Learning to Lure

Almost being blown away with winds around 20 knots, we headed down to fish the sand flats and rocky structure around the local estuary system. I was fishing with my mate George, with the aim to catch a few nice fish on light gear and lures, as George had never caught a fish on lure.

We started the day by throwing out the Storm twitching nipper lures, in hope of a flathead, over the sand flat section of the estuary. The retrieve technique is to let the lure sink to the bottom, then give it a few quick twitches then let it sink back down. Most flathead tend to hit lures on the drop so it pays to watch your line for any bumps as it sinks back down. Unfortunately we were unable to hook up on any flathead.

We soon progressed to casting hard body style lures at the rocky structure. The lures of choice were the Rapala original floater, Rapala Ultra Light minnow & shad as well as the Storm deep baby thunderstick. 

Georges first Fish on Lure

In no time George had hooked up on his very first lure fish, a goldspot rockcod, while using the 5cm original floater in the orange tiger colour. The lure was simply twitched around the rocky structure to entice out any hungry fish.

Lured Bream

I began casting the Ultra light shad in the pink colour, after catching a baby cod on the minnow. This lure is great for targeting the fish feeding near the bottom, as it can be cranked and or twitched over rocks, with a slow sinking action on the pause, while still remaining snag free. My 1-3kg Okuma X-Factor began to dance as head shakes began to pull from the other end of the line. The smooth drag of the Trio 20 reel allowed the fish to run downstream, using the current, but soon tired before it could dart for cover. A nice bream being quite a reward for the Ultra light shad.

My first brem on the Ultra Light Shad

We soon relocated to another patch of rocks where we both managed to pull off a few little cod. George then managed to catch a slightly larger cod after tying on the 4cm storm deep baby thunderstick. This fish managed to straighten the tail treble while darting for cover, but with George on the other end was safely landed, tagged and released.

A nice lure caught Cod

I made the decision to swap to the silver brown Rapala Ultra Light shad, as the highly reflective sides send out heaps of flash which imitates wounded baitfish like herring. While after catching another little cod, I put a cast right up into a washy section between two rocky patches and gave it a couple sharp twitches. The rod in one quick motion bent down and the line zipped through the water. The fish luckily swam past a barnacle encrusted rock which could have shredded my 8lb fluro leader. The fish used the wash and flow to pull downstream, forcing me do wade through the water to stay hooked up. A silver flash slowly surfaced and beached into a little cove.

Barra on light tackle

The brute force pulling on the other end of the line was a nice salty barra which was tagged and released after a few quick pics. My first barra for the Ultra Light Shad, not bad for a bream size hardbody.

This Barra ate the Rapala Ultra Light Shad in the silver brown colour

It wasn’t long before we had caught a couple more undersized cod, but then George managed to hook up on a hard pulling baby GT. He had told  the day before that the GT was on his bucket list, not sure if this is quite the fish in mind but still a great catch on bream gear and a new species for that spot.

George with his first ever GT

George was using my Okuma Taurino and Okuma Avenger II combo and was casting like a pro, getting the little hard bods into the structure, even though he had never lure cast in his life. I sure as hell can’t wait till we wet a line again.

The Storm Deep Baby Thunderstick

Fishing the estuaries is always excellent sport while using light Okuma gear and the little Rapala & Storm lures.