Doc’s Estuary Selection – Skinny Water

More details on this lure selection

This lure bundle started out with me thinking about trying a few different options in skinny northern estuaries and tidal creeks for mangrove jack and rat barra to 75-80cm. But once I'd made a list of lures I realised that they'd also be perfect for threadfin and fingermark up north, plus flathead, jewfish, estuary perch and other southern estuary species.

So I decided to reach out to Pro Lure Australia, The Jigman and Prawno and see if we couldn't put together a cool deal for ALF listeners (and especially Team Doc Lures members!). And thanks how this offer came about. I'm not sure if we'll run it again or not, especially at these prices! So if you're keen it will be best not to leave it until the last minute!

The Products

Pro Lures Clone Prawn

Everything eats a prawn, especially in estuaries and tidal creeks. So I knew we needed some prawns in this pack!

Team Doc Lures members who attended the tutorial with Greg Reid from Pro Lures will know that this little prawn was several years in the development. Since it was released it's been found to be deadly on a ton of species. The secret with the Clone Prawn is knowing how to rig it.... there's nothing super difficult, it's just knowing what to do. And we have a video tutorial for customers that will ensure you get it right. Once rigged, the Clone Prawn almost fishes itself. It's very simple, and did I mention it's deadly?

I decided that I wanted two sizes of Clone Prawn in this pack - 92mm and 120mm. I've been playing with larger lures for jacks and finding over the warmer months they're being quite aggressive and bigger fish are coming on bigger lures, plus there's a healthy bycatch of barra hitting them. But they also seem to go through phases of being less aggressive and a smaller prawn will sometimes get eaten when they're refusing the big one.

Further south, Reidy mentioned in our livestreamed tutorial that he's catching some seriously big bream in NSW on the 120mm prawn, so they're not shy when they're in the mood. That said, I'd be looking at these more as jewfish and monster flathead lollies.

Pro Lure Fishtail

It's no secret that the Fishtail has taken the jewfish scene by storm! That's what they're designed for, after all, and I've interviewed a number of top guests who swear by them. Flathead and snapper are pretty fond of them too. I don't know too many Northern anglers who are using them - and that's what attracts me. The barra locally see a lot of lures, and most paddletails that fool jewies will also fool barra.

So I reckon the 130mm Fishtails with their really big paddle and thin tail wrist might give me the edge I'm after. Especially with that wide, they should have quite a presence when worked through the soup lines! No doubt they'll get skipped under cover for jacks too, especially when I'm chasing the bigger fish in the system.

I also decided to include a 105mm Fishtail in the pack as it's a nice size for the local jacks and should go well around the snags and mangrove roots.

Pro Lures ST72

I tossed up whether to include one shallow and one deep running ST72 hard body in this selection. In the end I opted for two shallow runners. Yes, deep divers can be great in shallow water for bumping along the bottom without getting snagged, but in the end I really wanted to experiment with working them through the tops of snags and through snake drains using lots of pauses and I felt that the shallow runner might be worth doubling up on. Especially where accurate casts are vital.

This little hard body is deadly on everything from bream to jewfish around southern Australia. Up here in the north a lot of anglers go for 120-150mm hard bodies, especially if big barra are the target. But I've found the smaller lures are more versatile in skinny waters and are less likely to spook fish when they splash down. So I have high expectations on targeting jacks, grunter, and of course barra in some little local creeks. Plenty of metre plus barra have fallen to 70-80mm lures!

Two key things attracted me to this lure: 1. It's internal cast weight which will help make it fly both straight and long and, perhaps more importantly, 2. that it's fitted with high quality Decoy hooks and tuned to suspend in freshwater. That gives me a few options when fishing the salt to get it suspending with careful use of some small sticky weights. Or, if barra are on the cards I might even be able to upgrade to a slightly larger treble and still have it suspend.... time will tell! And if you grab one of these packs and join our tutorial sessions I'll let you know how my experimentation pans out!

Prawnos

These little guys are fairly new on the market and I haven't had the opportunity to seriously fish them yet. But the limited use I've put them to has me excited to hit the water more seriously! You might be wondering why I wanted another prawn in the mix? Well, it's simple!

The Clone Prawns are a great option for subtle, finesse fishing. You can almost cast them out and just leave them, especially if you add a bit of attractant. But the Prawno's are a completely different lure and are fished in a different way. They're pre-rigged at at 11.5g and 90mm they just look the goods when they're gliding down on a semi taut line. The TPE plastic is a little stiffer than the material that the clone prawn is made from, but plenty supple enough for the lure to have a great action. Importantly for those fishing up north, it's super tough and I expect they'll last for quite a few fish where softer plastics can quickly get destroyed.

I love that the Prawnos are built around a VMC 30 degree jig hook that's angled through the plastic so that there is heaps of hook exposure, and the angle from the point to the eye should help with solid hook sets. Obviously an exposed barb has an increased chance of getting hung up on snags, but that's the price you pay for better hook sets, no matter what lure you're using.

The 30 degree jig hook angle is perfect for working the lure in shallow water and I'm looking forward to crawling them through snake drains, flats, beaches and rock bars. Should be jack, thready, grunter and small barra candy up north, flathead, jewfish and estuary perch tucker down south, for sure. I believe there is a bigger version coming too which I'm looking forward to throwing at the local jacks and barra!

Jigman Hooks

Anyone who's had anything to do with John Didge knows how passionate he is and just how much care and design has gone into his Jigman products. I'd been eyeing off his SOSo hooks for a while and decided it was time I got my hands on some. I opted for 28D weedless hooks with twistlocks, rather than extra wide gape (EWG) hooks because they have the reputation of getting better hook sets, even when rigged weedless. Also, the twist locks get a firmer hold on your lure and don't suffer from the lure sliding down the hook shank, like EWG's do.

The SOSo's are put together on a similar 30 degree Mustad Jig hook, which is again great for shallow water work. And with the twistlock you don't need to damage the soft plastic by forcing a molded lead weight through it. A few different weights and a few different sizes of hooks to suit the Pro Lure plastics and we are ready for action!