Lure Newbies
Aug 11, 2006 16:44:39 GMT -1
Post by rzaskar on Aug 11, 2006 16:44:39 GMT -1
Hey admin great new section, hears something to kick it off.
I don’t want to teach people to suck eggs as I am sure that some of you will have extensive experience of using lures around North Wales, but it always surprises me how many experienced sea anglers have never put down the peeler crab and lug worm and picked up a shinny piece of metal or plastic and had a chuck.
Plugging down the Llyn peninsula
Lure fishing is one of the most satisfying forms of angling that can be practiced around the North Wales coast during the spring Summer and months and even in to Autumn. I myself fish almost exclusively with lures during the warmer months mostly off rock marks around anglesea but also other areas of North Wales my main focus is Bass but other species that can be caught on the lure include Pollack. Mackerel, Garfish, coalfish, wrasse and launce.
Garfish on a shallow diving lure
One thing that often frustrates me is locating the fish, and that’s where the yak comes in.
It has often been the case that the fish have been just out of casting range of the rock that I have been standing on, or the fish just haven’t been there at all, and in my opinion if the Bass are there you will catch them. Having only just got my hands on a yak I think that it is going to be the ultimate tool in catching them big Kippers. The yak allows the angler to follow the fish and to cover a lot more ground than if you were walking the shore. It also allows acsess to them top fish holding spots that are inaccessible from the shore and larger boats. At the moment I can not really comment on the use of lures from the yak due to my limited time on the water (only had the yak a couple of weeks) but the principle of lure fishing and the lures that I will be using will be basically the same so here are a few different types of lures that I will be using. I think it is very important to pick the right lures, and that doesn’t mean buy every one in the shop (remember lures are made to catch the angler as well as the fish), I have boxes and boxes of lures but if im honest I only use around 10 of them and wouldn’t dream of even tying half of them to my line. The lures that im going to talk about are lures that I have confidence in and that I use on a regular basis and not lures that have had a fancy write up in some magazine that would tell you old rope worked as a fish catcher if they could get 15quid a pop out of you.
Surface lures
Fishing with surface lures is growing to be one of the most popular forms of plug fishing for bass. It is also my favourite type of lure to use not just due to the effectiveness of them but mainly due to the visual nature of the fishing. There is nothing more exciting than retrieving a surface lure and seeing the fin of a bass braking the surface behind it and then watching as the mouth of the fish engulfs the whole thing. Even when the fish aren’t biting there is still something strangely satisfying about working a surface lure, trying to make a piece of plastic imitate an injured bait fish on the surface of the water. Surface lures are generally used during calm conditions when bait fish will be on the surface, they are partically hard to fish during rough seas dues to the hooks hanging up on the line.
There are two main types of surface lure, the walker and the popper, the walker being my favourite. Walkers are retrieved across the surface in zig zag motion by gently tapping (pumping) the rod tip, but the most important part of the retrieve is the pause. It is important to stop the lure dead in the water at certain point during the retrieve as this is when most takes occur. You will notice that when you stop a walker in the water the back end of the lure will drop in the water and the lure will sit up right and this seems to trigger the fish to strike.
Surface walker on the retrieve
Surface walker on the pause
Lures can be paused for a as long as you like and some anglers will leave a lure paused for minutes at a time before they continue there retrive. Personally I pause about every 5 to 10metres and leave the lure staionary for around 5 seconds, but of coarse there are no rules and every type of retrieve and pause pattern is worth a try. My favourite lure ever is a walker and is called a luckycraft sammy (see picture bellow) and my second choice of walker is a dexter easy walker (see picture bellow). Sammys are only really available in the states although a couple of places on this side of the water have recently started to stock them (best to put an order in to the states as colours and sizes are limited in the country). The dexter easy walkers are avalible at most good tackle shops and as with all of the dexter range they come at a very reasonable price compared to other lures on the market.
