Lure Novice

[slurm]

Hi All,

Relatively new to the site and fishing in general so please be gentle.

I have a Shimano Sienna 4000 paired up with a 6ft Ugly Stick Gold 4-8kg that has served wonders with a baited rig to teach me the basics of fishing and I am looking to explore the realms of lure tactics. Foremost, it will allow me to stop worrying about grabbing bait every trip and also I figure it will be a bit more interactive than my rather 'set and forget' approach of bait fishing. 

Should I invest In a new setup for flicking lures? I am happy to fork out some coin for a beginner plastic set up if it would be beneficial, or rather if I slap some braid on my reel would that be ideal? I was once advised that my current rod is too sensitive for flicking plastics, but not sure if I was being led astray! 

On a final note, what lures/plastics should I be looking at? I will largely be land based in Sydney, with the occasional kayak outing when it warms up a bit. As far as species goes, I am happy with bread and butter at this point. More so concerned with developing skills associated with the sport before i get in over my head. 

Thanks for your time raiders!

Slurm

[DerekD]

Hi Slurm,

Unless you are specifically chasing bigger species (kings, bonito) I recommend at looking at a different outfit. First thing to note most of the species you will pick up on lures (flathead, bream, snapper, trevally, flounder, whiting, salmon) will be eating small baitfish hence most people will use small lures. Small lures are light so you will struggle to get any reasonable casting distance on the gear you have. My go to in Soft plastics are 2" grubs, 3" and 4" minnows. I also use hard bodies and metal slices on the same gear.

The beauty of the gear they have these days is the sensitivity. My suggestion would be a 2-4kg graphite (not fibrglass) rod 2 piece between 6 foot 6" and 7 foot 6", a 1500 to 2500 reel matched with 8lb mono backing and about 150 yards of 4lb braid for the sensitivity. I prefer a short butt on the rod because the longer butt doesn't fish comfortably with my normal technique. 4lb may sound light but the breaking strength is a fair bit higher and you can even land legal kings on this gear if you learn to play them properly and let the drag do its work. The rod I recommend to set the bar is the Shimano Raider Bream Finesse 762 (7 foot, 6 inches 2 piece) 2-4kg and 3 to 12 gram lure weight.

For about $300 you can set up and rod, reel, line, leader, backing and assortment of lures and jig heads. I'd recommend you spend a little more but that is dependent on how deep you are planning on getting in to it. Once you understand the concepts it will help your overall fishing.

See if you can get a mentor to show you the gear. I've seen people get steered in what I consider to be the wrong direction by the salesperson. One gentleman went out to get exactly the rod and gear I use and then mentioned to the guy in the shop he was chasing salmon. Next thing I find out is that it has come back spooled with 20lb braid thus missing the benefit of the lighter gear.

Which suburb do you live in?

Regards,

Derek

PS. Do some searches through the tackle talk and chat archives as this topic has come up a few times in the last few months.

Edited September 13, 2018 by DerekD

[slurm]

3 hours ago, DerekD said:

Hi Slurm,

Unless you are specifically chasing bigger species (kings, bonito) I recommend at looking at a different outfit. First thing to note most of the species you will pick up on lures (flathead, bream, snapper, trevally, flounder, whiting, salmon) will be eating small baitfish hence most people will use small lures. Small lures are light so you will struggle to get any reasonable casting distance on the gear you have. My go to in Soft plastics are 2" grubs, 3" and 4" minnows. I also use hard bodies and metal slices on the same gear.

The beauty of the gear they have these days is the sensitivity. My suggestion would be a 2-4kg graphite (not fibrglass) rod 2 piece between 6 foot 6" and 7 foot 6", a 1500 to 2500 reel matched with 8lb mono backing and about 150 yards of 4lb braid for the sensitivity. I prefer a short butt on the rod because the longer butt doesn't fish comfortably with my normal technique. 4lb may sound light but the breaking strength is a fair bit higher and you can even land legal kings on this gear if you learn to play them properly and let the drag do its work. The rod I recommend to set the bar is the Shimano Raider Bream Finesse 762 (7 foot, 6 inches 2 piece) 2-4kg and 3 to 12 gram lure weight.

For about $300 you can set up and rod, reel, line, leader, backing and assortment of lures and jig heads. I'd recommend you spend a little more but that is dependent on how deep you are planning on getting in to it. Once you understand the concepts it will help your overall fishing.

See if you can get a mentor to show you the gear. I've seen people get steered in what I consider to be the wrong direction by the salesperson. One gentleman went out to get exactly the rod and gear I use and then mentioned to the guy in the shop he was chasing salmon. Next thing I find out is that it has come back spooled with 20lb braid thus missing the benefit of the lighter gear.

