southie THE BANGA

we've all been there.... I lost hundreds of dollars in single sessions to fish busting me on reef or structure. I remember fishing lower Yorkes flats one day and catching and releasing fish all day... Snook, Trevally, Flatties, Salmon full mix basket. Ended up losing $260 in lures in one session and that $260 were lures discounted when i was working in the tackle shop. So i'd hate to think how much I actually lost retail value wise.... Most of the Lures would of been around the $15-$25 mark.
Hence why I am looking for cheaper alternatives that i can get that are cheap enough but will do the job there suppose to and swim straight. If that means fine tuning and replacing terminal tackle or sharperning hooks then so be it .....

They've done well on several trips last season in the larger rivers such as the Meander, Mersey & Leven rivers, haven't been in the bigger rivers so far this season due to them still running too high.. they will be used on and off again this season too, I've had some success a few times with them..
cheers
Adrian

How have those Strike Pro lures I got you treated you? got a few fish on them? 

Its an UUURRRGGGEEE 😉. Regards HBt.

I used to fish everyday after work and throw hard body lures for bream on shallow rock banks. At the time I was using ecogear sx40's and if you lost 3 of those in a session - it would start to add up - and if you were doing it five days a week and twice on the weekend - it really added up.

So it was losing ecogears that made me search out cheaper alternatives.

When strikepro came out with an almost identical copy for half the price - I switched to those and didnt noticed a drop in catch rates. Thats started my search for even cheaper lures.

By the end of my serious "breaming on lures" I was using HB lures that cost 1/10th of the ecogears and still catching fish.

Sure some needed to be tuned out of the box and some needed treble upgrades - but in the lightweight catergory - you can spend much less and still catch fish.

These days my softplastics cost 5c each instead of $2 - My blades cost $2 instead of $20 - and my jigheads are between 10c and 50c.

The down side to the cheapest tackle can usually be over come with a hook sharpening file or some tuning with the pliers. I understand alot of people dont have time for that - but you can work miracles pretty quick on a lure that may not last the first cast let alone multiple sessions

 

When they're on special.. picked some (10) Atomic Hardz shad 40 & 50 mid divers up some time ago @ $4-00 each in a clearance sale, Have bought a lot of them from different Australian tackle online stores when they have their clearance plus another 20-30%  off them as well. 
cheers
Adrian

Just a few there mate
Do you buy your lures on special? or do you just have the urge to buy whenever you feel like it? 
 

Just a few there mate
Do you buy your lures on special? or do you just have the urge to buy whenever you feel like it? 
 

All my rods are ugly stiks as l buy them on special for the same price as some of the cheapies, last time was 5 for $150, reels although l only buy these on special being a kayak fisherman l have to buy reels that withstand the punishment they get being so close to the water, as l dont work anymore and had to buy completely new gear for kayak fishing, l bought cheap combos to start, and have been replacing them as l can afford, I've been buying penn slammers as these although not sealed can be easily made water resistant and for a $75 reel you can't beat them, once I've upgraded all my cheapies with slammers or better, l will then look into upgrading them for sealed reels, my light rods have fin nor lethals l was lucky to get them for $50 each and my overhead trolling rods have fin nor lethal ltl 20's which l got for $169 each so they should last for a while.

Oh Boy!! I feel I have way too many lures & a large variety of brands as well.. I'll let the photos tell the story...😉
And these are just the ones I've taken photos of... only use them on the trout..
cheers
Adrian
 

I often hear the comment if they are hungry the will eat anything, although this is referenced to squid jigs, although this is a true statement it cover the times they aren't hungry 😉 l use Yamashita for my quality jigs, l also have jigs perchased from the post office for $5 these are all plain colours while the Yamashita are patterned, now my goto are a red rattle Yamashita and the white post office jigs, they both catch similar amounts, sometimes one works and not the other, it all comes down to what they want on the day but the post office jigs have the same action as the Yamashita, those ones in kmart 🤔 well lets just say the squid need to be starving lol
It's the same with any lure, it needs to have the right pattern and action to not only attract it's intended prey but make it bite, it's for this reason my goto hb are Rapala although l do buy others when l cant get the style or colours in Rapala, l bought some Aldi lures sometime ago which work well but the colours wore of after little use😔
I've used quite a few types of sp's and although most work well, l now only buy zman for a number of reasons, they work, they last, cost affective, why dont l buy the others? The only reason l dont buy other brands is you shouldn't mix sp's in the same container and being a kayak fisherman l don't have the room for mutiple brands, l read further back that someone said only use motor oil colour, if motor oil is the only sp work for you then your doing something wrong (not having a go at anyone, this is just fact)
There are many brands of both hb and sp lures on the market, they all work but some better than others, l know of people that buy overseas stock as either they are not available here or no longer available here.

The pick of the soft plastics for me are Charlie Brewer Sliders followed by Squidgies. I seem to have more success with them for most species that I target in fresh & salt.
Hard bodies are a bit more varied depending on what I'm chasing, but I chuck more top water lures than divers with Bassday Sugapen and Lucky Craft Sammys being my top picks. They both work well fishing the flats down south for whiting & flatties and they are unbeatable up here in the north on jungle perch & sooty grunter. You don't always find good all rounders with lures, but these two are close to it.

99% of my plastics are ZMan or Squidgy Biotough as I have what you might term "confidence lures" in both ranges.

Metals I'm not fussed with whatever brand; hardbodies I mainly sway towards Rapala . This is all todo with th estyle of fishing I do as I am a lot more likely to throw plastics over hardbodies for bream/flatties and the like whereas where canal fishing/breakwalls I am mainly throwing Rapala baits.

