Light Lure fishing
Lure fishing is becoming more popular in recent years and light lure fishing is a real game changer!
I have been light lure fishing out of Ilfracombe for 10 years on my own boats trying different marks equipment and tactics pushing gear to its limits. Fish don’t generally run to the sizes of the fish on the south coast but we can have some great fishing for both Wrasse, Bass and pollack. I’ve personally landed pollack up to to 13lb, wrasse in excess of 5lb, Stunning Cuckoo Wrasse, and bass into double figures and the odd surprise including tuna and tope the odd codling and ling.
We fish various wrecks races and banks off the North Devon, North Cornwall and Lundy and offer short evening trips, 4 hour trips and all day trips locally or to Lundy and Hartland.
This type of fishing can be amazing and even relatively small fish give a great account of them selves on the correct gear.
Lures
The lures can be purchased in wide variety of sizes, styles, colours and weights. A couple of my favourite brands on the boat are made by Fiiish and savage gear and HTO but there are loads of options.
If your buying a lure or lures for boat fishing the most important thing is the weight of the lure. It needs to be heavy enough to be effectively fished this depends on they thickness of the braid you are using the depth of the water, the strength of tide and the wind conditions and size to weight ratio of the lure. i will generally use lures from 30g upto about 100g sometimes i will drop as low as 15g over slack water on shallow marks.
Soft plastic
The Soft plastic lures we use on the boat are generally designed as weighted lures incorporating the weight into the design but you can also use soft plastics rigged on jig heads. We don’t use weights and booms as we want to be in direct contact with the lure at all times. If you don’t know where to start check out the black minnows and black eels by fiish and HTO sad shads.
Different lures and shaped lures fish in different ways with different actions some require a fast retrieve some a slow steady retrieve whilst others work better hopped across the bottom it all depends on the lure, what your fishing for and what mood the fish are in if someone is catching and you’re not don’t be afraid to try the same colour lure, same shape or size lure these can all make a massive difference.
Metals
Some people prefer to use metal lures a bit like the more traditional perks but they have come a long way in the form of metal slow Jigs. first thing i do with metal lures is remove the trebles (if they have any) and replace them for singles We don’t need to be ripping trebble hooks into the side of fish! like soft plastics metal lures again come in various shapes colours and sizes some are designed to give very specific action or to be fished in a specific way what works for one lure might not work for another and what works one day might not work the next. the key is to experiment.
I’D recommend a trip into see Danny in High Street Tackle Ilfracombe or check out his website below.
Rods and reels
We fish our chosen lures on light spinning rods attaching the lure to a lure clip on short fluro carbon trace which is then attached to a light braided line via a swivel, no weights! and no booms!
We use a mix or rods from ultra light 16g up to 50g rods casting rods which can handle lures fished vertically upto a weight around 120g. A rod designed for casting lures upto 40g is a perfect all rounder.
You want to combine your lure rod with a spinning reel in the 3500 size range loaded with a thin diameter quality braid of around 25lb. Braid choice is down to personal preference I generally use berkley whiplash for verticle fishing or berkley nanofil for casting lures.
Below are some example setups. You can get a decent set up for a very good price which will do everything you want, you can also spend a small fortune on a top of the range set up and earn yourself a tackle tart badge but you wont necessarily catch more fish, Its what you do with it that counts!
Starter set up
Less than £100
You can pick up a reasonable spinning rod for around £50 any that are rated for casting upto 45G lures will work perfectly off the boat. Try and aim for the shorter rods less than 8ft. check out the Penn conflict range which do verious versions for less than £100 but you dont need to spend that much have a look around and you will find a decent rod for around £50. team it up with any 3500 size fixed spool and your ready to go .
Intermediate
£200-£300
Check out the rods in the £150-£300 range I recommend the HTO Nebular SP the lighter one for inshore wrasse and lighter lures off shore or the heavier version which will do just about everything you want to in the UK. I took mine to Norway catching halibut cod and coalfish. you could also check out the Penn conflict elite. team it up with any fixed spool real but id suggest the Penn slammers or spinfishers or a Diawa saltist.
Money no object
£400 plus
There are a few really high end rod makers that you can choose from personally i would go for one of the Tenryu rods probably the injection SP. Team it up with a nice Stellar or Daiwa saltiga maybe a VAN STEEL
