BLOG: Autumn yakking & "Lure Acquisition Syndrome"

AUTUMN is a fantastic time of the year to be on the water - cool crisp mornings, good water temps and hordes of hungry bream and whiting that have their eyes fixed firmly on the surface.

For a 'yak fisherman who loves fishing the surface for any species, life's pretty damn sweet at the moment. Even a recent dump of 170mm of rain in one weekend hasn't managed to curb my local bream populations' lust for inhaling anything that makes a ripple or two on the surface.

This frenzy of bream activity has had a very detrimental effect on several aspects of my life. My lawn is currently two feet long, my Visa card is smashed, thanks to my recent dose of "LAS" (lure acquisition syndrome) and I seem to have the cross stitched pattern of a kayak seat permanently embossed on my backside.

This addiction has started to keep me awake at night, googling tackle websites for info on new lures to test and new techniques to employ. Last night I found myself in bed reading Kevin Savas's top ten bream lure survey. Thanks for that Kev, you just cost me another hundred ... a couple of those top ten models were not in my lure box, but they are now!

So what's been doing the damage on the surface for me? Well there's the standard stable of proven performers like Sammy's, NW pencils, Sugar pens and Marias. But one lure in particular that has really impressed me and probably changed the way I approach surface fishing for bream is Cultiva's Zipp N Ziggy.

Ziggy's a big fella at 80mm long and punches out a big wake. He casts like a bullet and bream and whiting smash him, much to my surprise. I honestly thought Ziggy was punching well above his weight and his paunchy flanks would be far too large to take on smaller estuarine surface athletes. But I can assure you this isn't the case; Zig has proved himself to be a worthy performer and is now a first string selection in my lure box, even in glassed off conditions.

Zipp N Ziggy and friend.

On the sub-surface front, other noteworthy performers have been Ecogear's SX48s; these big brothers of the famous SX40 range cast really well and seem to attract a bigger class of fish. Royter's Berkley 3B Sub Dogs have also been working well for me twitched along the front of jetties and deeper timber, as have the 3B Fat Dog models. Ah so many lures, so little time ...

This new generation of exquisitely finished lures seems to have rendered longtime performers like Attacks, Scorpions, Min Mins and Billy Normans to a dark rusty spot at the back of my lure box. Just for old times sake I gave an Attack a birthday the other day and fitted it with some new rings and trebles then gave it swim. No surprises really, it caught the crap out of them.

This crop of golden oldies are all still great lures that catch a swag of fish, we just seem to get blinded by the bling of the current crop of rock star lures, but that's fishing evolution I suppose ... it's always going to happen. Especially now that tournament anglers are constantly pushing the boundaries and refining tackle and techniques to get an edge on the opposition. Of course these developments eventually filter through to the general angling community and help us all to improve our efficiency on the water. There's always going to be a new gun lure popping up somewhere.

Have you found a stand out lure that's been working for you, or got an oldie that deserves a rap, I'm keen to know as I may need it ... just don't tell my wife!

Stay safe,

Captain