Sammys on the right Dexter easy walkers on the left
Heres a Schoolie that took a sammy. Check how it almost engulfed the whole lure
The second type of surface lure is the popper variety. Poppers have a concave face on them which causes the lure to pop and splutter as it moves through the water. I tend to fish this variety of lure with a harsher more jerky action compared to how I fish walkers. These lures should be given sharpish taps of the rod tip as this causes the concave face of the lure to throw up a spray of water in front of the lure and to emit a popping sound in to the water that attracts the fish. These lures should also be stopped dead in the water as this often induces the fish to take. My favourite popper has to be the yo-zuri mag popper which is a slightly cheaper copy of the Duel Aile Magnet SB Slider but has the same effect, dexter also make a copy called the SP Popper but I haven’t fished with it much so can not comment on its effectiveness. I suppose the most original and classic popper has to be the storm chug bug and thousands of anglers swear by this lure, and although I do like it for the great disturbance it creates on the surface I think it is over rated, but that’s my personnel choice and some people would be cursing me for saying that.
Top- Yo-Zuri Mag Popper
Middle - Chug Bug
Bottom – Dexter SP Popper
Shallow diving lures
When out plug fishing for bass I tend to change my lure fairly frequently swapping between a surface lure and a shallow diving lure. For anyone that doesn’t know what I diving lure is, it is basically a lure that will dive to a certain depth and swim at that depth. It is the lip or vain on the front of the lure that makes it dive to depth and the depth to which it dives is dependent on the angle and the size of the lip. When purchasing a diving lure in the shop look at the packet and it usually tells you what depths the lure will run at. Shallow divers are great bass lures as they can be fished just above the rock and kelp beds but like all diving lures are prone to getting in to snags and being lost. A lot of diving lures will float so when you feel them snag slacken off the line and they will sometime float clear. Using shallow divers can be as visual as using surface lures as in clear water fish can often be seen following them right up to your feet. Divers come in both jointed and un-jointed varieties both having there own attraction to fish. When fishing with divers, either shallow or deep runners I tend to reel in and give the rod tip the odd sharp tap as this gives the lure an erratic action just like a real bait fish. Working the lure correctly is as important as having the right lure on your line as a piece plastic swimming through the water at a constant speed will not look like the fish that you are trying to resemble. My favorite shallow diver over the last couple of seasons has been the Rapala x-rap. Rapala call it an extreme slash bait and when you give this lure some sharp pulls with the rod tip you can see why. The x-rap will role, dart and really looks good in the water, I have caught many fish on this lure and would recommend it to anyone. The x-rap swims at about 2-3ft under the surface and suspends at that depth even when the lure is brought to a stand still.
Rapala X-Raps the more colorful ones are used for pike fishing
Other good shallow divers include the yo-zuri mag minnow range (great casting in to wind due to magnet system inside the lure) abu tormentors and a lure which I was only introduced to this year the bomber long A
A selection of diving lures Top to bottom – jointed rebel, Abu Tormentor, Yo-Zuri crystal minnow, Rapala J13, Bomber long A
Deep diving lures
Deep diving lures do what they say on the tin ‘they dive deep’. I don’t often fish with these lures but reckon I mite be fishing with them more now due to having acsess to deeper water with the yak. One that I have used a fair bit is the rapala sliver, this lure resembles a sandeel and will dive to around 10ft.
Rapala sliver (do not buy the cheap imitations as they fall apart)
It was designed in the states as a needle fish imitation for trolling in search of big game fish but it has been a great sucsess over in Britain on the bass fishing scene. I wouldn’t use this lure in shallow water unless you like chucking ten quid notes in to the sea but it is a great fish catcher and im planning on trolling it form the yak.
Couple of fish caught on a rapala sliver in a very rough sea (if you look closely you can see im soaked)
Spinners
Spinners are great bits of kit, they are easy to cast (especially if its windy) and they can catch a range of species including mackerel, Bass, Pollack and garfish. I think if I was only aloud to have two spinners in my tackle box they would be the two classics the abu toby and the dexter wedge. These are great spinners for Bass and I think it is far more fun fishing for mackerel with these and on light gear than using heavily weighted set of feathers. I find it better to real spinners in at c constant rate rather than giving them any action with the rod this is probably due to then creating there own fluttering in the water.
Dexter wedge (again with all spinners I wouldn’t buy the cheap imitations as they don’t have the quality feel about them and tend to rust and discolour a lot faster especially the hooks)
Soft plastics
The range of soft plastic lures on the market is immense and it can be hard to pick the ones that will work. I stick to a couple of different types which are the worm type and the eel type. The main target species for me when using this type of lure is the Pollack but they will also pick up other species such as bass, mackerel and codling.
