramundi fight hard and have a nasty pair of razor sharp gill rakers that slice through leader material with ease so tough leaders are a must.