The Basics of Lure Fishing

There are many questions asked about lure fishing. Whether it be the colour, size, diving depth, the type of lure or the retrieve it all comes down to where you are fishing and what you are fishing for.

It really pays off to examine the fishing location to see what natural food is already present for the local fish. One easy method is castnet around the area and record the species of fish caught or keep an eye out for yabbies or worms. One of the first decisions is to use soft, hard body or metal lures. In the case of sand flats and beaches where yabby and worm holes are present a soft plastic yabby, worm or grub would work great. In an estuary where mullet, herring and other baitfish are present hard body lures and paddle tail softies work well. In an offshore location larger hard bodies and metal slugs or jigs are usually the lures of choice.

Colour:

Colour also depends to the natural species of the fishing location. If the water is fairly clear more natural colours like the mullet, silver or nordic perch in the selection of Rapala lures is the best choice. On the other hand if the water is a little murky I would suggest bright unnatural colours like the fire tiger, hot steal or even the parrot colour.

Size:

The size of a lure is specific to the size of a targeted fish. If a lure is to big the fish can be intimidated and not provoked to attack, but if the lure is to small the fish would just let the opportunity to strike pass. This is why it is very important to swap lure sizes every now and then till you find a size with the highest response rate.

Depth:

Another very important aspect to lure fishing is the depth of the lure which is caused by the bib or the rate of the retrieve. This is where a fish finder becomes a fisherman’s best friend as lures can be fished just over the bottom for fish like flathead over structures without snagging for barramundi. The other option to diving or sinking lures is surface lures. These lures consist of poppers like the Rapala Skitter pop and stick baits like the Rapala Glidin Rap, X-rap walk and Subwalk.

Take not in the difference in size of the bibs, the minnow on the top is a shallow diver, while the shad is deep.

Hard body lure Retrieves:

There are a wide range of retrieves that cause different actions from a lure. When using a bibbed minnow or shad a standard retrieve is achieved just by reeling the lure in at a constant pace. Another is to twitch the rod causing the lure to aggressively dart in different directions which can imitate fleeing or injured baitfish. When using popper surface lures the rod is held forward then pulled back in a downwards motion, causing the slack of the line to pull the popper forward and splash across the surface of the water. It is vital to pause every few hits and not to strike if you get a fish following the lure. The technique becomes very rhythmical and easy the more it is used and can be used on fish like small bream and whiting to large GT’s and kingfish. When using bibless lures like the Rapala X-rap Walk, subwalk and Glidin Rap, the rod is used to retain the set action of the lure. On a standard retrieve the lure will wobble from side to side but when it is twitched it darts in from left to right in a very appealing motion that to stimulates predatory fish into striking the lure. The storm Kickin Stick is an exception to most hard body lures as it has a jointed body. A standard retrieve causes the lure to ripple very effectively. With the sinking model if the lure is twitched hard and then given slack the lure does a turn and faces away from the fisher which often causes fish to strike. A constant twitch retrieve causes a side to side motion as the body ripples and lures in fish for a bite.  

A range of high quality rapala hard body lures including the new Clackin Minnow

Soft Plastic Retrieves:

Most soft plastics are either classified as a curl tail paddle tail or jerk shad. The main retrieve for curl tail lures is a lift drop then reel in the slack before repeating. For paddle tails a constant reel in but at different speeds is the best as the speed determines depth. Jerk shads require more personalised retrieves. The best is usually to twitch the lure one two or three times before letting it sink a bit. There are a few exceptions to the classified soft plastics. The Storm WildEye Twitching Nipper lures is the first. The best retrieve for yabby lures is to let the lure completely sink before twitching it a few times before letting it sink again. This method is deadly for all fish that eat yabbies as it twitches through all the water columns. The Storm Live kickin minnow and live kickin shad are the second exception to soft plastic fishing. The three features that set them apart is that they have jointed slits in their sides to help them wobble, they has a realistic forked tail section for extra action and they are prefitted with internal weights. To fish These lure affectively let them sink down to the desired depth, comense retrieving the lure remembering that the slow the retrieve the deeper the lure is going to swim. The occasional flick can entice shut down fish that are not hitting baitfish with a normal healthy action but rather an injured easy meal.

A packet of Stimulate Slam soft plastics 



Storm WildEye Nippers

Metal lure and Jig Retrieves:

There are two main types of metal lures, which are generally used in deeper water. The first is the standard metal slug which is retrieved by first letting it sink then reeling it in at a moderately fast speed with the occasional pause. Another is to strike the rod the reel in the slack at a high speed. This causes a dart and pause affect. The other main type of metal lure is a jig. These are fished by dropping them over the side of the boat and letting them sink till they are at the bottom. They are then jerked and wound up through the different water columns but mainly target bottom dwelling fish like samsonfish, amberjack, kingfish and trevally. A Slow Jig like the Williamson Yabai jig is designed to imitate cephalopods instead of fast moving baitfish. They are fished off the bottom by slowly lifting the rod then letting the lure sink back down. A small amount of slack is wound in on every drop to allow the lure to slowly work it’s way up through the water column. There is no point on working the lure all the way up to the top, so once the lure is out of the strike zone, it’s dropped back down to the bottom.



