Threadfin Salmon - baits

There is no doubt about it … lures catch more fishos than fish. If you walk into any fishing shop these days you can expect to find a wall or walls of all sorts of lures … wow, where to start.

I have mates that have boxes and boxes of lures and it’s common to see them sorting through those overstuffed boxes and trying to find lures that they think will do the job.

Well, my approach is a bit different and is much the same process as I applied when I was representing Australia and Fly Fish Australia in World, Commonwealth and Oceania Fly Fishing Championships. What I always did for my fly fishing and now do for my lure fishing is to sort my flies, and now lures, into categories and then to only carry into competitions those flies and now lures that have earned a place in my category selection to cover a particular purposes.

Because Threadfin Salmon live in dirty water and have poor eyesight they have to rely on sensing prey with their very sensitive feelers so whatever bait you decide to use weather it be Live Fish or Prawns, Vibes, Blades, Soft Plastics, TPE swimbaits or prawns, Flies or Hard Body lures, make sure that even at a slow speed they will be active with heaps of vibrations even when retrieved at a slow speed.

I am confident that these Threadfin baits provide me with enough ammunition to catch Threadfin Salmon in almost any situation.

• My Vibe & Blades Box
• My Soft Plastic Lure Box
• The Articulated Flies that I carry in my Big Fish Fly Box
• My Threadfin Lure box
 

These 7 vibes and blades take up the back two rows of my Vibes & Blades box. They are my goto Vibes and Blades for Threadfin but also get used for other species as required.

If your going to fish on the dark side Vibes and Blades are a great option because they get down to where you want to fish them quickly and then even at the slowest of speed on both the retrieve or the lift they still put out a great vibration. Vibes and Blades that relatively dark and two contrasting colours (if possible)work best.

surecatch

SureCatch 110mm 20gram vibes. A relatively inexpensive online purchase these are a great lure to tie on when you want to Vibe in water where there is an unacceptable chance of loosing an expense Vibe.

Squirrel Transam are 100mm long and are at the more expensive end of the pricing range for Vibes that I carry. The hooks are also a little underdone so it is wise to upgrade them.

he Belista Juggernaut is unique in that it has a built in flashing light at the tail that comes on when the lure gets wet. We have had no success fishing this lure at night because it is just too bright but it comes into its own if fished during daylight hours in water carrying a lot of sediment.

TTswitchblade

TT Fish Trap 90mm for slow current and 115mm for fast current. I carry a couple in each size and pick from these colours: S (purple/orange), BJ (Black/purple plus an orange chin and tail), GSI (black with chartreuse horizontal bars), PSI (black with red bars and RD (olive/red with yellow head).

Westin “Bony the Bream Vibe is one of my favourite Vibes and I carry stripy perch (black/orange) & Smelt which is basically white with a little orange.

TT Switch Blade 1/2 ounce. I don’t think the colour matters as much as the vibration so I carry just a couple of them which I choose from copper head, orange or red nightmare or orange o’ranga.

 

Next to fly fishing, fishing on the dark side with traditional plastersol based Soft Plastics is my favourite form of fishing so it’s not surprising that my lure box for traditional plastersol soft plastics is the biggest of my lure boxes.

In that selection these are the soft plastics that I use when targeting Threadfin Salmon. They can be fished in different ways and always put out that vibration that Threadfin Salmon rely on to home in on and eat your bait.

I also carry glass rattle and a couple of Chatterbait bibs and in particularly murky water or the dark I add then as required.

Keitech Swim Impact Fat 3.8″

Alpha prawn 13mm in white, gold or pink over orange

Molix RT Shad 4.5″ in black&gold, AYU silver flake or UV brown with cream pepper

 

These 3 PTE lures take up the back rows of my PTE and Swimbait lure box. They are my goto PTE prawns and swimbaits for Threadfin but also get used for other species as required.

Chase Bait Flick Prawn both 90mm and 120mm in gold

 

Fly fishing is still my favourite form of fishing and over time I have developed a range of Big Fish Flies many of which ae great options when when fishing in Temperate and Tropical destinations and targeting “big fish” including but not limited to:

 
Threadfin Salmon (both King and Blue)
Barramundi (both freshwater & saltwater)
Kingfish (Yellowtail and Cobia)
Lutjanids (Mangrove Jack & Fingermark
Javelin fish (Barred Grunter and Silver Grunter)
Flathead (Dusky and Bartail)
Trevally (including Giant Trevally and Golden Trevally)
Queenfish
Reef fish
Mackerel


For Threadfin the flies I turn to are: Articulated Bait fish, Articulated Bugger and Articulated Swimmer. These are all great flies in their own right but because Threadfin find it hard to find flies I suggest you swim them behind a Chatterbait … that certainly adds the vibration which flies in general can be short on.


 

Bibbed Hard bodied lures in the 80 to 120mm range that have a fish profile and swim just above the bottom, and can be retrieved slowly are, also popular for Threadfin Salmon but are not my “cup of tea” and are seldom used by me.

Whatever hard body you use keep in mind that being active, so that Threadfin Salmon will sense them, is more important than colour so make sure that they can be retrieved at very slow speeds and still have a good wobble putting out strong vibrations.

 

if your into live baiting live baits in the 50 to 120mm range are a great option and matching the hatch (i.e. what the Threadfin Salmon are feeding on) is the best of the best baits.

 
In general terms Herring seem to be the best bait for Threadfin Salmon but if you feel that the Threadfin Salmon are feeding on Mullet or Prawns that is what you should be fishing with. Keep in mind what Threadfin Salmon are feeding on can change from hole to hole and location to location.

I have been told that if your target Threadfin Salmon are not taking live baits you may be able to change your luck with a Pilchard bait or even with a little mashed up Pilchard burly to get them fired up.

An important thing to remember with live baits is to keep them in good condition and pinned in the most sensitive way so that they will remain active when you fish them.

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