Fishing with Tony Lincoln | Hardbody lures

This week Tony Lincoln dives into an outline of basic surface hardbody lures. 

HARDBODY lures: these are, as the name suggests, manufactured from timber, plastic or a myriad of synthetics, with internal rattles, silent, and more colour combinations than we can count.

Hardbody, decribes the material used in the manufacturing process, however the category encompasses a few styles or sub-categories which I'll broadly break into surface, diving and sinking.

Surface: "Poppers", are floating surface lures which have several different designs, with the most common being either, "skipping", "blooping", or, tentatively, “floating stickbaits".

Skipping poppers usually have an angled or slanted face and are retrieved quickly across the top of the water to resemble a fleeing or, "skipping", baitfish.

Blooping style poppers have a cupped or concave face and create a splash, bubble trail and blooping noise when retrieved with a stop/start technique, with this extra commotion attracting a predator’s attention. Bloopers can also be retrieved via a constant retrieve to create a bubble trail behind them which silhouettes very well from beneath, however the stop/start technique is generally more productive with this style of lure. It's important to remember that different species of fish respond to different retrieve styles and speeds, so don't be afraid to experiment if one retrieve style isn't producing.

“Floating stickbaits” generally have a plain, rounded nose and don't appear to have a strong action. Once again, experimentation with retrieve style is important with this type of lure. Different retrieves give vastly different results in the action of these lures with a, "walk the dog/zig zag", action being very common. This imitates a wounded baitfish presenting an easy meal for hungry predators. Some of the more advanced, quality stickbaits have incredible actions which can see them turning almost 180 degrees on the pause between twitches or rips.

Further surface lures such as paddlers, crawlers and fizzers exist, and these are broadly best described as the forefathers of blooping, commotion-style lures.

Hopefully I've given you a decent outline of basic surface hardbodies and next edition we'll cover diving lures.

Thanks for reading again, and remember;

Talk to old people, they know stuff you don't.

Talk to young people, they know stuff you don't.

FISHING REPORT

• No report this issue due to COVID-19 lockdown, but fingers crossed we see a relaxation of restrictions as soon as possible, particularly with snapper closure finishing shortly.