Which suburb do you live in?

Regards,

Derek

PS. Do some searches through the tackle talk and chat archives as this topic has come up a few times in the last few months.

G'day Derek,

Cheers for the reply. I will definitely have to look into your suggestions and hopefully I come through with an awesome starting combo. I have found some of your recent posts very useful too and will be sure to utilize the search function to gather more info. I am located in the North West, so i typically fish around the suburbs of Gladesville, Greenwich and Lane Cove areas.

Thanks again for your help,

Slurm

[dirvin21]

Go a lighter setup something in the 2-4kg rating with a 2500 sized reel match with some 6-8lb braid and 8lb leader

Shimano have catana/sienna combos which are good for starting out

I personally use zman grubz for plastics fishing but it's personal choice scents like sfactor definitely make a difference

Start with flathead find some areas where you know flathead frequent and get your techniques fine tuned... flathead are generally forgiving

Porbably the main thing i see is hopping techniques with lures.... be limber try and hop or twitch your lure with your wrist and elbow aiming to not move your torso 

Most importantly keep persisting once you crack the code you'll never look back

Hope this helps

Dave

[DerekD]

2 hours ago, slurm said:

G'day Derek,

Cheers for the reply. I will definitely have to look into your suggestions and hopefully I come through with an awesome starting combo. I have found some of your recent posts very useful too and will be sure to utilize the search function to gather more info. I am located in the North West, so i typically fish around the suburbs of Gladesville, Greenwich and Lane Cove areas.

Thanks again for your help,

Slurm

Hi Slurm,

I live in the Lane Cove area (but fish the Sydney harbour area). If you are in the area in the next few weekends maybe we can meet down at the water and go through some of the basics (gear and techniques). Like to see you getting the most out of the hard earned money rather than going through the longer learning curve that I did. If that works for you then don't buy anything until you understand the why.

Regards,

Derek

[anthman]

17 hours ago, DerekD said:

Hi Slurm,

I live in the Lane Cove area (but fish the Sydney harbour area). If you are in the area in the next few weekends maybe we can meet down at the water and go through some of the basics (gear and techniques). Like to see you getting the most out of the hard earned money rather than going through the longer learning curve that I did. If that works for you then don't buy anything until you understand the why.

Regards,

Derek

Definitely a valuable offer to consider, Slurm!

[slurm]

Absolutely, very generous of Derek. Ill be in contact over the next few weeks.

Thanks for all your help,

Slurm 

[mrsswordfisherman]

2 hours ago, slurm said:

Absolutely, very generous of Derek. Ill be in contact over the next few weeks.

Thanks for all your help,

Slurm 

This is what raiders are about Slurm.

Very kind Derek

[kingie chaser]

On ‎9‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 11:42 AM, slurm said:

On a final note, what lures/plastics should I be looking at? I will largely be land based in Sydney, with the occasional kayak outing when it warms up a bit. As far as species goes, I am happy with bread and butter at this point. More so concerned with developing skills associated with the sport before i get in over my head.

Hi Slurm, your on a winner there with Derek showing you the ropes  

 

On the lures/SP's, there a million out there & it will take some time to find what works in your waterway as I believe that each is different even if the species are the same.

 

Berkley jerk shads work well on fish like flathead, snapper/squire & bream but for me colour make a difference on what each like.

Flatties in my area love colours like nuclear chicken or similar, where the squire prefer pink.

 

Get yourself a spread of styles like paddle tails & shad & some different weight jig heads & hook size to suit the size of the plastic.

 

Having a spread metal spin lures are also a must for surface fish like tailor, mackerel, salmon etc.

Again many brands but I look for special & buy a few sizes & colours & also usually swap out the trebles for a single hook to make life easier to get the fish of for both retuning to the water or putting in the esky.

 

Good luck mate ? 

Edited September 14, 2018 by kingie chaser

[slurm]

11 hours ago, kingie chaser said:

Hi Slurm, your on a winner there with Derek showing you the ropes  

 

On the lures/SP's, there a million out there & it will take some time to find what works in your waterway as I believe that each is different even if the species are the same.

  

Berkley jerk shads work well on fish like flathead, snapper/squire & bream but for me colour make a difference on what each like.

 Flatties in my area love colours like nuclear chicken or similar, where the squire prefer pink.

  

Get yourself a spread of styles like paddle tails & shad & some different weight jig heads & hook size to suit the size of the plastic.

