I'm a (lure) addict, how, where, why!

[Hooky]

I still enjoy using bait , it really doesn't matter wether I'm spending a few hours off the shore or a day on the old boat.

 

It's not really about how many fish I can catch, it's never been about the size (oo er misses )

 

I do on occasion get 'bored' with bait fishing, however some days it's nice to sit back and relax.

 

So fishing can be described as a relaxing hobby it can also be described as Britains no1participant sport.

 

So to the addiction of lures,feathers, softs, hard plastics, metals, I've got a small selection of what I believe is all you will ever need to buy , how to use them, where to use them along with my failures and experience spanning 35 years of addiction.

 

This post is generally for members who have used the same methods and rigs for years and would like to increase the huge variety of species available in the club waters.

 

I would also like to add that you can spend a small fortune on new rods, reels, and most importantly lures, if you have the cash , go for it, you won't catch any more fish but I can guarantee it's far more about the method than the money.

 

WHY ? Lure fishing is more than a challenge than bait, its a bit of a science, I strongly suggest you will get far more satisfaction from reeling in a 7lb bass from a surface lure on a light rod than you can have from ANY other method !

 

Please post away with your own thoughts,methods etc, I personally would love to try fly fishing for bass, another must do ( any invites and lessons would be more than welcome)

 

WHERE ? I'm not going to share this info with the world, members can of course give me a pm ( it will cost you a pint on club night)

 

WHEN ? Just as important as where , I've caught virtually every fish I've seen in the catch reports section all on lures or softs, this includes Sole on Isome false jelllys as well as a Turbot in 8 inches of water on a surface 'Gunfish'

 

This thread may turn out to be a long one, I will try to add lots of pictures and explain why I'm a addict, my enthusiasm for this subject is not shared by many but may be of some help to others

[Mike Fox]

Do you have more information and pictures of some of the more effective lures you use?

 

Thanks,

Mike

[Hooky]

Do you have more information and pictures of some of the more effective lures you use?

 

Thanks,

Mike

Will do, I'm going to start with rods and reels the reason is some of the most effective lures I use will,only be effective if presented correctly

 

Last season we tried out this theory, the method for presenting the best surface lure is 'walking the dog' ok plenty of anglers try it with some limited success, without sounding like some 'know all ' I believe by learning a very simple few tricks using the correct tried and tested method can & will more than double your catch rate( I doubted all this until I tried it myself)

 

I have done years of trying things out, hours and hours of seeing why some anglers achieve while the majority seem to fail and give -up while lure fishing.

 

Since joining this club I have had learnt far more about boating and fishing than it would have taken in years by trial and error , this is entirely down to the members that have been more than willing to share not only there time but have always offered help and knowledge.

 

I suppose this is my way of contributing and putting something back in , isn't that what a decent club deserves?

[Hooky]

 

 

My first rod is a Savage Gear Bushwaker XLNT mines rated to cast upto 40g it's 8ft long

You can also get them in different lengths and sizes

 

This rod is suitable for every situation from lures to plastics and jelllys.

 

I have used it from the boat, shore, pier and even pike fishing on the local river.

 

It is has a fantastic build quality which is far better than other rods I've used costing three times the price.

 

You can get these for around £60.00 please don't think you need to spend one penny more than this, it's a cracker !

 

WHY ??? You need to feel the lure, you need the correct action to present some lures which make them act like a dying prey, you need a stiff action, the Buswaker is a VERY stiff rod.

You will need to be able to cast a lure around 50 ft in ideal conditions , sometimes FAR further but most of all you need to be accurate , this is called 'fanning '

 

Lure fishing is hunting, no different to fly casting, the best lure men are fly guys, these chaps have skill far beyond my attempts .

 

When fishing for Bass on surface lures you are aiming at targets, these are around rocks , reefs and obstructions, after all you don't want to be chucking a £ 15.00 lure away every poor cast!

 

Next post will be Reels, braid, and surface lures including the best lure I have ever used, it's called a Gunfish ! You will love it, it Works !

