Page 8 - Modern Fishing

ON THE WATER

with Jereme Lane

SWIMBAITS

SCHWIMBAITS

All the marketing t seems that swimbaits – whatever that word WKHVH À VK DUH XQGRXEWHGO\ PRUH DFWLYH DW
night than their smaller and somewhat sillier
actually means – are here to stay and with
hype aside, there good reason it would appear. Despite their MXYHQLOH FRXQWHUSDUWV ,W·V IRU WKHVH UHDVRQV WKDW
hefty price tag and the need for a specialised
swimbaits have had such a big impact on these
is no doubt that rod to throw them, these ultra-realistic three species and aren’t going to disappear from
lures are clearly providing some incredible
the market anytime soon.
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if you want a KDYH QHYHU FDXJKW D À VK RQ D VZLPEDLW GHVSLWH SWIMBAIT LESSONS
trophy mulloway, KDYLQJ XVHG WKHP HQRXJK WLPHV QRZ WKDW , ZLOO
considered it to be embarrassing. But my own
swimbait mediocrity aside, there’s no doubt that :KLOH ,·YH EHHQ SXWWLQJ WRJHWKHU WKLV VZLPEDLW
cod or barra you they work on trophy size models of three species LVVXH ,·YH UHPHPEHUHG D IHZ WKLQJV WKDW ,·G
in particular in Australia; barra, cod and jewies. forgotten over the years that would have provided
should have a All three species share some common traits. some much earlier clues as to how successful these
First and foremost, they all have big mouths OXUHV ZRXOG EH , UHPHPEHU D IHZ \HDUV DJR RQ P\
few swimbaits in PRUH WKDQ FDSDEOH RI HQJXOÀ QJ ODUJH SUH\ DQG À UVW SURSHU EDUUD WULS LQWR WKH *XOI RI &DUSHQWDULD
lures. Secondly, they are renowned for being we were cast netting mullet to use as livebait for
your arsenal fussy, lazy and typically methodical hunters barra. We got one in the net around 35cm long
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that prefer one large prey item over many
small prey items and this makes them very , WKURZ LW EDFN +H WROG PH WKDW \RX·OO VWLOO FDWFK
GLIÀ FXOW WR IRRO ZLWK DQ DUWLÀ FLDO $QG ODVWO\ DQ XQGHUVL]H EDUUD RQ WKDW PXOOHW , GLGQ·W EHOLHYH

Despite the Ed not yet landing a
fi sh on a swimbait, the success of
these lures on freshwater barra
is well known

8 www.modernfishing.com.au