Welcome to the Fishing Finatic Blog!
Much like an insect is drawn to light, fisherman are drawn to well-stocked fishing stores. When you walk into your local fishing retailer, the choice of lures is always abundant and overwhelming. The sheer volume of fishing lures on display makes the process of picking and choosing the ‘right’ lure, a difficult one.
Beginner anglers will pick their lures based on whether they are appealing to the eye, which is a tragic marketing trap even I have succumbed to from time to time (my weird and whacky lure collection is proof of this). When choosing a lure off the shelf, all anglers should take a step back and consider more than a lures aesthetics – we should consider how specific lures swim and how they are designed to be retrieved.
To convince fish to eat, you will need to have a basic understanding of the different lure and soft plastic styles and retrieval techniques, as well as know how to use these effectively for the species you are targeting.
You might be asking yourself, what is a lure retrieval? Well to answer your burning question, a lure retrieval is the way an angler uses their fishing rod and reel, to impart a swimming action into the lure as it swims through the water column.
Estuarine fishing lures usually fall within three main categories: Soft Plastics, Hard Bodied Lures, and Surface Lures. There are other categories of lures out there, but we will focus our time on the bread-and-butter lure styles.
“It is a tragic marketing trap to pick your lures based solely on aesthetics and what is appealing to the eye”.
Soft Plastics
A soft plastic is essentially a moulded piece of plastic which comes in many shapes and sizes, ranging from two inches long, up to nine inches long.
There are many different types of soft plastics: curly tail grubs, paddle tails, jerk shads, and creature baits etc. These soft plastics usually get rigged on a weighted jig head, which is essentially a lead weight moulded onto a hook.
Jig heads come in various hook sizes and weights, so it is important to know how this comes into play when soft plastics fishing. When targeting fish with small mouths such as bream, smaller hook sizes are important; whereas, when targeting fish with bigger mouths that tend to rip string off your reel quickly (e.g. Mangrove Jacks), it is best to have heavier gauge hooks which are bigger and stronger, so the hook can withstand extensive pressure.
Jig head weight is important because it affects your soft plastics sink rate. You need to pair the right weighted jig head with the right sized soft plastic. If you are fishing for flathead in tidal current, you want to ensure your soft plastic is hitting the bottom where the fish are waiting to ambush prey, so a 1/8oz or 1/6oz jig head will help you get to the bottom faster than for example, a 1/16oz jig head, which would be better used when targeting bream to entice a bite while the soft plastic slowly sinks through the water column.
A curly tail grub is a worm-like profile soft plastic, which has a curly tail that flutters and vibrates through the water column when it is twitched or sinking.
A paddle tail soft plastic has a round flattened life-like tail which pulsates and vibrates through the water column as the tail sways from side to side.
A jerk shad is similar to a paddle tail soft plastic, but its tail section is thinner and comes to a more defined point, giving off less vibration and side to side movement when it swims.
A creature bait usually imitates an insect/small crustacean and will have leg-like pieces coming off them, all which subtlety move and dance through the water column as they are twitched and paused.
Jig Head hook size and weight is important – tailor these to the species you are targeting.
Soft Plastic Retrievals
In my experience, there are four main ways to retrieve a soft plastic to entice fish to bite. I call these techniques the “the slow twitch twitch pause”, the “erratic twitch twitch pause” the “long lift”, and the “fast long lift”.
The slow twitch twitch pause requires the angler to hold the rod tip out level, allowing the soft plastic to sink down in the water column before the angler twitches the rod in their hand, up towards their chest, either once or twice, causing the soft plastic to hop and skip through the water column. The angler then pauses, allowing the soft plastic to flutter back down the water column.
The erratic twitch twitch pause is the more aggressive variant of the slow twitch twitch pause, which requires the angler to impart sharper and more aggressive twitches through the rod to get the soft plastic to hop and skip quickly to cover further distances through the water column.
The long lift requires the angler to lift the rod slowly and rhythmically, from a level outward diagonal to an upright position, ending up with the rod tip pointing to the sky. Once you lift the rod tip to the sky, the angler then allows the soft plastic to sink back to the bottom of the water column as they wind in the slack of the line, before pausing and repeating.
The fast long lift is essentially the same retrieval as the long lift, but it is a quicker lift resulting in the soft plastic fluttering and dancing more erratically. It may sound ridiculous, but when you do this technique just right, you will almost hear a feint ripping noise as your fishing line slices through the surface of the water.
All the above lure retrievals can be varied to fish different levels in the water column by changing the time you allow the lure to sink before your next twitch or lift.
“There are four main ways to fish a soft plastic: “the slow twitch twitch pause”, “the erratic twitch twitch pause”, “the long lift” and “the fast long lift”."
Hard Body Lures
Hard Body lures imitate small bait fish and are typically made from hard plastic or timber which are painted to give them a life-like appearance. Hard Body lures typically have a plastic bib on the front of them which helps the lure dive through the water column as they are retrieved.
Usually, the rule of thumb is, the bigger the bib, the deeper the Hard Body lure will swim in the water column. Most Hard Body lures display diving depths on their box/packaging, so be sure to check this out when purchasing your lures.
Pairing your Hard Body lure’s swimming depth with your fishing conditions is vital to convince fish to bite. If you know the fish are sitting deep, then a hard bodied lure with a deeper swimming action is preferred. If you know the fish are feeding or holding higher in the water column, a Hard Body lure which does not dive as deep would see you convert more fish.
