Go to lures

[Chuen Fan]

Fullscale Kong, simply my popper of choice as it is deadly effective, doesn't blow out of the water and a big pop with minimal effort! (very tough construction as well!) A very close second would be either a seafrog 140 or craftbait gt2 150.

Bigfoot 140-190 and Crazy dog from Orion, AH Ultimo and 160 gamma for stickbaits. Long goby and fisherman long pens are good too!

[Graham Scott]

Hi Ian,
Good to see another non-tackle junkie. Nice to get a contrasting view. Fishing in central queensland and pretty much self taught I haven't seen 90% of the lures listed here.  You CAN catch GTs on a budget. ...and then work your way up (sky's the limit apparently).

I am looking forward to visiting fishhead when I get a chance, just a bit worried about the credit card.

[Ralph Holland]

Maybe Williamson Jetpoppers are working well. They are cheap and available in a broad range of colors. Yo-zuri bulls are feeling not very tough.

[Ben Rivers]

I'm just starting out, so I use the following:

- River2Sea Dumbell 200
- Halco Haymaker
- Williamson Jet Popper.

I upgrade the hooks and rings on the Haymakers and Jet Poppers, not the River2Sea Dumbell.

[Ben Furness]

I have only been on 1 GT trip and there were two definate standouts that accounted for all fish on the trip Heru Cubera and Halco Roosta.

We tried at least 30 different poppers and stickbaits ranging from the $20 up to $200 and nothing else got a strike.

[Shaun Raymond]

Hey guys just got from my first gt trip to north new cal towards and around the belep islands.
I found that as long as i got the weight of the popper correct so i could make a good cast and a good pop through the water most lures witha good action seemed to work. All the expensive ones worked with my favourite being the orion stickbaits and the gt3 craftbait, interestingly enough some of the cheaper ones worked just as well. I picked up a few weezel poppers from the classifieds on this site and they worked really well, they also cost me a lot less and hurt a lot less as well everytime i lost one to sharks, which happened a hell of a lot......

Guess it depends on the area this is what worked for me.

[Peter Olesen]

Hi Shaun

It seems like the GT's don't care too much for the price of the popper.

Would be interesting if you could make a trip report from New Caledonia and post it in here...

Best regards,
Peter

[Antonino Augugliaro]

I used a lot of different lures during my trips (only 2 trips). For the next one I will select my lures box:

popper: cubera 125 (2), Alle's popper SW 120 and ring 'o Pop 130, CB GT3 150 (2)-170, HH E cup 150, big popper (HH I cup or G cup, but I'm looking for something cheapper)

stick bait: ulua 120, orion big foot 180, Real bait 170, GT Y 160-200 (for small stick bait I used Caperland, cheap and good working). I'd like to try other Orion stick bait.

Total of 10 poppers and 8 stick bait I think should be enought for 6-8 fishing days (GT only).... IMHO

[Sam Morrison]

For me personally, smaller cup poppers that have the ability to go subsurface...

It gives you the best of both worlds, POP, POP, subsurface with big smoke, Hooked up 

[craig breadsell]

Living in North Queensland ( Mackay ) means we fish some nice country depending on weather and time on the water... anywhere from the islands to Bugatti Reef etc.

Lures are disposable items, to many people spend to much time on the net and not enough destroying lures.

I own a good collection of $100 plus marlin lures ( not including hook rigs ) but when it comes to poppers still working it out. Have caught heaps on River to Sea Dumbells but they don't last to long maybe 1 or 2 fish but worth it. Halco's seem to last. Bills Bugs always a good number. Havn't tried many of the expensive one's because most of my poppers don't survive to long... Have been trying a few fishhead numbers, still buying and trying a few different brands.  But the main thing is if they tumble and are hard to work... Throw them in the bin or give them to a mate, its like a bait that spins for mackeral... tumblers are useless

Its interesting to see the responses of people, I try to balance cost to performance.  I'm prepared to pay, but are they worth it........ $20 bucks for a dumbell that works leavse me plenty for fuel to feed the beast...$100 bucks for 1 lure then add hooks and if it gets destroyed like everything else is it worth it..... Why should I buy these expensive lures if I catch plenty of fish with the lures I use ?

[tim watson]