Hi drof, yeah thats all i do, just albright to about 1.5m of mono leader of choice and when it gets a bit short after changing differant lures just re-tie a new one. as for failure point normally breaks the mono just above the uni knot for me.

For flatties/whiting, go right down to 5 lb leader, since you shouldn't be fishing in heavy structure. Once you start chasing harder pulling fish around rocks/jetty pylons/etc, then you need to step up to 10 or 15 lb leader, but to get the best action out of your soft plastic, the lightest leader you can possibly use is the way to go. A heavier leader combined with a very light jighead will give the lure a stiff, unnatural appearance.

Most people also use flourocarbon leader...supposedly it is less visible to the fish than normal mono, and I don't know if that's actually true, but I DO know that it is much tougher than mono and really comes into it's own if you hook a kilo plus skippy on the wrong side of a pylon! As for jigheads, again, as light as you can possibly use, and make sure the hook is up to scratch. TT make a HUGE variety of jigheads in different weights, hook sizes, and hook guages. Fine, wire guage hooks are the ducks nuts for whiting, bream, flatties, but even just a 35cm skippy or salmon trout will straighten or break them on a regular basis.

Also, with softies, rod work is the key. Some of the tails have a curl or a paddle and will "swim" with a straight retrieve and can catch fish, but ALL types of tails benefit with the irregular twitches/jerks of the rod tip. This is why it's very important to use braided main line and a sensitive graphite/composite rod as opposed to a floppy glass one. You will also find that by retrieving your softie in an irregular "twitchy" manner, that you'll start doing it with your other lures as well, like metals and bibbed minnows, and they too will draw more strikes because of it.

Thanks for the adivce on leaders/knots etc everyone.  Sounds like I was mostly on the right track.

Yeah, my rod is a Shimano 7' graphite squidgy (4 - 8kg).  I'm running a Stradic 4000 with 5.5 kg Daiwa braid.  I know this is probably a bit heavy for a dedicated SP/bream setup, however, this is my only setup under 12', so I want to be able to use it for everthing from herring to small/medium snapper.

Got some 1/4oz jig heads and 4" snapbacks - will try these out on the weekend on some flathead hopefully (is this setup about right)?  From what I've read about SP'ing flathead, a slow retreieve a long the bottom is best.  In dong this, I assume it's best to only fish sandy bottoms to avoid snagging?

Cheers,

Drof