[Hooky]

So on to reels, line, leaders, it's going to get a little bit detailed, solid lures are presented in a different way to softs, they in turn and different to metals , It's going to get worse , ! So pay attention and to those on the back row stop sniggering !

 

Shimano, try the brilliant little nexus along with the good old Baitrunner, WHY ? They last for ages and are cheap to buy, they are also light, your arm will ache after 200 plus casts in a few hours .

 

Braid only for me, I never use leaders for solid surface plastics, no swivels just line direct to the lure.

Some softs and shads I have are fitted with a black pike wire, these also clip direct to the braid.

Other softs ( including lead heads) need 6ft of stiff mono with barrel swivels !!!!!!!

 

BRAID---- some of the thin 6 and 8 strand braids will enable you to cast further , I don't get on with them , they will keep catching in the hooks and rod eyes, useless in windy conditions, they will also destroy your rod rings in a short time, it's expensive, £ 35.00 + ?

 

I use Berkley Whiplash as a all rounder, boat ,shore, pier, the diameter is dependant on your spool, don't over fill the spool.

 

Next will be lures, one buy one( who said at bloody last!!!)?

[Stuie]

Your giving us bait addicts plenty of food for thought, that's for sure.

[Hooky]

 

 

Luck craft Gunfish 115 in blue/ silver around £15.00 this is your NO1 look after it, it can be a pig to find.

 

Some lure guys can be as stuffy as those carp boys, they will,hide them from their catch report piccies, they will also call GIinies, GUnnys, etc it's because they are brilliant,,they cast like a bullet and have combined action of a popper and shallow slider, I think it's a pike lure ! ?

 

These will catch Bass, The fish I target average between 3-7lb, I have never caught a lunker on a surface lure of any kind.

 

You can use these in dusk or dawn , shallow water or deep,,they are used around rocky ledges, bully's and boulders, think about the marks Dancing Ledge, Hengistbury jetty, they also work in estuaries and harbours.

 

Clip straight to braid, no swivel, make sure to set the drag on the reel.

 

'Walk the dog' you can check out utube , a few are correct, some a very poor.

 

Slowly does it, cast and leave for at least a minute, let it drift past or side of your target, look for Eddys and whirlpools and gullys keep the tip of the rod level with your waist line and turn your ass @ 90* to the lure! as you slowly wind in flick your wrist so the tip of the rod heads down then up around a couple of inches for every turn of the reel handle.

 

Stop after every 10 turns of the handle, leave for 30 seconds plus and go again.

 

The action you are attempting is this lure will pop, turn from one side to the other In a steady motion.

 

WHY !, I have tried this lure on a floppy rod, it goes all wrong, the braid loops around in coils.

 

We tried this side by side, the correct method and timing caught seven Bass to the floppy rods 1 .

 

The next lure is a Savage gear pencil prey 23g in bone, same as above except it dint work in the harbour, the Gunfish did the job again !

[niggle]

Thanks very interesting

[Rob]

Hell of a link clip on that first one! I prefer something like these:

 

http://www.lureheaven.co.uk/spinning-lure-fishing-shop/delalande-agrafes-rapide-lure-clips-n2.html

or 

http://www.lureheaven.co.uk/spinning-lure-fishing-shop/snowbee-no-not-fas-snaps-n2.html

 

I think that lure choice is much about catching the angler 1st, then the fish!

 

personal preference will come in to it a lot, a bit like if you ask, what light downtide rod do you prefer - and get 30 different answers from 29 anglers!

 

I think it is important to change lures quickly and regularly, you don't know what is happening that you can't see! You may have wrong size, colour or action.

 

Fly fishing for BigMouth bass in Canada, i was on a high bank and could see fish chasing the fly, following it to very shallow water but all would turn away at the last second and never taking! so, i tried faster, slower, to no avail!

Changed the fly, 3 or 4 times, bang! found the fly that worked, fish a cast (no joke!). The difference in my "eyes" was small, but not to the Bass! That was a great lesson! No doubt the next day another fly would have been "the one"!

[Hooky]

WHEN ? Most of my best days on the lures have been a couple of days either side of the flood on spring tides, I don't often use any surface plastics on slack water.