The Williamson Yabai Jig



I hope this post helps anyone who wants to improve their lure fishing techniques. If you have any questions feel free to contact me at rhettthorne@hotmail.com

Rhett Thorne

Super Spaniards

Me, Jason and my new TLD 25 combo with the mackerel

Two days before heading out, my next door neighbour offered to take my dad and I fishing at Barren Reef for mackerel. With this in mind I packed my Shimano TLD 25 overhead reel on a Shimano Bluewater Series 15-24kg rod as well as my Rovex Aureus Spin Reel on my 2.1m 10-20kg Ugly Stick gold series rod. We packed most of our gear the night before but got up at 3.50am in the morning to be out on the water at 4.45am. we launched the boat from the Yeppoon Marina before heading out past the Keppel islands and out to Barren Reef which is on the North East side of the Island. We started by rigging our 24kg overhead outfits with a trolling sinker above the swivel, then a 45kg mono leader and then an eight hook gang hook to finish it off. On this rig we used a nice sized wolf herring which were caught off Iron Pot rock using metal slugs. Two overhead combos were trolled behind the boat which caused the baits to ripple through the water in a very natural manner. As well as that two spin combos were used to cast metal slugs like taipans and Spanyid raiders. Soon the drags were screaming as we were fighting the huge Spanish mackerel in the 30-40m deep water. It payed off to lighten the pressure of the drag as the fish approached the side of the boat. The definite ‘keeper fish’ were gaffed behind the head but if the slightest suspicion of the fish being to small the gaff was placed under the chin and out the mouth so the fish could be easily released. Three of the five fish from 80-110cm long were caught on trolled wolf herring while I was the only one able to catch them on lures. The two I caught on lures were by using my method of casting a head of the boat so it was deep in the water by the time it was behind us. Then I would briskly reel and jig the lure back to the boat and work it through the water columns in the process. It was the first time I had used my Shimano TLD 25 combo and was very pleased by it’s quality and especially it’s lever drag. It has been one of my most memorable fishing trips but also produced some very nice fish which tasted great.

Rhett Thorne

Dad and Jason with the largest fish measuring 110cm

Beach Flathead

The 60cm Flathead

One afternoon at Lammermoor beach in Yeppoon I decided I would trial a few new lures. The minnow type hard bodied lures had no success neither did any soft plastic. Before I decided to finish for the day I changed over to a pink panther Tassie Devil lure. On the third cast off the rocks on the mangrove side of the beach I used a faster retrieve resulting in a nice little GT patrolling over the sand and rocky bottom. Latter I hooked up on a rock cod that stuck to the bottom like a suction cup darting between rocks. I waded out to a rocky platform where I flicked the lure out in every direction.  I decided to work the lure across the bottom at a very slow speed next to the platform rock. In a flash a huge lizard drew it’s camouflaged head out of the sand and crunched down on the fluttering lure. The 60cm flathead was only 2 meters away from where I was standing but took me five minutes to land. That end of the beach had produced a similar sized flathead for another man who used a bibless crankbait on another day with very similar conditions. When targeting flathead try to get the lure to hover just above the bottom, allowing the lure to stay in the strike zone. The fluro pink Tassie devil lure is now one of my most prized lures as it has caught multiple beach species and works great in cloudy water. Other colours of the same style and weight class work better in different situations depending on species and water quality. These lures are often hard to find but when you do I suggest you get a few for your tackle box.

Rhett Thorne

The 13.5 gram pink panther coloured Tassie Devil lure

Innovative Yak Fishing







The smaller barramundi caught on the herring coloured shad



In the morning around 9.45am Clayton, my fishing mate, and I started to paddle to the west side of the Causeway Lake from a bank near the kiosk. We were armed and dangerous with a selection of lures. He was targeting fish using soft plastics like jerk shads and wrigglers while I used a couple of hard body lures. The first to be put to the test was a 45mm shad profiled lure with a natural herring colour. A few retrieve patterns were used. The first was a standard retrieve which was just reeling the lure in at a constant speed. The second and most successful retrieve was a reel and twitch which caused the lure to dart like an injured baitfish. I relatively large fish smashed the lure along the mangrove edge before running 10 metres before spitting the lure. We continued to paddle to a deep mangrove creek where we cast the lures into areas with a lot of structure. On the second cast of the shad, a fish smashed lure as it was twitched over a submerged structure. The fish turned out to be a nice little barramundi that reluctantly gave into the pull of the 4.5kg braid on the Okuma Flame F-30 and Travel rod combo. A few casts later a fish of a similar size hit the lure without being hooked and then the next few casts produced no strikes. Without time to spare I swapped over to a jointed minnow lure in the mullet colour. On the first cast over the structure I twitched the lure causing it to dart and ripple through the water like a weak dying mullet. Within two meters of the first cast I was already hooked up on an even nicer fish which took longer to get in on the light rod. The fish was a 56cm barramundi which finally drifted up beside my yak before being delicately lifted out of the water. After a few quick pictures the fish was released without harm. Releasing barramundi is a very important practice in late November and December because that is when their breeding season commences. Two men in a small tiny near us had three baited rods in the water and had no luck at all. They couldn’t believe the success rate of lures over bait and I assured them that lures can often be the way to go while targeting barramundi. With this in mind I showed them a few techniques and swimming actions of the lures to help them visualise why the lures are so appealing to fish. The two men were quite grateful and couldn’t wait to go and buy a few lures for their next trip. 



