The use of wire traces or leaders is one of those necessary evils that anglers must occasionally embrace when targeting “toothy critters” that could otherwise easily chop through their lines. Here’s the best way to tackle the need for a little bit of bite insurance (watch the video by clicking here): There are quite a few Australian species of fish equipped with teeth sharp enough to slice, chew or chop through an angler’s line or leader. Obvious contenders in this category are genuine “razor gang” members such as Spanish and spotted mackerel, wahoo and tropical barracuda. Down south, tailor, barracouta and even pike and snook all have sharp teeth and, of course, most sharks are well-equipped in this department. Big flathead, barramundi, Murray cod, queenfish, mahi-mahi and the like also have hard enough jaws or sufficiently rough scouring pad teeth to damage finer leaders, and billfish like marlin and sailfish have sandpaper bills that do the same thing. In many instances we can hedge our bets against these fish by upping the diameter and breaking strain of our mono leaders. Moving from 6 to 10 kg nylon or fluorocarbon may be all that’s required to prevent regular chew-offs from big flatties, while a 30 to 40 kg leader or bite tippet will usually cope with all but the very biggest barra. However, tropical mackerel, wahoo, big tailor and many sharks will continue to easily cut such leaders. If this starts to happen on a regular basis, fishers are likely to reach for the wire. Faced with these chop-off challenges, many anglers choose to buy a couple of factory-made traces. These are usually constructed from 30 to 40 cm lengths of plastic-coated, multi-strand wire with a barrel swivel at one end and a snap...