Tilsan Lures?

[jaredluke]

I have recently purchased some Tilsan lures from BCF. I am wanting to use them for snapper around Scarborough reef and I am wondering what's the general view on these lures ie. do they catch fish or not? And what lures does everyone use for snapper fishing?

[Roo]

I use the Minnow size for Bass, Flathead and the odd cheeky bream but i hadn't considered them for snapper. i guess you can always give them a run and see how you go. Hardbodys for snapper is a bit of a brave new world i believe so you could try almost anything and see how you go. I've heard of them being caught while trolling for mackerel so i guess they will hit similar lures to what mack's like, But if you step out side the square and look at others options you may find they will attack almost anything. A lot of anglers do well with lipless vibration baits(Jackals, Tranzam's, Rattlin spots, etc) so size of the lure and action is quite varied. you might find slow trolling the deeper drop offs with Cod/Bass type lures to be very successful.....Short bodied lures with a wide, low speed rolling action could be the next big thing!!! I would suggest whatever you do use, upgrade the front hook to something reasonably strong, the standard hooks on the Tilsan Bass and Tilsan Minnow are quite light, and the way snapper tend to hit the head of a target will see them hook up at the front more regularly, they are a wooden lure so the body will get a good workout in a snappers jaw if it goes all the way in. the Tilsan Barra will ok out of the box. They don't have rattles so use colours with a good contrast or a bright flash to attract attention. Mine are either Fluoro or Black. the black one is the most battered of the lot.

Good Luck. Cheers Roo.

[Jeremy87]

[quote=Roo;833411] Hardbodys for snapper is a bit of a brave new world i believe so you could try almost anything and see how you go.quote]

Not as new as you'd think. I've got old timers who come into work who have been trolling bass lures for snapper for 30 years. they tend to go for the likes rmg poltergiests etc. All they do is troll parallel to the drop off keeping the lure about a metre from the bottom, shallow runner on the shallow side, deep runner out wide.

[Roo]

Snapperel are on the menu. Hard to find much info on it apart from the odd mention in an article here and there. would be good to start a thread to list everybodys thoughts on the techniques to successfully target them. I have'nt given them a crack yet, just used a few observations and applied it to theory, might work too. I guess that's how these techniques get discovered in the first place.

poltergiests.....hmm short body, slow, wide rolling action. interesting stuff.

Cheers Roo.

[Horse]

They are a great lure but i would be looking at sonething that dug a little deeper. I reckon you need to get it right into the strike zone. It will be one of the techniques I will be trying this season

cheers

Neil

[Why-ting]

As Jeremy said this technique is not as new as you think. A mate of mine has been trolling the bay island reefs for a while and has pulled some quality snaps. Fish up to 70-80 were not uncommon. His lure of choice was the 120mm halco lazer pro's. Ive also done alittle myself But havent pulled any snapps over 50cm. I chose to run bigger lures like Manns stretch 12+ and 20+ aswell as larger halco scorpians and lazer pro's upto 160mm. We have had some really good sessions targeting big cod with some fish upto 80cm

With the snapper try and find some bait in the area you are working and keep running over it. Id always run a lure beltin the bottom for the cod and 1 running just above the bottom for the snapps. The cod seem to always be keen to jump on a lure belting the bottom.

Before you try this technique invest in a good tackle back or it will become quite expensive.

Also dont be afaid to have a go at night. It will help if you have a gps and set up some troll lines during daylight hours. The bigger fish will be moving around a bit more at night so you will have a better chance at a big snapps.

Hope this info is of help for ya.

Cheers Whytey.

PS The tilsan barras will be fine but as Roo suggested Up the terminal gear on the smaller tilsans

[jaredluke]

Thanks Why-ting I will try some bigger lures that will just belt the bottom for some Cod and just off the bottom as well.

[sleepygreg]

Deception Cherax, Downunder Boomerang deep, Stumpjumper, and Deep R plus are also lures that shouldnt be ignored for this type of fishing. They are also proven big cod and Yellowbelly lures.

Cheers
Greg