Lucky Lures???

I went to North West Angling this morning to stock up on a few pike lures but ended up feeling like a kid in a candy store, not knowing which ones to choose, and not sure whether to take the assistants advice on board or not?
So, I left the store empty handed with a plan to put it to the pikeangler comunity and see what you blokes have to say? I am unfortunately trying to apply what I know about lure fishing in South Africa to choosing lures which I want to use for catching pike in the UK and would like to avoid the expense of trial and error - as we all know, the prettiest lure isn't always the best lure for the job!
Any reccomendations???? (pics of the lures would also be a big help as I am not familiar with alot of the lure names over here)

listen to noodle or andy mac,they know there stuff on this topic

Thanks Nick, I will await their responses........

Duane

I know what you mean about the candy store, it is very tempting to buy lots of useless lures that don't suit the waters that you are fishing.

For myself fishing fairly shallow waters from the bank I like Salmo Sliders, spinnerbaits and copper spoons. The reason being: they catch fish on the waters I go to.

Andy Webster

thanks Andy............points noted and i will just google the salmo slider as that is the only one i am not familiar with.

Isn't there a choice!

Soft shad type baits, jointed swim baits, spoons, crankbaits, jerkbaits...its a minefield Duane

Yeah exactly Bazz, and it can be a damn costly exercise playing the trial and error game!!!
Thing is that it is not always the pricy, all singing, all dancing ones that are neccessarily the best either....
Fortunately I have got quite a few that I brought with from SA which I will use to get started with and slowly buy as and when I have a few quid to spend..........

what size do you want duane?

northe west have a special on with the dam naturals at teh moment nice cranks as it happens if you want natural patterns

for jerk baits ill make no apologies for advocating Chicos lures and mark berrisfords if you want better than average lures (jerkbait wise) for more freely available ones i like the ace range available from fishing pool

in all honesty i cant see much of a reason why your knowledge of african techniques and lure choices wont work over here.

other ones im happy with locally bomber magnum long a's
six inch cranks like jakes grandmas etc
storm shallow macs

a couple of links for top jerkbaits
http://lures.mysite.orange.co.uk/
http://www.chicoslures.co.uk/
http://www.fishingpool.co.uk/
http://www.agmdiscountfishing.co.uk/

ill pop some photos up of lures i have to give you an idea, but as has been mentioned the sliders take some beating

i think ill split this over a few posts if it gets slow
some of the ace lures available

top to bottom
sweet shad 150
siren
small fat flipper
sorcey
flipper
large fat flipper
hell tail

a few dive rise styles

top and third are wades wobblers courtesy of chico
ace ???? copy of a ks big daddy and sadly like unicorn poo tyring to buy them now
bottom one is a crank bait its a legend junior but it makes a top dive rise lure with the added wobble you get off a crank

some cranky twitchy things

top two are magnum long A's from bomber
next one is a mirrolure not sure ofthe model
and the bottom two are shallow invaders

some hectors a nice reliable glidebait with a fair profile from chicos lures



mark berrisfords gliders

some smuttlys from chicos lures

top two are T6's
next two are 5 inch db's
bottom ones are 4 inch db's

mixed ones

top two are AK punnishers one of the easiest lures to work ive ever had the pleasure to own, again the clown is form chico
then a bikini baits turmoil
a kjelle llungberg stalker (chico once again)
oooohh posh one now my one and only true glide (many thanks to chico's lures and yes its worth every penny of the 35 quid)

a few others

top row accros are two cobbs countdowns
then two sandcats the right is the llungberg again sorry
bottom two are black is another sand cat then another cobbs below it

ive avoided cranks spinnerbaits soft plastics swimbaits for now as i dont have all night lol

any way there are my types of lures ok some are new and im not overly certain of yet the cobbs and sand cats spring to mind but i always have some of the others about my person

Thanks for this Noodle............much appreciated.
Must admit that I can't see why applying lure choice and technique from Africa wouldn't work over here. May just need to adapt it slightly to the local circumstances and fish. I would imagine that basic rules such as dark conditions/dark lure and bright conditions/bright lure would still apply?
Quick one - do you guys use leadhead jigs and the Berkley Gulp type lures for pike or not?

duane wrote:Thanks for this Noodle............much appreciated.
Must admit that I can't see why applying lure choice and technique from Africa wouldn't work over here. May just need to adapt it slightly to the local circumstances and fish. I would imagine that basic rules such as dark conditions/dark lure and bright conditions/bright lure would still apply?
Quick one - do you guys use leadhead jigs and the Berkley Gulp type lures for pike or not?

there are better options than the gulps for piking have a look at the kyopto shads (AGM stock them the link is above) and fox do some good shads as well

Already identified that most of the good lures I have are too small for the job.
Oh well, at least I know what to put on my xmas wish list now..........

duane wrote:Already identified that most of the good lures I have are too small for the job.
Oh well, at least I know what to put on my xmas wish list now..........

they may not be you know what sort of size are you talking about

a lot of us pikers are guilty of using big lures just for the sake of using big lures i have a fewsmaller lures things like these

duane make sure you have a no 6 ondex in your box only spinner i have caught on it's my banker and a lot of other peoples favorate as well

time for a few more



in the left handbox there are a few more bomber long A's
some storm big macs
think there may be a few mirrolures and a salmo whitefish mixed in though you can see the whitefish its the one with the green back
right hand box
top to bottom
the ft is a crank baits corporation thing
shimano triple impact top water (sounds like a troop of morris dancers drowning appaarently )
couple of bomber long a's or may be the asalt model posibly (or one of each)
another salmo whitefish and a shakespere minnow (in walleye)
bottom 3 compartments are all abu terminators/ tormentors (calling andy )

more cranks

top box l-r
4 halco sorcerers these are new to me but work very well at high speeds and at twitching as well
cormoran activators ive had a few follows on these but no takes as yet so im still on the fence as yet
wyhchwood minnow and a baby depth tail from bucher
4 baby jointed depthraiders for trolling
bottom box
think its a slammercrankbait and a storm shallow mac (black)
grandma and jake
next 8 are all storm shallow macs

i have moved away from the bigger deep diving cranks like the depthraiders deep invaders ernies etc recently asi dont troll enough, and when i do i like being in contact (holding) with the lure and these were a bit much to hold for any length of time

i still have (but cant find at the moment) some big grandmas 9 inch etc ad a couple of others

what to say over crankbaits yes they catch fish, i generally dont fish them as effectivly as i could (when casting) tending to use them in a quick cast retrieve style looking for fish so maybe someone better suited to using them could point you in a different direction