Lure selection advice

[Rah]

G'day raiders.

I'm keen to get into lure fishing, but my knowledge is next to nothing. Apart from searching this site and the World Wide Web I know nothing. Ha

My question is, how to choose the best lure for the conditions I'll be fishing in?

Had a chat to the bloke at my local tackle shop and he said I really need to know how deep the water is and and what's on the bottom of the river, ie: sand, weed or rock. How do I figure all this out?

Never the less he sold me a small blade that I got 4 casts out if before it snagged on a small branch less than a meter from me. I wasn't jumping in the sludge of the cooks river to get it back.

What's the best place to start? Hard bodies or sp's? I know this is probably more down to preference and a lot of practice.

Fishing land based for bream and flatties mainly on the cooks river at night after the kids go to bed.

2-4kg rod

2500 reel

8lb braid

6lb/10lb fluro leader.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

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[LungFai]

Hard Bodies are probably the easiest to start with, poppers/surface or shallow/deep diver to begin with, preferably the diver as it will get down to the spot where your target fish are but won't sink to the bottom like the blades.

Or a small metal spinner, good for tailor if you have them in your fishing spot, you can spot them pretty easily as they pop pop the water on a run out tide.

[nbdshroom]

I'm surprised that the tackle store recommended that you start off with a blade, especially if they knew that you were a beginner throwing lures in the snaggy Cooks river. It will only take a few lost blades in quick succession to turn you off lure fishing.

I advise to use SPs or floating-type/surface hardbodies. SPs are much cheaper (so can risk snagging a few) and these type of hardbodies are less likely to snag if they are not worked along the bottom.

1/16oz jighead with any 1-3" plastic (Gulp Shrimp/Crabby, Squidgie wriggler/lobby/bug, Z-man grubz, Damiki grubs etc.) or a hardbody crankbait (e.g. Berkley fatdogs, Atomic crank38 hardz, Kokoda bats, gladiator kozami or more pricey Jackall Chubbies, Smith Camions, Luckycraft NW Pencils/Sammy, Daiwa Double Clutches) will do. Just use your wits about you when using a hardbody and if in doubt switch to a SP.

Simply wind in the hardbody slowly and it does all the action for you. You can also try twitching it. The learning curve for SPs is steeper but there's plenty on this forum about how to use them.

Edited January 23, 2014 by nbdshroom

[fishingnoob]

I would go with hard bodies to begin with or even blades if the bottom doesn't have snags. I tried using soft plastics and got frustrated but you just gotta keep persisting i guess.

[bharris]

blades should be last thing to try as a noob as Pete said sp is the way to go 1/16th jigheads zman 2.5 grubz or squidgie grubs and dont get me started on gulp (i condsider these moving bait not a sp)

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[Rah]

Thanks. I'll stick clear of the blades for a while and get some sp's and some divers I think. Already have a few poppers so might even chuck them around a bit.

I know there is fish where I lost the blade as I got a 30cm bream after going back to prawns.

Iv got a good idea on what sp's seem to work for everyone else from reading other posts so I'll start with them.

Thanks for the info.

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[tw9635]

id start off using little gulps (2-4 inch) in minnows or shrimps. although they smell they do catch more fish

[Pafisho08]

Hi Rah

I have lure fished the cooks over the past few yrs and have found the lure of choice to start with is the Squidgie pro wriggler in colour

bloodworm with a 1/16 or 1/24 jighead and use a slow lift and drop with pause .Size of lure 80mm or 100 and use the s factor which

comes in the pk .I only catch and release there .Also you can use s factor on all your lures as it can make a difference to your hook

up rate oa.

Regards Bob

[Witha]

After swapping to SPs and learning the technique it's a pretty great (and cheaper) than hb way to fish for starting. Whack a 60-100mm squidgy wriggler or zman 2.5 grub (another vote for these two in addition to pafisho08 and kingfisher) on a head that will get them slowly down through current or wind and you'll be Into the fish in no time mate. Just about to start hard bodies again myself, aftrr losing too many blades as a beginner! I fish the cooks as I'm pretty local but also up rozelle bay etc if you're up for a flick let me know in no way an expert but have gotten good progress with my sps lately

Cheers

Witha

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[Rah]

Cheers for all the info. In the process if purchasing some goodies.

As for setting it up, there seems to be some debate on using swivels and swivel clips. What's everyone's thoughts on this?

Is it better to go with braid tied to fluro leader with a double uni and then onto the sp or hb?

Or should I be putting a swivel in between the lines?

Have never used the swivel clips but was reading that a lot of people use them to attach the lure to the leader?

I would have thought that this would alter the action?

Cheers

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[Scratchie]

I personally don't use swivel clips because they can fail but if you are going to, you can use spiral decoys. It saves you having to do a loop knot and allows you to change jigs and hardbodies without cutting and re-tieing. Roberta placed piece on them and since using them have found they are fantastic.

Cheers scratchie!!!

[Robinsoi]

As for getting an idea of the depth of water and what is on the bottom of the river, have a good look around the shoreline on a very low tide and look for potential spots and note where the sand/mud flats, weed beds, rocks & snaggy areas are. You can even take your kids for a walk or bike ride when doing this

Then armed with this knowledge you can come back to a pre-selected area that doesn't look too snaggy and fish it around high tide. You will also be far more confident throwing lures around knowing what lies beneath and you generally don't need to cast out very far at all.

The Zman grubz as mentioned above are a gun lure and excellent value for money and no match for choppers and toadies. The jig head hook will wear out way before the grubz.

Use a braid to leader knot that you are confident with rather than a swivel.

Good luck and we very much look forward to your report advising of your lure success!

Ian

[troutboy]

If you really want a good idea of what structure is around you could always get a cheap deep diving lure and take the hooks off, that way you can cast it out ,rip it down quickly to depth and then commence a very slow roll retrieve and bump into any structure without fear of fouling up. You will soon develope a mental picture of what is what. cheers troutboy