 

Any time between May til November seems best, bass move up,the water table with light and tide, ( does,not apply to,those old Lunkers that hang around deep,water wrecks.

 

First light only, a slight westerly breeze, you won' blank , have confidence in your lures.

 

Nothing will beat a nice live sandeel or Joey under these conditions, that is for certain , it's Sod's law that when you want them they all have strangely gone shy, I think they are all in terror of the shoals of Bass that are on the feed!

 

Top Tip ! Keep your engine off, keep quiet, this I have learnt from years of Kayak fishing.

 

Keep you eye on the Kayak lads, the yakking lure fanatic will always be at the top of the species and specimen list, the only thing that will reduce this is poor weather, my best day ever in fishing was on a yak from Kimmeridge, 18 species within 6 hours all from lures.

[Hooky]

Today I should be out fishing, tides are good, boat is sat in the driveway all ready to go, time off was all arranged.

Shame my poor old back has screamed enough , I can click buttons fine, shame I can't even manage to put my shoes on without help .

 

So on to some more plastics , shallow, deep, pencils, poppers, they have all caught at some time, from Bass to Wrasse,

s

 

All the above are still attached direct to braid.

 

You still should work these, you don't need to walk the dog like the surface baits,

 

I have managed to take more than a few wrasse on the little jerk solids, the little pencil popper seems to get lots of attention, the deep diver greens will even pick up a flounder in holes bay in the winter on a dark night

 

Third down from top, the little white and black, Gar fish love it, the end treble is tiny.

 

Big issue is weed, that nasty red crap, you will not catch anything on lures of any time if you don't clear it.

 

If the weed of doom get bad, it's time to clip on 6 ft of 12lb mono , attach it with a simple barrel swivel to your main line( the weed will then reduce a little )

 

Still lots of weed??? Time to give up and swifts over to the jelllys and softs , many can be used using weedless hooks .

[Hooky]

Car boot sales. My type of hang out, hundreds of odd and ends that can cost a few pence, you may end up finding a diamond.

 

When I bought the Hobit it included a few genuine diamonds among the layers of decay and mould, some will be kept in the box of shame, a couple are in these pictures are from that box of shame, they must have cost more than a few pounds, Rob was correct, many lures are designed for the man, if fish had a sence of humour I'm sure they would be curled up in laughter at some of crap that get thrown out on a line.

 

This is not the case with these, Savage gear Sandeel, it's a jig head with a soft body, all these do not need to be used on a flying collar or Clements type boom

Try these on the Shambles, Brill, Rays, big Plaice , big Bass.

HOW ? Up and down , try to keep within a foot or so of the bottom.

You may notice a diamond, it's called a black minnow, it's got the weedless hook, if you ever need convincing that jelllys work just get this one, trust me on this chaps.

Cod love all of the above, give it a try on your next winter trip round the Needles, you can of course use them all on a Clements type boom in strong tides.

 

So the tide is now running hard, put away the lure rod, they are far to stiff for all this and will snap like a brittle twig, time to get down and deep for those Conger and huge Pollock.

[Hooky]

That's a biggie! It's the large rattle shad, big tides, big depths , wrecks.

 

Conger, Cod, Pollack etc etc, sometimes fished on a Pike wire with a large barrel swivel

 

Smaller rattle shads for general rough ground drifting, your not going to,cry to much when you loose them.

 

So that's enough for one day out in the deep, let's head for home , there's still,a few hours left in the harbour .

[Hooky]

 

 

The weather is poor and you only have a Dinghy with a little outboard, you have just as much chance of wining the competition than spending hours burning up fuel in the bay - blanking

This was done last year.

 

Some nice Pollack? Nice noisy spinning lead head jigs with attached jelly worms.

Try the deep marks in Poole , opposite the ferry terminal works for me and loads of others.

 

Yet another diamond lurks, it's blue, pink and tiny.

Red & Grey Gurnard love them, Flounders, try drifting around the old fuel barge and Aunt Bettie.

 

Fish these on a little ball weight on a simple running ledger.

 

During a special time in the year you will also find the Gilt Head Bream , same lure , similar mark .