I would be hesitant to buy any unbranded reel. Factories in China pump them out in the thousands.
However, if somebody got a decent sample size to retail here and thoroughly tested it, like flogged it to death, recorded it and was willing to stand by the product I would probably give it a go. But then, if it was cheap, there is no guarantee that QC will be consistent across every reel. And anybody who sells a reel like this needs to be upfront and not claim it was a stella or saltiga equivalent, just an unbranded reel from China that is landed here for $20 and sold for $80 (or whatever). eg like this humdinger for $11 to $12 US
https://winfaith.en.made-in-china.com/product/CXyxpbOJALre/China-Die-Cast-Aluminium-Spool-Front-Drag-Spinning-Reel.html?expoName=spoga-gafa-2019&source=expo_search_list
Rods would be a bit different. As long as they have quality components and good blanks why not? No bearings, seals, gears in rods to break, much less of a risk.
Line and terminal tackle no way. Been burn't before, even with good brands, that turned out to be counterfeit.

Being a Queenslander, I was weened on Alvey gear and used nothing but Alvey until I made the monumental jump to a Shimano Bantam baitcaster sometime in the late 80's and it was a game changer for me. I've still got that reel somewhere. Since then, I've used mainly Shimano and Penn with the occasional ABU, but after having some crappy Daiwa reels, I've steered well clear of them.
With rods I stick with Shimano for most of my light gear and for the heavier stuff I'm a full blown barking mad Ugly Stik supporter - they take the hard knocks of bouncing around in the back of the ute better than most.
I rarely look for specials with gear, once I've researched what I want and where to get it, then I'm on a mission to own it.

As its bucketing down in Melbourne - I figured I do a walk through of my "Tackle Tip"😉
 

 

As the name suggests my passion is hard bodies generally using minnow/shad/surface style lures. Lure brand/style/colour purchase has been determined by amount of success with each lure. Again I am not adverse to purchasing second hand if it is what I am after. Just a simple matter of changing out the hardware for new. Generally this means Owner trebles. Have tried many brands over the years with some being successful and some not so for me . If I had to name brands preferred they would be in no particular order: Daiwa, Ecogear, Bassday and Zipbaits. Good luck with your endeavour sTB. regards, HBt.

I have used plastics and hardbodies. What gets to me is being told only use motor oil when I ask what do you use when that stops working their answer it’s you it doesn’t stop working . I’m afraid I found it did stop working so I adapted and tried different Zman colours was using grubs . Stopped changed to Zman slim swims . Then I went back to hardbodies been using double clutches for years I find these great cast pretty well . One thing I look for in hardbodies is distance when casting and lures with red eyes ( I have lures with and without red eyes). Sometimes distance doesn’t matter but if the fish won’t hit any lure nothing helps .
from me try anything and everything you can 

Lol auto correct that was meant to say zmans not demand

I mostly buy the zman grubs myself in motor oil as that's the one plastic I have the most luck on. I always try new colours and brands, including the plastics soaking in scent but never seem to use them and they dry up.
Hard bodies I have no idea, so I generally find myself seeking the advice of an expert to show me the light.
I am also guaranteed to snag them all so price is usually a factor. 

Don’t buy much these days
i have a collection of hardbodies from my bream days 
a collection of poppers and stick baits I still use heavily for YFW and tend to only buy when I lose one or on a work trip to Lincoln where I always buy one when getting advise on what’s biting where
have loads of plastics but tend to only buy and use demand and gulp turtlebacks these days
would buy turtlebacks every time I go to Kmart (when they have them) or a tackleshop 

I’m generally a shimano man with a bit of Diawa and Abu 
mostly spend $150 to $250 but look for specials
my favourite reels are the shimano Stradic but have a couple of Diawas I love
when it comes to rods diawa outshine shimano in the pricing I buy
to contradict everything about my absolute favourite rod is my little 6 foot bream rod which is a 1-3kg Azusa
it is so light but strong 

For rods & reels I stick to proven brands and am very much a quality over quantity person.
For the most part I work to a price range of $150 - $200 p/item. If there is something im seriously keen on that is outside that range, ill wait till its on sale (Boxing day, Easter, Fin Year etc.).
Reels I tend to gravitate towards Shimano, in particular the Stradic. 
Rod wise Im a mixed bag, Shimano, Samaki, Atomic etc. but my preference is currently Samaki. 
Terminal tackle I stick to proven brands, Owner, Gamakatsu, BKK, Decoy etc. 
TL

Reels I tend to stick with Daiwa/Shimano/Penn/Finnor. I do have the odd no name reel for thrashing about but wouldn't buy them personally. 
 
Rods I'll have a play with in store, check out the components etc and if it feels like good value I'll take it.

I'm quite happy to use cheaper reels for smaller fish but I generally use known 'brands'.  For larger fish it has  be a good quality reel  ---  usually known. ABU and Penn mostly.  I do have a couple of unknowns that perform-- but I only got them coz they were bloody cheap and were worth the risk.   I gave up buying home brand combos after a bad experience with 2 x 'snake brand' outfits.  Similarly 'snake' hooks and swivels have a short 'in use' life..... but I still have a lot in reserve...
I have a lot (yes... a lot!!) of ebay braid..... and have never had it let me down.
 
I'm happy to buy cheaper 'un known' rods as long as I like the feel and they are VERY cheap.   So far-- so good...   but if a 'name' comes up at a good price  I get it.
A few years ago I bought a lot of used reels from a Qld deceased estate.... mostly game reels.     I'll never use all these... but gee--- they look good when I hang them off the rod racks on the boat!!!
 
THe 'finance officer' is always vigilant about the fishing gear she sees... so I have 3 lots.... 1 at the chalet-- a large collection coz " I have to cater for visitors without their own gear'..... and 2 places at home... " I need that in case I go out locally"... and  " dont go in there... its full of rats and spiders  ......"