Bladed Lures

Hi All,

Just got back from a weekend away at Port Macquarie, aka, the Hastings River. It looked a remarkable piece of waterway. The structure was everywhere, from a monsterous breakwall, to bridge pylons, oyster racks, sand bars, rock bars, mangroves, canals, marinas and weedbeds just to name a few. So the million dollar question is....did i fish???? Yes i did, but not seriously. I was on a weekend away with the cheese and kisses so my available time to wet a line was seriously jeorpardised.

I managed to have a few casts but it was half-hearted. I did see some boats doing well on flatties. The locals i spoke to said they have being doing well on jewies in the river. To be honest i wouldnt expect anyting different either. The enterence is vast and deep, the food looks abundant and the river seems clean enuf. After speaking with them the lures they are killing em on are the 'new' bladed lures on the market today.

Like all lures, they are not created equal. I have been using the Ecogar VX-35's for some time now. They have been doing well on bream, EP's and bass. Fishing World mag publishd an article about melbourne fishos doing well on the blades for jew just 2 months ago. It seems momentum is gthering. The issues that face these lures seems to revolve around the minimum speed at which the lure will commence to vibrate. The Ecogear for example takes a swift up-sweep of the rod to get the lure to work. This may be fine when the fish are on the job but that's not always the case.

Newer versions have come out and perhaps improved on this design. TT launched the switchblade. I dont think this was an improvement on the Ecogear but more affordable at 12bux instead of 20bux. Then came the E.J Todd Jazz. This bladed lure was a drastic improvement in materials and thus allowed the lure to vibrated at much slower speeds and attracted fish shut down. Mooching the lures off the bottom accounted for an ABT win at Pittwater this year. The winners stayed within 500m of the ramp and worked the lures deep and slow.

Now the newer polycarbonate models have arrived. The new bushy version and Koolabung's X-Ray transparent blade. As usual Bushy's lure looks like absolute crap and looks like it wouldnt catch a cold in the middle of Tibet. There is some hype surrounding the lure...but it is funded by shimano, so the tackle giant has some clout to make sure us the fisherman think this is a shit hot lure....only time will tell.

The Koolabung lure looks the goods though. Well made, great colours and a definate improvement n the original design. It vibrates at increadibly low speeds and has a seductive wobble on the drop. This the lure Port Mac fishos are swearing by up north. Lets just wait and see if the Sydney jewies think the same thing????? Once again only time will tell.

The one thing i do know is that these lures are a MUST have, another feather to the quiver... and they are dead easy to use.