 

You may also find it's the killer method for Black Bream at sea.

 

So on to the old school, what's old that worked years ago still works today

[Hooky]

 

Old school , Toby's , Mepps, and of course Dexters,

 

These are as relevant today as they have always been, I class all of these as diamonds.

 

I love Mackerel fishing, I really hope that the stupidity of fishing sees this wonderful species abused and go the same way as Bass, Tuna etc (it is in fact a little tuna)

 

Method as follows !

 

Reach into your tackle box for those strings of feathers and throw them into,the bin.

 

Bring out your £ 9.99 kiddies special and tie your Dexter on to the 4lb line

 

Fanning is a method of throwing a lure around starting in the 12' 00 and keep going til you get dizzy

Sit down and tie on a little Mepps , same method , repeat as required .

 

You may even pick up a terrific Gar fish by doing this without creating the damage that a nasty old blunt feather makes.

 

Scad, Smelt, Thwaite Shads , Bass, Launce, Sprats, Herring, all have been caught on metals in the local areas, not too bad for a quid as I'm sure you will all agree.

 

I have NEVER caught a sea trout, it's on my target list using a simple Mepps spinner, a few have !

[Hooky]

 

Trolling, not my thing , use old school eddy stone eels in lighter colours with no weights over the training bank at high water, worms work for smaller bass here in the summer

[Hooky]

Phew, now Mullet, the pain in my large behind.

 

 

We have all seen them, the fly -guys seem to get them, first choice would be a grenade or similar.

 

How many years have I been trying to catch these ?

 

 

 

Still a lure I suppose, these tiny little worms come over from Japan

Once again its time for the kiddie special, use a little bubble float , use a long leader of light line to a tiny 2.0 hook and away you go

 

If this fails go back and use the bloody grenade!

[Hooky]

 

 

Lures work on bigger fish too, especially for girls.

 

 

That's all folks

[Kingfisher 126]

Great write ups and some interesting thoughts.

 

When I bought my boat there was a down rigger with it that has never been used, if you fancy giving it a go some time give me a pm.

 

With your knowledge I suspect there maybe some fun to be had!!

 

Chris

[Leicester Fisheagle]

Hi Hooky

Remember the day when you last came out on Fisheagle and fished with lures? I have now got mine all together now hanging on several pieces of board. I suspect from your pictures that I have a few diamonds amonst them. Your postings have encouraged me to try out a few from my spinning days for pike, perch and Zander as well as a few trout and bass. Looking forward to learning more next time you come out.A really good read

 

Allan.

[Hooky]

Cheers chaps! It seems that this lure fishing is really gaining huge number of followers over the last few years.

 

If you think back a while ago when you went out looking for a cod or two you were armed with a pirk with a couple of muppets mounted in tandem above it, as far as I can remember most of the cod took the pirk .

 

 

A bream rig that seems to do the job these days is small Sabikis with a tiny strip of squid.

 

Feathers work for loads of different species along with Toby's again I can remember the spoons for flounder,Brill etc,we're not tipped with bait but had tin foil wrapper around the hook.

None of the above gave off any sent, all of them worked years ago, they still work today , they are all lures.

Movement and action is in my mind more important than sent in most of the fish we catch in our shallow waters.

If you are using a side of mackerel fished hard to the bottom showing no silver skin just white flesh it will of course put out a sent for a while, yes it will get you a fish but if you have a strip showing the silver skin a waggle the bait around you will do far better ?

 

All of us today who fish bait add beads, spinners are of course using lures.

 

I agree that a nice bit of smelly bait seems to work better than some thawed out lump of mush, fresh bait will always be better than frozen.

 

I watched a utube clip the other day of Flounders attacking the beads above the hook as soon as it was moved, they are not fussed over the lugworm on the hook,once again it clearly shows movement is the key to get them to feed at all.

 

With Fish stocks being far lower than years ago you will of course have to work harder to find them, I am totally convinced that it's not so much what the lure is,it's how you use it, however if you also find a lure with that perfect movement you are going to succeed far more often than the bloke stood beside you using that same lure

[lofty]

These posts have been really interesting and encouraging

Cheers