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Lead image: Rob Wilson (https://www.ghostfishing.co.nz/) One of the biggest issues facing anglers spin fishing from the shore is snagging and losing lures. If you are fishing an area for the first time or using lures not suited to the terrain that you are fishing then losses can be significant and expensive. There is a fine balance between getting your lure close to the bottom where … Continue reading HOW TO STOP LOSING LURES
Text: Mike Ladle Lead image: http://www.fishcrack.com Around the world flatfish are regular targets for shore based anglers yet here in NZ they are largely ignored. However, rather than simply chase them after dark with a spear or net the opportunity exists to target them with a rod and line during the day. To do this it is important to understand how flatfish, and flounder in … Continue reading UNDERSTANDING FLOUNDER AND OTHER FLATFISH
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Featured image: Tim Angeli Arguably the most important factor in soft bodied lure fishing (soft plastics and soft baits) is selecting a jig head that best suits the conditions encountered. Much of what has been written on this subject is fairly generic and it often does not make much sense until you’ve experimented extensively and learned from experience what works best and when. Many people … Continue reading CHOOSING THE RIGHT JIG HEAD
Featured image: NZ Fishing World Recently I wrote an article which described experiments conducted by Mike Ladle in the UK to compare the effectiveness of lure and bait fishing from the shore versus fishing from a dinghy. These results clearly showed that, while the catch rate using bait and lures were similar from the shore, the frequency with which big fish were caught increased by nearly six fold with lures (34 … Continue reading ARE SOFT BODIED LURES MORE EFFECTIVE THAN BAIT?
Soft plastics, or soft baits, were not readily available in New Zealand until the early 21st Century. Since then the growth in popularity of these lures has been phenomenal due to their success in catching a wide variety of fish species. I started using them in the late 1990’s when I imported some Sassy shads from the USA. They were an immediate success, especially on … Continue reading HOW TO FISH SOFT PLASTIC LURES
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