Hard Body Lure Retrievals
There are a few main ways Hard Body lures can be fished: the Dead Roll and the Dead Roll with Pauses and Twitches.
Dead Rolling a Hard Body lure requires the angler to slowly wind their reel handle to make the lure swim towards them while the lures bib causes it to be propelled down into the water column.
The Dead Roll with Pauses or Twitches is essentially the same retrieve as dead rolling, but with these retrieves, the angler stops winding and pauses the retrieve, or they twitch the rod tip as they wind the reel handle. The pause allows the lure to suspend in the water column or to slowly rise or sink in the water column, whereas the twitch of the rod tip gets the lure to dance erratically through the water column, imitating a struggling bait fish. A paused or twitched lure in the face of a fish, is usually too much for the fish to resist.
When I target Australian Bass in rivers, I find Dead Rolling Hard Body lures converts the most fish. When you use this technique, focus your attention on the deeper pockets of the river at the bottom of the rapids where the water looks like it is swirling almost in a vortex (this is called a back eddy). Australian Bass will be feeding aggressively in the back eddy's so most times, pauses are not needed to convince them to eat.
When I target Dusky Flathead, I find the best Hard Body lure retrieval is the Dead Roll with Pauses or Twitches. Often the Flathead will hit the lure after a two second pause, or after a twitch and pause.
“A paused or twitched lure in the face of a fish, is usually too much for the fish to resist”.
Topwater Lures
A topwater lure is a lure which swims on the surface of the water. Surface lures cause commotion on the surface of the water as they are retrieved, imitating insects, rodents, lizards or even snakes.
You will be shocked to know how many different species of fish will eat a lure off the roof. Even Flathead will come up off the bottom to eat a well-presented surface lure. Other species frequently known to eat lures off the roof are Murray Cod, Australian Bass, and Barramundi.
Like soft plastics, surface lures come in an array of categories such as fizzers, poppers, and walk the dog styles (these are also known as ‘pencils’), and then there are your stock standard surface lures which have a bib on them to displace water as they ripple through the water. These lure styles may sound complicated, but simplistically put; fizzers fizz through the water with the help of a helicopter style rotor inbuilt into them; poppers ‘pop’ through the water because they have a cup-like bib on the front of them which ‘bloops’ through the water as the water is drawn into the face of the cup; walk the dog surface lures swim from side to side and this lures action is mainly imparted through the fisherman’s technique; and bibbed surface lures ripple through the water, displacing water with their bib as they swim.
Topwater Lure Retrievals
Fizzers need to be retrieved erratically, in a fashion which makes them look like a struggling animal or insect on the surface of the water. To get this swimming action, swoop your rod to the right or left, then pause before retrieving slowly and repeating. Fizzers can be fished by slowly rolling them or by quickly rolling them – mix up how fast you wind to find out what the fish are willing to eat on the day.
Poppers need to be fished with sharp jabs of the rod tip to get the water filling the cup of the popper, making it 'bloop' through the water column – we recommend pointing the rod tip level diagonally out in front of you, and then ripping it sharply down and into your hips, in a “twitch twitch’ motion to get the lure blooping through the water.
The walk the dog retrieve is the most advanced surface lure retrieval. The walk the dog retrieve makes the pencil lure swim tightly from side to side with little flutters as it dips and splashes under and through the surface of the water. The walk the dog retrieve requires the angler to twitch the lure through movement in their wrists, before pausing briefly, and then repeating this motion rapidly. The twitch can be done by twitching the rod tip upwards, or downwards to your feet, but the key here is line management. The angler needs to make sure the line is perfectly taut and then slack at the right times while twitching and pausing the lure to see sideways movement maximised. The walk the dog retrieve is likened to patting your head while rubbing your stomach, which makes it difficult to master, but once mastered, it is deadly effective.
Bibbed surface lures are the easiest to retrieve. When you retrieve bibbed surface lures, the bib of the lure displaces water outward, causing the lure to move and wiggle from side to side as it ripples across the surface of the water. You can retrieve bibbed surface lures at varying speeds, but we recommend fishing them slowly to allow the lure to sit in the face of the fish for as long as possible. Do not be scared to use pauses with bibbed surface lures because a lot of eats will come on the pause.
Australian Bass are one species which will engulf all of the above surface lure styles if they are presented just right. To get the big boofs, we recommend beginner anglers start out using bibbed surface lures because these lures can be fished with a simplistic slow wind with pauses mixed in every five to ten seconds. Cast your bibbed surface lure in tight to snags/structure, let the ripples of the water settle, then start your retrieve and be sure to pause your lure right on the edge of any shaded pockets, and you will be sure to hear a mighty big “BOOF” as your lure is engulfed off the roof.
“The walk the dog retrieve is likened to patting your head while rubbing your stomach, which makes it difficult to master, but once mastered, it is deadly effective.”
Summing Up
Each beginner angler should have an arsenal of different lure styles and soft plastics when gearing up to head out for a fish. Cover all your bases and if the fishing is tough, do not be scared to change lure retrievals or to change your lure or soft plastic altogether. Mixing up lure retrievals and styles, is how you find the bite, and once you find the bite, replicate that same technique and you might just find a pattern.
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