Codling on a spun red gill
Rigging these lures is easy, I use my standard plugging set up with a small ball or barrel weight thread on to the main line and I tie a small swivel to the main line (always put a bead between the swivel and the weight to protect the knot). Then I tie a 3ft length of fluorocarbon around 20lb to the swivel then tie lure of hook depending which type of jelly im using directly to the end. If I am using a jelly worm that does not already have a hook inside it I using a size 1 to 1/0 hook something like an Aberdeen is good because they bend out of the kelp easier. The redgill style eels already contain a hook so tie directly to the line. One of the most pleasurable, easy and fun types of fishing that can be done is by using a small redgill style eel and deep spinning it for small Pollack.
Small Pollack on red gill eel (red or orange best for Pollack)
I find that either red or orange coulored eels work best for the Pollack but they will go for any colour. The larger redgills and jelly worms can be used for the larger specimens but if it guaranteed fish you are after go for the small ones and you will catch all day long. Storm have also recently brought out a range of very life like sand eels which have proved very successful for bass and I found some fladen copys in a red colour that are deadly for Pollack. When spinning with these lures it is very important to let it sink to the depth you want to fish before you start reeling or you will just be reeling it along the surface. Fishing these lures over kelp bed and rocks can result in a lot of tackle loss but they are relatively cheap when compared to plugs and spinners.
Jelly Lures –
Top - fladen eel and storm sandeel
Middle left - reg gills
Botton - Storm Shad
Right – Jelly worms
Hope that this helps some of you out and that the other lure anglers on the site will give me some constructive criticism about the points that I have made. Also feel free to pm me any questions and if you wanted you could also pm your most secret bass marks I wont tell a sole. As well as summer sea fishing most of the plug type lures I have mentioned can be used for pike in the winter time and that’s what the yak will be getting used for later in the year. Finally I don’t think there is any need to go and spend your life savings on every lure in the shop and that’s why I have mentioned the ones that have worked for me so if you are going to try any out then they are defiantly worth a go (BEWARE THERE ARE A LOT OF DUFF LURES AND CHEAP IMITATIONS OUT THERE).
Are you Lured
I don’t want to teach people to suck eggs as I am sure that some of you will have extensive experience of using lures around North Wales, but it always surprises me how many experienced sea anglers have never put down the peeler crab and lug worm and picked up a shinny piece of metal or plastic and had a chuck.
Plugging down the Llyn peninsula
Lure fishing is one of the most satisfying forms of angling that can be practiced around the North Wales coast during the spring Summer and months and even in to Autumn. I myself fish almost exclusively with lures during the warmer months mostly off rock marks around anglesea but also other areas of North Wales my main focus is Bass but other species that can be caught on the lure include Pollack. Mackerel, Garfish, coalfish, wrasse and launce.
Garfish on a shallow diving lure
One thing that often frustrates me is locating the fish, and that’s where the yak comes in.
It has often been the case that the fish have been just out of casting range of the rock that I have been standing on, or the fish just haven’t been there at all, and in my opinion if the Bass are there you will catch them. Having only just got my hands on a yak I think that it is going to be the ultimate tool in catching them big Kippers. The yak allows the angler to follow the fish and to cover a lot more ground than if you were walking the shore. It also allows acsess to them top fish holding spots that are inaccessible from the shore and larger boats. At the moment I can not really comment on the use of lures from the yak due to my limited time on the water (only had the yak a couple of weeks) but the principle of lure fishing and the lures that I will be using will be basically the same so here are a few different types of lures that I will be using. I think it is very important to pick the right lures, and that doesn’t mean buy every one in the shop (remember lures are made to catch the angler as well as the fish), I have boxes and boxes of lures but if im honest I only use around 10 of them and wouldn’t dream of even tying half of them to my line. The lures that im going to talk about are lures that I have confidence in and that I use on a regular basis and not lures that have had a fancy write up in some magazine that would tell you old rope worked as a fish catcher if they could get 15quid a pop out of you.
