At first glance, the assembly of a pallet lead seems quite rudimentary, consisting of a few stacked accessories. The reality is much more sophisticated than that, and the original assembly of the lead pallet, as designed by Christian Cochard, offers two main advantages:
- The offset lead lure hits the bottom later, thus avoiding untimely hook-ups.
- Shifting the lure allows it to glide back to the bottom in the final moments.
What you need
To make your assembly you will need :
Assembly in 4 steps
- First you need to thread your fluorocarbon leader (30 or 35/100 is a good basis for creating a thick enough knot) with the paddle lead and then the pearl.
- Next, make a loop about 4-5cm long.
- Finally, connect the loop to your hook to complete your assembly.
A brighter lead
To improve the attractiveness of your pallet sinker, especially in clear water, you can regularly scrape the sides with the blade of a knife to restore its shine and send out a few flashes of light at each animation... Perch are particularly fond of this!
A triple mou or a texan
In particularly congested areas, there are two solutions to limit the loss of materials.
- The first is to replace the treble with a Texan hook, the point of which is pricked into the body of your soft lure. A finess, a grub or a tube are very suitable for this purpose.
- The second is to use fine iron treble hooks which you can open under tension when hooked. Of course, it's also possible for them to open in the mouth of a record fish...
What if we were to move towards even greater simplicity?
In my opinion, the main advantage of the pallet sinker is to trigger a reflex attack. While it's true that the octopus can provide an additional signal and that a loop can be used to offset the lure from the sinker, I have to admit that my rig often boils down to its simplest expression... A paddle lead, a pearl and a triple connected by a simple spoon knot!
The aim is to trigger a reflex attack and not to seduce the fish with a realistic swim or imitation lure... So wiggle this piece of metal energetically and you'll see that it's already very effective!
