Get the lowdown on lures

Soft Plastics
Soft plastics come in a wide variety of sizes, styles and colours to suit almost any fishing application. Because these lures are soft and chewy when fish bite them they are more likely to bite them more than once and hold onto them longer than a hard lure. Soft plastics require little movement to impart action into the lure and therefore they can be fished extremely slowly. It is important to match the hatch, when selecting a soft plastic that is similar in size, colour and shape to what the fish are feeding on. Soft plastics can be rigged unweighted or on a jighead. The hook size and weight needs to be matched to your fishing application. A good place to start is 2-3' plastics for bream and 3-4' plastics for flathead and bass. Some colours to start with include pink, chartreuse, watermelon, white and natural baitfish colours in the saltwater; pumpkin, purple, baby bass, rainbow trout, browns and greens in the fresh.

Spinnerbaits
Spinnerbaits are based on a wire frame shaped like a V with a towpoint at the pointed end where the line is attached. One arm has blades attached that spin and wobble providing flash and vibration to attract fish. The other arm has a lead head jig with a hook and a rubber skirt attached to attract the fish to bite. Spinnerbaits are extremely popular in freshwater for bass, yellowbelly, sooty grunter and saratoga. Spinnerbaits are also extremely snag resistant as the top wire and blades protect the hook from snagging. A variety of weights are available allowing different depths to be fished.

Metal Lures
Metal lures are designed to represent a fleeing baitfish and like baitfish come in a wide variety of colours, sizes and shapes. By retrieving these lures at high speed the angler triggers the predatory instinct in fish such as tailor, trevally, tuna, mackerel and queenfish. Metal lures can also be jigged, which involves dropping the lure toward the bottom and jigging and retrieving the lure toward the surface.

Hard Bodied lures
Hard bodied lures are so named because they are generally made from timber or injection moulded plastic. Hard bodied lures usually feature a clear plastic bib at the front of the lure which causes the lure to dive as water pressure pushes against the bib when retrieved.
Different shapes and sizes of bibs will cause the lure to dive to different depths, often described on the packaging as +3m or +5m (meaning 5m or more). They come in a wide range of sizes starting from 3-5cm models for trout, flathead and bream through to 25cm models used when trolling for mackerel.

Trolling / Barra Spoons
Simple in design barra spoons consist of a metal spoon with a large single hook bolted onto the spoon. Spoons have a seductive trolling action that mackerel and other pelagic species find hard to resist

Game Lures / Skirted Trolling Lures
Skirted trolling lures are designed to be trolled (towed) by boats when fishing offshore. They are basically a head and skirt designed to skip across the surface or just below the surface creating a disturbance which attracts predatory fish.


Surface Lures

Freshwater
Freshwater surface lures are designed to create a large surface disturbance and noise which may represent a mouse, small bat, lizard or frog trying to find a bank to escape the water. Surface lures are extremely effective when fished in the low light conditions of early morning, afternoon and into the night. Popular retrieval methods include a slow continual twitching retrieve or a stop-start retrieve with lots of pauses.

Saltwater
The above freshwater methods will also work in saltwater and are mainly used for chasing bream. High speed retrieval of large poppers can be effective for mackerel, trevally and other larger predatory fish.

Lipless Crankbaits
Lipless crankbaits are a narrow, herring shaped lure with the towpoint mounted on the top of the lure. Being a sinking lure, lipless crankbaits can be fished vertically or cast and retrieved around timber, snags, rock walls and in deep holes. They are popular for fishing snags and rock bars for mangrove jack, cod and barramundi in North Queensland and bass in the freshwater.

Squid Jigs
Squid jigging takes place during the day and at night, with bright over-head lights to attract the squid. Once squid come around, it is useful to keep the jig moving in the water in a manner that imitates an injured prawn or fish. This is usually done by simply lifting the line, pulling in the slack, jerking once again and so on. It is a good idea to encourage them to empty their ink sacs before bringing them on board or ashore by gently jerking the line as you pull them in.

Deep Water Jigs
Deep water jigs are large metal lures that are dropped toward the bottom in offshore waters and retrieved in a rapid lift and drop, jigging motion. These types of lures are a favourite of large predatory fish including amberjack and kingfish. Having the hook at the top also provides less opportunity for it to snag when dropped to the bottom in reef areas.

Lure Storage
Due to the cost of many lures it is important that care is taken when they are not being used.  There are many storage options including tackle boxes, stowaway boxes (clear boxes on their own) or soft wallets. When choosing a storage option identify the type that is going to meet your needs and suit the lures you will be fishing.  Ideally soft wallets are used to store soft plastic lures, while tackle boxes are generally used for hardbody lures. Stowaway boxes can be used for either soft plastics or hardbody lures depending on the angler's needs.