The second barramundi with the jointed minnow lure



The two treble hooks provided a solid hookup

Rhett Thorne













 









The Toothy Catch

On a Sunday morning the tide was high (4.4m), with moderate wind speeds so I setup my gear at a quiet gutter. The gutter runs along the end of Lammermoor beach, then about 300m from the end it turns and heads out to Claytons Reef. With this in mind, I positioned myself at the turning point of the gutter and rigged my rod with a modified double hook running sinker rig. I waded out as far is I possibly could, due to the rough waves and then cast my line into the gutter. The top hook was baited with a whole prawn and the bottom hook was baited with a strip of mullet fillet. I used a section of PVC pipe as a rod holder and left the drag fairly light to prevent the fish from breaking off the line. As soon as the drag screamed I raced to the rod and pulled it from the holder. I applied more pressure as I hooked the fish. The fish had a pattern of short strong punching hits then a light break before it hit again. I used the waves to help me land my catch as it was a powerful fighter. When it was beached I assumed it was a whaler shark but its two dorsal fins were the same size and the bottom of its tail was darker. I later discovered that it was a sharp toothed shark. After a few quick pics the shark was released into the surfy beach. As the tide slowly reseeded I hooked up on a swallow-tail dart fish on the prawn hook. The number of bites decreased with the tide and I packed up my gear till next time. The conditions of high wind and swell were no good for kayak fishing but the beach was awesome. I can’t wait till next time when such conditions favour the beach.

Rhett Thorne

The First Time on the Water

The first time I went kayak fishing was a few days after we collected my kayak from the store. I chose the Causeway Lake just out of Yeppoon because it is sheltered from strong surf, currants and is reasonably shallow. Before loading my fishing gear into the yak I did a test paddle allowing me to get the feel for my new fishing vessel and to get to know its limits (like speed, turning and stability). Within ten minutes of cruising over the sand flats I returned and loaded my fishing gear in. my model of kayak is the Fishing Espri. I chose it because it is very versatile for fishing in surfy conditions, estuaries and dams like Awoonga. It has very substantial storage in the hull itself which can be accessed by the three water proof hatches. It also has two flush mount rod holders just behind the seat and two snap-lock rod holders in the front. On my Okuma 3-6kg travel rod with a Flame F-30, I started by trolling a Rapala X-Rap shallow diver so I could cover as much water as possible. I moved on to casting into snaggy areas that seemed very promising for mangrove jacks and fingermark but had not considered casting from a seated position which takes a bit of getting used to. On my way back I hooked a flathead on a killalure which was trolled along a drop-off next to a sand bar. After continuing to troll various bibbed minnows through the back creeks of the causeway I returned to the car to reload to kayak. At first it required two people to lift the kayak onto the v-shaped water craft carriers on the top of the Pajero but after some practice it becomes easier to do by your self.

Rhett Thorne

The Marina Rocks

The first time I went fishing off the rocks off the back of the Yeppoon marine my mate Clayton and I started by collecting bait off the jetty. He used his light rod with a bait jig while I used the cast net to target fish like herring, mullet and garfish. After getting a few live baits we headed to the rocks where we used a running sinker rig and a medium spin outfit. I used my Rovex Aureus on a 2.1m Ugly Stick gold while my mate used a Pen Accord on a Shimano rod. The medium size bait holder Mustad hook was placed through the upper back of the live bait fish. The running sinker rig allows the baitfish to move around a bit which is very natural and appealing to fish. Time quickly passed with only a few small bites but no definite hook-ups till the light drag an the Aureus started to scream. We quickly jumped to our feat and started to tighten the drag to apply more pressure on the fish. The fish stuck to the bottom but had a few slow powerful runs which is a common characteristic of rays. We eventually surfaced it before pulling it up onto the rocks before it scraped the leader line causing it to break. The fish turned out to be a nice shovel nosed shark which flopped into a small rock pool. We took a few pictures before releasing it back into the choppy water. That was the only good fish caught off the rocks that day. It measured 70cm but hopefully will be bigger for next time.

Rhett Thorne