{{+1}}Hard body lures{{-1}}
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There are times when the right bait for barra is a hard bodied lure.
Selecting the right style and swimming depth of hard bodied lure is definatley one of the keys to that process.
You can do things with hard bodied lures that you can’t do with any of the soft plastics including, depending on your hard body lure selection, you can:
- Have more control over the depth your presenting your bait by selecting a hard body lure that intrinsically swims at a particular depth range.
- Pause a hard body lure once or multiple times part way through the retrieve times and allow the lure, depending on your hard body lure choice, to just hang where it is, sink at a particular rate or rise in the water column at a particular rate. Barra can watch a lure nose to lure for many seconds and then just out of the blue whilst it’s still paused, falling or rising, or as soon as the lure starts moving forward, take the lure.
- Whilst the lure is paused you can just twitch the rod tip to impart the smallest amount of movement on the hard bodied lure and that can be enough to trigger a take.
- Cast a buoyant diving lure a long way into or next to structure and before commencing the retrieve just let it sit there so nearby fish, or fish from a surprising distance away, can investigate the noise the hard body made as it landed. On some occasions hits will seem to be as if you landed the lure on a barra's head on other the hit may be as you commence the retrieve thus making the lure dive like a fleeing fish. On other occasions barra will follow a hard bodied almost back to the angler before striking.
- Similarly, if it’s a bibless floating lure when you commence retrieving it through or on the surface creating a ruckus that may trigger a food or territorial response from a barra … either way that can be a lot of fun.
In any case whilst employing these tactics work through the different casting techniques.
My hard bodied lure categories are basically arranged by swimming depth.
I have not tried to include separating colors in my categories and decide that before I tie a lure on.
For barra a pretty good rule of thumb is that a chrome or light belly is a good starting point for lure selection and during the light, in clear water natural colored backs on the selected lure is my preference with greens, olives, browns and blues being good choices. For water that is discolored brighter lures or blackish lures, that are more visible to barra, are an obvious choice. In the dark I like white or blackish lures.
Also make sure that you have some lures in your selection that have rattles and other that have non rattle and can be retrieved with stealth.
My lure selection below take the above criteria into account:
» Surface lures, Top 2 meters, Lures 2+ to 3.5 meters, Lures 3.5+ meters to 4.2 meters, Lures 4.2 meters plus,Surface lures
These are the hard bodied lures I use when targeting surface feeders.
Rapala x-Rap Walk 09
This walk the dog type lure is an older model and the colours the orange chrome is no longer available. I was lucky to snag a couple of these at our local Tackle World. The new ones have a lateral tail fin that stabilizes the retrieve a little but I am happy without that because without the tail fin the swimming action is a little more erratic.
Top 2 meters
These hard bodied lures are the ones I use when target fish in shallow water, fish feeding just below the surface or above weed or in the tops of drowned timber.
Lures 2+ to 3.5 meters
These lures are all designed for fishing at depths between greater than 2 meters but less than 3.5 meters.
Halco Laser Pro 120
The L120 swims at around 2.5M on the cast and just a little lower than that on the troll.
The cast has a straight tradectory because the weights move to the rear of the lure and then as the retrieve starts the weights lock in place back towards the front of the lure enhancing the swimming action of the lure.
Jackall Squirrel 79
Jackall Squirrel lures are all Hank tuned and consequently they come out of the box already tricked up with hardware suitable for barra. The original 79mm version swim off the cast at around 3 meters and a little deeper on the troll and come in a version including rattles and a silent version. In late […]
Samaki Redic jerkbait DS 100
This is a silent running suspending lure that dives to the depth of 3M+ and one of my favorite lures for prospecting around weed beds and other structure. This colour is sandstorm and is a great colour for Awoonga barra … there are of course other fantastic colours in the range.
Yakamito Devil Edge 60
This a really neat small diving lure that dives down as much as 3 meters. I particularly like it because it’s a floating lure and if you feel your line or leader touch timber and immediately pause the retrieve the lure rises quick enough it to risen above the timber by the time you restart […]
Lures 3.5+ meters to 4.2 meters
These lures are designed to be fished at depths greater than 3.5 meters but less than 4.2 meters.
Lures 4.2 meters plus
These are the deepest running hard bodied lures I carry.
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Last Updated: February 1, 2021
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