Lures! Which one? How, where, when & why ?

[ELM]

I have been killing time reading a little about lures, how, where, when and why to use them. I also noticed a post by Kads where he has purchased some lures for bream fishing and strikepro answered back saying

Hi Kads,
Not a bad price,the only thing id say is there is only a couple of really good colours there for Bream.
The hooks are to big ,they link together, suggest you get some Owner ST36BC Trebles

So just how do you know what will work and what will not. Surely they could all work under differing circumstances, why else would they make them (surly not to con us and just make more sales ).

I myself have always gone for earthy tones for a more natural appearance, and also for the red belly splash to mimic an injured fish, but before taking ill, I started to try the more un-natural colors at times, for an aggravated territorial response and it did seem to work.

So just how do you decide when a lure is the right one to try?

Do you mostly use earthy tones to mimic bait?

Do you use bright colors and as a trespasser for an aggravated response?

Is it because of water clarity that you choose a color, what would you use under what conditions?

Can it be a good thing to go for larger lures for a territorial response or are you better off with small lures? (Does size really matter ?)

What species do you normally lure fish for, what is your favorite lure, favorite color, favorite size, what sort of response are you after, what makes you choose your lures?

[ratfish]

Could be a very interesting topic eddie. personally I lure fish for everything, grew up chasing trout on lures and moved from there as my fishing expanded. Flicking through my tackle box there's a big mix of everything in there.

I tend to go for lure action over a colour, when I get down to colours it's a bit of a mix between naturals and the bright with a lot of them being more silhouette colours, dark/light . A large % of my lures have a touch of red in them somewhere and if I was picking up a new style i'd go for something dark with red in it most times. Salt water i.e. snapper, i'll throw most things on particularly with a bit of reflection or the good old redhead. Bream and trout are another story, there tends to be a bit more thought involved there. Early mornings/dusk I'll fish natural patterns or basic colours black/whites. As the sun comes up I'll switch to silvers/golds and I've always got a flour pink and a yellow rapala ready for the rainbows. Chasing natives I tend to throw something big clunky and noisy through the day, and love to play with surface lures at night/early early morning. Water clarity plays a small part but mostly if I'm using spinnerbaits I'll change between silver/bronze blades and even have a few nail polish black blades in the back of the box.

I've caught some of my biggest bream over the years on whole whiting and squid heads so I'm not worried about throwing a bigger lure to them, but getting a bugger it's running away strike seems to work better with <50mm types.

Shape, motion, size, colour, generally, but then there's plenty of circumstances where that changes

I think a lot of people tend to throw new/different options when things are either firing or shutdown, either way doesn't give you a great idea of the success, with fish either hitting everything or nothing. If i'm trying a new lure i'll dedicate one rod to it for the majority of the session and find another to match.

[SurfanFish]

Great topic Eddy. I don't fish often enough to experiment much but have always been more into lures than bait and have been relatively successful even in light of the inexperience. Also cut my teeth on lures with Trout. Most of my success has there has been on celta types and devils or cobras. I always base selection on colour for the day or time of day although stick to a limited range of colours. Have invested in a few old school american wobbler type lures that I have only tried once but went well on the day and something I'll experiment with over summer.

For salt water, estuary systems and creeks I select on depth I want to run and action over colour but do like the splash of red or sometimes full dark red. I personally think a rattle adds value. Generally I try to use something that looks like it belongs in that waterway from a colour perspective. I have a few favorite trusties that work well. If they don't on a particular day I try all sorts of colours and sizes. If you have enough of a range you will often get lucky. I base this on my learning from a waterway up on the Mid-North NSW coast where I have a small property. I don't get there very often but when I do I fish it hard and as such I know the local systems extremely well. I know where the fish are going to be holding, what their patterns are and what usually works on any given tide, water clarity and weather. It means when your usual gear is not working you can still experiment with confidence that there are fish where you expect them. Through this process I have added a few extra lures to my favorites list.

I don't know the waterways down here well enough due to time constraints but use the same techniques for a reasonable return.

[ELM]

Thanks for the great replies SurfanRatfish , thought it should make for a good topic and hope a few more add to it. I am certain I will be able to find a few tips and definitely some more questions later.
Probably a topic that should be more target species based, but will be good to see what comes out from it on a broader spectrum.

[Minnowhunter]

It's a pretty technical subject Ed, but it appears that the other fellas have summed it up with their responses.

You mentioned fluorescent colours, these have their place in not only lures, but in the use of attractant beads, and deep water sinkers.