Surface lures
Fishing with surface lures is growing to be one of the most popular forms of plug fishing for bass. It is also my favourite type of lure to use not just due to the effectiveness of them but mainly due to the visual nature of the fishing. There is nothing more exciting than retrieving a surface lure and seeing the fin of a bass braking the surface behind it and then watching as the mouth of the fish engulfs the whole thing. Even when the fish aren’t biting there is still something strangely satisfying about working a surface lure, trying to make a piece of plastic imitate an injured bait fish on the surface of the water. Surface lures are generally used during calm conditions when bait fish will be on the surface, they are partically hard to fish during rough seas dues to the hooks hanging up on the line.
There are two main types of surface lure, the walker and the popper, the walker being my favourite. Walkers are retrieved across the surface in zig zag motion by gently tapping (pumping) the rod tip, but the most important part of the retrieve is the pause. It is important to stop the lure dead in the water at certain point during the retrieve as this is when most takes occur. You will notice that when you stop a walker in the water the back end of the lure will drop in the water and the lure will sit up right and this seems to trigger the fish to strike.
Surface walker on the retrieve
Surface walker on the pause
Lures can be paused for a as long as you like and some anglers will leave a lure paused for minutes at a time before they continue there retrive. Personally I pause about every 5 to 10metres and leave the lure staionary for around 5 seconds, but of coarse there are no rules and every type of retrieve and pause pattern is worth a try. My favourite lure ever is a walker and is called a luckycraft sammy (see picture bellow) and my second choice of walker is a dexter easy walker (see picture bellow). Sammys are only really available in the states although a couple of places on this side of the water have recently started to stock them (best to put an order in to the states as colours and sizes are limited in the country). The dexter easy walkers are avalible at most good tackle shops and as with all of the dexter range they come at a very reasonable price compared to other lures on the market.
Sammys on the right Dexter easy walkers on the left
Heres a Schoolie that took a sammy. Check how it almost engulfed the whole lure
The second type of surface lure is the popper variety. Poppers have a concave face on them which causes the lure to pop and splutter as it moves through the water. I tend to fish this variety of lure with a harsher more jerky action compared to how I fish walkers. These lures should be given sharpish taps of the rod tip as this causes the concave face of the lure to throw up a spray of water in front of the lure and to emit a popping sound in to the water that attracts the fish. These lures should also be stopped dead in the water as this often induces the fish to take. My favourite popper has to be the yo-zuri mag popper which is a slightly cheaper copy of the Duel Aile Magnet SB Slider but has the same effect, dexter also make a copy called the SP Popper but I haven’t fished with it much so can not comment on its effectiveness. I suppose the most original and classic popper has to be the storm chug bug and thousands of anglers swear by this lure, and although I do like it for the great disturbance it creates on the surface I think it is over rated, but that’s my personnel choice and some people would be cursing me for saying that.
Top- Yo-Zuri Mag Popper
Middle - Chug Bug
Bottom – Dexter SP Popper
Shallow diving lures
When out plug fishing for bass I tend to change my lure fairly frequently swapping between a surface lure and a shallow diving lure. For anyone that doesn’t know what I diving lure is, it is basically a lure that will dive to a certain depth and swim at that depth. It is the lip or vain on the front of the lure that makes it dive to depth and the depth to which it dives is dependent on the angle and the size of the lip. When purchasing a diving lure in the shop look at the packet and it usually tells you what depths the lure will run at. Shallow divers are great bass lures as they can be fished just above the rock and kelp beds but like all diving lures are prone to getting in to snags and being lost. A lot of diving lures will float so when you feel them snag slacken off the line and they will sometime float clear. Using shallow divers can be as visual as using surface lures as in clear water fish can often be seen following them right up to your feet. Divers come in both jointed and un-jointed varieties both having there own attraction to fish. When fishing with divers, either shallow or deep runners I tend to reel in and give the rod tip the odd sharp tap as this gives the lure an erratic action just like a real bait fish. Working the lure correctly is as important as having the right lure on your line as a piece plastic swimming through the water at a constant speed will not look like the fish that you are trying to resemble. My favorite shallow diver over the last couple of seasons has been the Rapala x-rap. Rapala call it an extreme slash bait and when you give this lure some sharp pulls with the rod tip you can see why. The x-rap will role, dart and really looks good in the water, I have caught many fish on this lure and would recommend it to anyone. The x-rap swims at about 2-3ft under the surface and suspends at that depth even when the lure is brought to a stand still.
