JUNGLE  LURES

An Introduction

I have been fishing as long as I can remember from the canals and clear chalk streams in England to chasing Barramundi in the tropics of Australia. I have fished most states but it wasn’t until I found lure fishing for Barra that I realized what I had been missing. For me now there are only two fish, Barra and By-catch, unless of course it’s fishing the fresh for Jungle Perch, another passion.

I used only a small selection of lures, Bombers and B52’s for the shallow, Leads deep divers and a few poppers and walk the dog style lures. I was becoming frustrated at the amount of drama to get a new Leads. You had to get in a queue (usually 6 month wait), no choice of colours and the price had gone up accordingly to meet the demand.

“Stuff this” I thought I’ll make my own, “How hard can it be?” Yeah, well that was an understatement; it can be pretty dam difficult.  After some help for local lure makers (thanks Lou, Lucinda Lures,Fysshe) and members of the site (Lurelovers Forum, Aaron,Errol,Pete,Jason et al, thank you all) I now can make lures that swim and catch fish. The first trial ones had a few lumps and bumps and some painting mishaps but they worked. All are designed to catch Barra and or tropical freshwater species. I now know why timber lures cost so much, there is no way you can recoup the time spent. It has been a journey fraught with frustration but also a sense of intense satisfaction, when you hook the first Barra on your own lure.

So here’s what’s available: 

A little popper for the surface feeders in the clear fresh creeks that abound in FNQ.

It works well in the usual way but we have had a lot of success just moving it slowly across the surface. It forms a small “V” as it moves, irresistible to surface feeders, like Jungle Perch and Sooty Grunt, even big Barra can not resist it.

                   


I started work on a little deep diver that would work in the current as well as the deep holes. This one we call the “Little D”, we have had good success on it with all the fish that thrive in the freshwater here.



                     


Staying with the smaller fresh lures the next in line was the “JP Special” a shallow diving lure able to work the timber snags that abound after TC Yasi. This lure has a great action and is designed to be worked slowly.




                         



The next lure the" Little Jack Shad” was the original lure that I wanted from the start but couldn’t get to swim correctly a bit of advice from the LL forum in relation to the
tow point in the bib and we were off and swimming. It has a great action and entices Barra and By-catch to attack it.



                               

     I finally was able to get the bigger Barra lure working, thanks to a loan of a couple of Bibs from Lou Teittzel of Lucinda Lures fame. This lure was an outstanding success for us on its first test, catching Barra, Mangrove Jacks and the rest of the estuary species. It has good casting action and works well through the timber. This is called the Barra Shad .


                      


Not only do we make all of the above we now make  all the lures in nudes(or with a "Touch of Bling" ) from various timbers,New guinea Rosewood,Red Cedar,Silky Oak to name a few.


            




These lures are made by fisherman to catch fish not anglers. I have tried all the lures and they are what I am looking for in a lure to primarily fish for Barra or in the fresh JP’s and Sooty’s.