My mates all have a good laugh when I baitfish over reefs in the salt, and even in the depths of Western Ports channels, as my fluoro yellow and fluoro red-spotted sinkers come out to lure em in, poblem is that I it takes so darn long to paint them up.

Yes, fluoro red was mentioned, some may say that the colour red isn't visible under 6 feet in depth, but fluoro colours have been proven to show up at greater depths than basic colours, but even if the red spots show up as black, at least it will provide the fluoro yellow sinker a bit of contrast.

Bait visibility in the depths is the key, the sinkers work as an attractant, and flathead love em too.

One of my favourite all round colour in the Goulburn River during low light and overcast conditions is fluoro yellow, with a silver/white belly on a Rapala Minnow, Tassie devils style lures in the same colour are not too far behind.

Then you have Fluoro orange, a great belly car for Black Bream lures, they can't get enough of it.

Of course you may get the odd weather and water conditions, when these colours fail to work, so don't be scared to experiment with other colours.

Tight Lines

Rob

[momunny]

Hey Elm,

Good topic and the only lure I can vouch for the the ole Tassie devil lure...believe it or not I did not use these on Trout but rather on sambo's and tailor.

I found that the larger the lure on the tassie devil means it has a meaner action( 60mm to 70 mm lure). I was playing around in the water to see its action and it has a tendency to swing the treble more vicously from left to right and hence better hookup rate. The colour that have worked well for me with sambos and tailor are blue/silver and also the flouro red and yellow. I also add a red glow bead in the end before the treble joins to the lure for addtional attaction and it also doubles up to provide a better swing action on the treble.

I found they work well when water clarity is fair and also in partially cloudy days. I would like to test out one of those those round egg shape ocky lure work when snapper season is round.

[ELM]

Hi MonnowHunter, you are right about fluro, as the Miflex range of fluro dive hoses really do stand out at depth, so it really does make sense to paint sinkers for an attractant.

Mommumy, I had only used Tassie devils for salmon once, without success, curious how your hooks hold up as I found mine rusted very quickly. Do you change your hooks?

[momunny]

Gday Elm, I usually wash it down with water and then apply a quick squirt of WD40 on the treble...this stuff is nearly as useful as ducktape.

[snapperboy]

[quote="Minnowhunter"]

My mates all have a good laugh when I baitfish over reefs in the salt, and even in the depths of Western Ports channels, as my fluoro yellow and fluoro red-spotted sinkers come out to lure em in, poblem is that I it takes so darn long to paint them up.

you could just dip your sinkers in a tup of paint

[Windknot]

I must admit, I'm a 'full on' lure addict. My number one quarry would have to be bream. I love catching them on lures as they're usually a bit of a challenge. I will fish for just about any species, if they will take lures. I never use bait, not because I have something against it or the people who use it, I just find it too boring.

The first thing I look for in a lure is something that matches up well with whatever the fish might be eating. I will study the baitfish in the system and I will try to find a lure that mimics it in all aspects, ie, size, shape and colour. Most fish will eat a variety of different species, so it pays to have lures that represent all food items on the menu.

Then you've got to think about how you should present the lure. It has to be natural looking and it has to be where the fish are holding. It's no good using a surface lure when the fish are holding deep and vice versa.

I have over one hundred bream lures and sometimes I find that I still don't seem to have the right one for the job on that day. I tend to like long slender lures that represent minnows. Minnows can be found in almost any system. If I happen to be fishing in an estuary where prawns are found, I will tend to use lures that represent prawns. If I want to catch bream in deep water, I will use either a deep diving hard body lure, or more than likely I will choose a metal vibe or a soft plastic lure.

When bream are available in shallow water, or if they're visible higher up in the water column near a snag or something, I will usually opt to use a small walk the dog type lure. Something like a Smith Towadi, as they're extremely efficient, plus you won't loose any to snags as you often do with using deep divers.

The only time that I opt to use bright coloured lures is when the water is dirty and even then sometimes I don't bother with them. I don't own many lures in bright colours as I find they aren't necessary usually. When the water is dirty I will often opt to use a vibe lure as they don't depend on colour to attract fish, they depend on sonic vibrations in the water. They work very well too.

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules when it comes to lure choices. Many people have their personal preferences and it doesn't take long to develop your own preferences after some time spent using lures. If one particular lure works well one day, you tend to think it will work just as well on another day when the conditions are similar. It wouldn't be unusual for me to use a dozen different lures in just one session when things are 'shutdown' for some reason. Once I start to catch a few, I will stick to the lure that works.

This is an extensive subject. It's too vast to cover in just a few paragraphs. It takes many years of trial and error to become good at choosing the right lure for the job on any given day. A lot of if comes down to intuition and blind faith and persistance.