Flat Shadding: internal vs. external rigging

Why an internal jighead?

Troy Dixon and Adam Meredith won the Teemburra round of the Zerek BARRA Tour with a 5 barra limit for a combined weight of 65.01kg.

When it comes to craThis weight held out the ABT BARRA Team of the Year, Anita Barra, by less than 2kg with the difference being two stunning 1.06m barra the boys landed fishing the unique Zerek Flat Shad –but it was a Flat Shad with a difference.

Team Venom had scouted out the lake a few days before the tournament and settled on a plan, fishing some points in the perfect position for the prevailing wind. As is usually the case at Teemburra, the wind changed direction, but the boys decided to still fish their points. The theory was that the wind change would not have had time to truly change the dynamics of the lake and the boys believed their fish would still be there.

And they were!

Fishing a series of three points only, Troy and Adam fished jighead rigged 7” Zerek Flat Shads of varying weights. But these weren’t standard Flat Shads rigged with any old jighead – these were Flat Shads rigged with an internal jighead.

The simple answer is it gives the Flat Shad a different action from the externally rigged jighead and the worm hook rig. Each method has a subtle action difference and it is these slight differences that make the money.

The Flat Shad comes rigged with a weighted worm hook as the lure was originally designed to be fished into heavy cover for oversized barra, jacks, cod and other nasty fish. The weighted worm hook was all part of the intricate design that included the patented belly slits that allow the Flat

Shad (regardless of size) to be easily crushed and expose the worm hook’s point.

The worm hook rig gives the Flat Shad a slight body roll and a strong tail beat, but importantly, it also helps the lure to stay horizontal on the retrieve with the weight right at the bottom. The latest version of the Flat Shad – the Flat Shad Pro – has been built with slightly softer TPE to enhance the action yet retain its strength, and the work hook has had a stinger attachment eyelet added to make it simple for anglers who want to add a treble or a flashy spinner underneath.

Perhaps more popular in the smaller models with anglers chasing flathead and bass, impoundment barra anglers also rigged their Flat Shad with an exposed jighead. This rigging method gave several important advantages to anglers fishing open waters, especially for fish like barra that have the lure in and out of their mouths in milliseconds.

The first advantage is that is allows an exposed hook point and also allows the angler to use whatever head weight they desire. While there are replacement worm hooks of different weights for the Flat Shad range, there are far more options with the huge and growing number of jigheads on the market.

What anglers liked the most about rigging the Flat Shad with an exposed jighead was the extra body roll. The way the water flowed around an exposed jighead, whether that was a ball, darter-style or bullet head, saw