Lures – Barramundi

Castaic Jerky J Swimbait 5 inch

The Jerky J Swimbait 5" is the little brother of the &' version. It's a great lure to employ at those times when barra are looking for smaller baits or when smaller baits that land softly are required.

Castaic Jerky J 5 inch

My three favorite colours are:

  • Salt and pepper as in the top of the photo above
  • Golden shiner
  • Green Shad as in the bottom of the photo above

The three hooks that I rig this paddle tail soft plastic on are from top to bottom in the photo above:

  • Owner Flashy Swimmer 5/0
  • An alternative is to rig it on a 5/0 Owner twistlock to which has been added a few turns of lead wire that has well coated with a couple of layers of red nail polish.
  • Owner Nitro Saltwater Pro 5/0 1/6 oz

Bomber

Bombers in general are a very well known lure and it's likely that one or more colours are represented in lure boxes across Australia than any other lure. They have a retrieve depth of 2-3 feet when cast but on a longer troll swim down to 4-8 feet even at a slow speed.

bombers

  • Bomber BMB Long The brown Bomber is an iconic fish catcher and a lure I turn to when fishing top water in the margins of mangroves in coastal salt water fisheries.
brown-bomber

  • Bomber BMB Long ABM5HD Black/red/yellow (Also called mullet)
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  • Bomber BMB Long XMK0HD Gold Bomber

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  • Bomber BMB Long XSIAHD Grey & clear
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  • Bomber 15A Green over Yellow ... certainly an option coming into dusk.
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Yakamito Hyper Jerk 90 minnow

  • Yakamito Hyper Jerk 90 jerk minnow - sardine
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Happy Rock Softies – grub

This just one of the Happy Rock softies that is a credit to its designer Trev Burgess. He gave me my fist one probably two years ago and I have been using them ever since.

Happy Rock grub 400

Unfortunately Trevor passed away in a tragic boating accident at Lake Awoonga on 4th September 2020. A very sad day for our fishing community ... RIP Trevor.

This is the only grub soft plastic that I carry and I fish it with confidence in those very quiet times when we can see the fish on the sounder but they are not interested.

I rig it up weedless in two ways.

  • The first is on a 5/0 Owner Flashy swimmer ... this can be fish as you please but the original retrieve that Trevor described to me was a very slow roll.
  • An alternative is to rig it on a 5/0 Owner twistlock to which has been added a few turns of lead wire that has been well coated with a couple of layers of red nail polish.With such a small amount of weight this softy can be fished really slowly with the tip of the rod imparting gust a few twitches.

Powerbait – Hollow Belly

Powerbait hollow belly soft plastics are available in 5" and 6" versions and I use them for both weedless and jig hook presentations.

The four colours that I use are:

  • Tennessee shad
  • Hitch
  • Bone shad
  • Blue gill
hollow-belly

Weedless hook presentations

In those cases The reason for that is that they are indeed hollow and so when a barra munches on them there is little resistance in squashing the lure and exposing the weedless hook and thus enhancing the chance of a hook up.

For the 6" hollow bellies the two weedless hook set up I favor are:
6/0 Owner Flashy Swimmer
6/0 1/6 oz TT Chinlock

For the 5" hollow bellies the two weedless hook set up I favor are:
5/0 Owner Flashy Swimmer
5/0 1/6 oz TT Chinlock

For the 5"

Jig presentations

For the 6" Hollow Belly the three hooks that I rig this paddle tail soft plastic on are from top to bottom in the photo above:

  • Mustard Big Game Head Size 10/0 20 gram (7/10 oz)
  • Mustard TT headlock size 7/0 1/4 oz and 3/8 oz

For the 5" Hollow Belly the three hooks that I rig this paddle tail soft plastic on are from top to bottom in the photo above:

  • Mustard TT headlock size 5/0 1/6 oz and 3/8 oz

Slick rig 130 – competition tuned with stinger or blade

I have progressively modified the Slickrig by reducing the internal weight so that it swims mid water, have modified the tail so that it swims better at a slow speed, added a subtle rattle to make it easier for barra to detect the lure and finally have added either a spinner or a set of trebles under the lure to induce and convert more hits to hook ups.

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Castaic Jerky J Swimbait 7 inch

The Jerky J Swimbait 7" is one of just a handful of soft plastics I rely on when Barramundi fishing in competitions.

Predominately this is a dusk, dawn or full moonlight soft plastic.

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My three favorite colours are:

  • Green Shad as in the top of the photo above
  • Boneless Chicken which is a translucent pink colour
  • Blue Shad as in the bottom of the photo above

The three hooks that I rig this paddle tail soft plastic on are from top to bottom in the photo above:

  • Mustard Big Game Head Size 12/0 20 gram (7/10 oz)
  • TT Head Hunter / Warrior 8/0 12 gram (3/8 oz)
  • Owner Flashy Swimmer 516-080 10/0 (1/2 oz)

Also I note that when required, as in top example, I also add either a willow or beetle silver or gold spinner mounted on a screw in twist lock.