  

Having a spread metal spin lures are also a must for surface fish like tailor, mackerel, salmon etc.

Again many brands but I look for special & buy a few sizes & colours & also usually swap out the trebles for a single hook to make life easier to get the fish of for both retuning to the water or putting in the esky.

 

Good luck mate ? 

G'day kingie,

Cheers for your reply. 

I still have to scrape my jaw off the ground every time I head into a tackle shop when I see their wall of lures/SPs. It's incredible how much variety is out there! I think when the time comes to invest in a new outfit I will need to pick up a variety of shapes and colours and see what works well in my area. I cannot wait.

Thanks again mate

Slurm

Edited September 15, 2018 by slurm

[anthman]

3 hours ago, slurm said:

G'day kingie,

Cheers for your reply. 

I still have to scrape my jaw off the group every time I head into a tackle shop when I see their wall of lures/SPs. It's incredible how much variety is out there! I think when the time comes to invest in a new outfit I will need to pick up a variety of shapes and colours and see what works well in my area. I cannot wait.

Thanks again mate

Slurm

Some of my own preferences in terms of where to have landed after spending lots of time and $$ on lures (which have produced for me):

* Powerbait 2" and 3" minnow - any colour that has silver shine to it (e.g. pearl). Not very durable, but does the trick.

* Zman 3.75" streakz - very durable, get few per pack compared to powerbait but works out better if you aren't snagging too often.

* 1/8, 1/4 and 3/8oz jig heads - eBay has em pretty cheap, around $12 for 20x for the lighter jig heads and a bit more for the 3/8oz.

* Generic "halco twisty" style metal lures off eBay - 28g size

* ~8g  50mm tiny metal lures - great for when the bait fish are getting busted up

* <100mm bobbed minnow hard body.

Having said all that, go for a fishing session with Derek, no doubt he'll cover the above lure types.

 

[DerekD]

8 hours ago, anthman said:

Having said all that, go for a fishing session with Derek, no doubt he'll cover the above lure types.

 

You know me well @Anthman. You know me very well.

[DerekD]

Hi Slurm,

A couple of the lads at my weekly pool comp were keen to learn about plastics so we went out on Sunday afternoon. The excessive wind took a bit of fun out of it but I enjoyed the company and figured if they can fish in that level of wind it will be so much easier in nice weather. For me it was all worth it to see the look on the face of one of them when he hooked and landed his first fish on plastics and to top it off it was a PB flathead of 58cm. It fed his whole family too.

He is keen to head out again and will start saving for the light rod and associated gear. I think blackfish will be the next target species (but not on plastics).

So any idea when your schedule clears up a little bit?

Regards,

Derek

[slurm]

2 hours ago, DerekD said:

Hi Slurm,

A couple of the lads at my weekly pool comp were keen to learn about plastics so we went out on Sunday afternoon. The excessive wind took a bit of fun out of it but I enjoyed the company and figured if they can fish in that level of wind it will be so much easier in nice weather. For me it was all worth it to see the look on the face of one of them when he hooked and landed his first fish on plastics and to top it off it was a PB flathead of 58cm. It fed his whole family too.

 He is keen to head out again and will start saving for the light rod and associated gear. I think blackfish will be the next target species (but not on plastics).

So any idea when your schedule clears up a little bit?

Regards,

Derek

G'day Derek,

Great to hear your mates are digging the SPs! He must be stoked with the new PB.

I am pretty full on for the next few months. I'm in a new position at work so haven't worked the leverage to ask for time off, so unfortunately the only times I get to fish are late nights and early mornings during the working week. I will for sure contact you if something changes in the meantime.

Thanks 

Slurm

[nutsaboutfishing]

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[DerekD]

53 minutes ago, slurm said:

G'day Derek,

Great to hear your mates are digging the SPs! He must be stoked with the new PB.

I am pretty full on for the next few months. I'm in a new position at work so haven't worked the leverage to ask for time off, so unfortunately the only times I get to fish are late nights and early mornings during the working week. I will for sure contact you if something changes in the meantime.

Thanks 

Slurm

What about the upcoming long weekend - the Monday maybe?

Once daylight savings kicks in I head out frequently after work too during the week.

Edited September 18, 2018 by DerekD

[slurm]

On 9/18/2018 at 4:19 PM, DerekD said:

What about the upcoming long weekend - the Monday maybe?

Once daylight savings kicks in I head out frequently after work too during the week.

I'm working through the holiday unfortunately mate. Maybe we can tee up a session later in the season when daylight savings settles in!

Slurm