Rapala X-Raps the more colorful ones are used for pike fishing
Other good shallow divers include the yo-zuri mag minnow range (great casting in to wind due to magnet system inside the lure) abu tormentors and a lure which I was only introduced to this year the bomber long A
A selection of diving lures Top to bottom – jointed rebel, Abu Tormentor, Yo-Zuri crystal minnow, Rapala J13, Bomber long A
Deep diving lures
Deep diving lures do what they say on the tin ‘they dive deep’. I don’t often fish with these lures but reckon I mite be fishing with them more now due to having acsess to deeper water with the yak. One that I have used a fair bit is the rapala sliver, this lure resembles a sandeel and will dive to around 10ft.
Rapala sliver (do not buy the cheap imitations as they fall apart)
It was designed in the states as a needle fish imitation for trolling in search of big game fish but it has been a great sucsess over in Britain on the bass fishing scene. I wouldn’t use this lure in shallow water unless you like chucking ten quid notes in to the sea but it is a great fish catcher and im planning on trolling it form the yak.
Couple of fish caught on a rapala sliver in a very rough sea (if you look closely you can see im soaked)
Spinners
Spinners are great bits of kit, they are easy to cast (especially if its windy) and they can catch a range of species including mackerel, Bass, Pollack and garfish. I think if I was only aloud to have two spinners in my tackle box they would be the two classics the abu toby and the dexter wedge. These are great spinners for Bass and I think it is far more fun fishing for mackerel with these and on light gear than using heavily weighted set of feathers. I find it better to real spinners in at c constant rate rather than giving them any action with the rod this is probably due to then creating there own fluttering in the water.
Dexter wedge (again with all spinners I wouldn’t buy the cheap imitations as they don’t have the quality feel about them and tend to rust and discolour a lot faster especially the hooks)
Soft plastics
The range of soft plastic lures on the market is immense and it can be hard to pick the ones that will work. I stick to a couple of different types which are the worm type and the eel type. The main target species for me when using this type of lure is the Pollack but they will also pick up other species such as bass, mackerel and codling.
Codling on a spun red gill
Rigging these lures is easy, I use my standard plugging set up with a small ball or barrel weight thread on to the main line and I tie a small swivel to the main line (always put a bead between the swivel and the weight to protect the knot). Then I tie a 3ft length of fluorocarbon around 20lb to the swivel then tie lure of hook depending which type of jelly im using directly to the end. If I am using a jelly worm that does not already have a hook inside it I using a size 1 to 1/0 hook something like an Aberdeen is good because they bend out of the kelp easier. The redgill style eels already contain a hook so tie directly to the line. One of the most pleasurable, easy and fun types of fishing that can be done is by using a small redgill style eel and deep spinning it for small Pollack.
Small Pollack on red gill eel (red or orange best for Pollack)
I find that either red or orange coulored eels work best for the Pollack but they will go for any colour. The larger redgills and jelly worms can be used for the larger specimens but if it guaranteed fish you are after go for the small ones and you will catch all day long. Storm have also recently brought out a range of very life like sand eels which have proved very successful for bass and I found some fladen copys in a red colour that are deadly for Pollack. When spinning with these lures it is very important to let it sink to the depth you want to fish before you start reeling or you will just be reeling it along the surface. Fishing these lures over kelp bed and rocks can result in a lot of tackle loss but they are relatively cheap when compared to plugs and spinners.
Jelly Lures –
Top - fladen eel and storm sandeel
Middle left - reg gills
Botton - Storm Shad
Right – Jelly worms
Hope that this helps some of you out and that the other lure anglers on the site will give me some constructive criticism about the points that I have made. Also feel free to pm me any questions and if you wanted you could also pm your most secret bass marks I wont tell a sole. As well as summer sea fishing most of the plug type lures I have mentioned can be used for pike in the winter time and that’s what the yak will be getting used for later in the year. Finally I don’t think there is any need to go and spend your life savings on every lure in the shop and that’s why I have mentioned the ones that have worked for me so if you are going to try any out then they are defiantly worth a go (BEWARE THERE ARE A LOT OF DUFF LURES AND CHEAP IMITATIONS OUT THERE).
Are you Lured