Fishing with Tony Lincoln | Lures

Minnow-style lures can be cast and retrieved or trolled and are again, a prey item imitation. On the underside of the head of the lure they have a bib or are moulded to make the lure dive when retrieved.

Size and angles of bibs dictate how deep the lure will swim. Minnows are available in floating, neutrally buoyant (suspending), and sinking models. When paused, floating lures will rise back towards the surface, suspenders remain at depth and sinking models do just that, sink. Floating lures have varying degrees of buoyancy and sinking lures have differing sink rates between brands and models.

Used in both salt and freshwater, the range of actions cover everything from a wide, slow wobble to a tighter, faster action during retrieve. As a general rule, freshwater lures display a slower action while saltwater models exhibit a tighter, faster, shimmying action.

However, our retrieve style should be experimented with, beyond a simple cast out and wind back, as in many cases predators will be drawn to an erratic action mimicking an injured or distressed baitfish. Twitch and pause, wind and pause, and rip and pause are only three different types of retrieval that have proven to be successful on many species.

Floaters can be twitched back, with each twitch causing the lure to dive a short distance and bob back to the surface or wound down to its running depth and twitched back at depth for the entire retrieve. Similar techniques can be used with sinking lures except they descend during pauses.

Suspenders are one of my all-time favourite lures. They should be wound down to depth adjacent to structure, paused and then given tiny twitches keeping the lure at the same depth and almost stationary in the water. In still water particularly, this is a deadly technique as the angler can mimic a dying baitfish right in front of a predator, making it impossible to resist.

Experimentation is key, retrieve technique is only limited by our imagination.

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

• Bream, tailor and school mackerel are right around the Redcliffe peninsula off the jetties, rocky points and inshore reefs as well as the Pine River mouth and Ted Smout platform.
• Plenty of flathead in the Pine River, Hays Inlet, Clontarf foreshore and off Scarborough Spit.
• Winter whiting in Bramble Bay across to the mouth of the Brisbane River, and in Deception Bay across to the Cockle Banks.
• Summer whiting starting to appear with fish up to 42cm being caught in August. Try the beaches, rivers and creeks.
• Squid and cuttlefish still around off the jetties, rocky points and inshore reefs.
• Squire and snapper season has reopened with the peninsula rocky points and inshore reefs all producing as well as the reefs on both sides of Moreton with some good tuskies thrown into the mix.
• Reports of some good catches of tailor and summer whiting at Double Island Point.
• Looking forward to the reports back from Fraser Island when those of you lucky enough to get up there, return.