how many lures?

[Ralph Holland]

What is the average amount of lures GT fishermans use on a trip?

And what are the favourites in terms of size, weight and type?

[Graham Scott]

1.5 per trip (but I don't think you mean my sort of trip)

[Sachin Chaudhry]

If you are popping Gary's rock at our secret location in Fiji it is about 1 a cast. Forget about landing the fish.

[Ralph Holland]

Ok...

and in case of a destination like Caledonia or Komodo. What's the minimal amount of lures?

[Ben Furness]

On my first, and only, GT trip to date I took a bag of about 40 mixed lures. I ended up using about 25 of them but stuck to the three most successful lures on the last 1.5 days as they were the only ones that got touched.

[Geoff Volter]

On my first, and only, GT trip to date I took a bag of about 40 mixed lures. I ended up using about 25 of them but stuck to the three most successful lures on the last 1.5 days as they were the only ones that got touched.

which lures were they Ben?

[Ben Furness]

The three most successful were the Heru Cubera 150 and 125's all being black or having black barring, but the most fish were caught on a Halco Roosta Color H71 (yellowfin)

[Geoff Volter]

Thanks Ben, I'm off to Ningaloo in a few weeks mainly a fly trip. Just taking some kong 180's from fullscalle and some stickbaits.

Do you think the  black barring of the cubera's helped or was it just a coincidence?

[Ben Furness]

I don't think it was a coincidence, we used a few different colors and only the Heru's that were black or black barred got hits. I think the dark color may have helped with the silhouetting of the lure?

[Brandon Khoo]

The issue around colours is one of the age old arguments in lure fishing, not just GT fishing. There have been books written on this topic. From my perspective. I haven't got a bloody clue! The longer I fish, the more confused I get on this.

The is also an element that when you use a lure that works, you keep using it so who is to say that the fish would not have hit another colored lure of the same type?

Conventional wisdom is that you use dark colours on glooy days and bright colouors of sunny days but I've done the exact opposite and caught fish.

I think over the years, I have found that 95% of the time, it doesn't seem to matter much but I have had two occasions over the years when the fish seemed to only want a specific colour. I really don't know why.

I think it is far more important to focus on working a lure well. With the exception of sinking stickbaits, all the fish can see is what it sees from below and this is primarily a silhouette. It can't see the bands on the side and it certainly can't see what colour the top of the lure is because it is looking largely from below

[Aaron Concord]

Ralph,

It's a pretty wide open question!

Research the area you are going to fish and see if there are any trends for the place i.e is it a big fish locale that needs massive poppers to draw them up, or is it a calm and clear where stick baits are better.

Back when I sold the stuff, I catered for above and beyond the fact that not every angle can be covered with just one lure size, colour and style. 

Most GT trips would see a sample of bloopers, chuggers, stick baits and skipping poppers.
Most times, too many were taken though I am glad to have had the extras when those odd occasion there has been something different the fish would only eat.

A total of 20-25 of the above lures would be heaps.  It could be refined down to half that if you were really confident about where you were fishing and what had worked their before. THIS IS BASED ON A 6-7 day TRIP.

Most would agree that more GT lures are dying of catching too many GT's these days rather than getting busted up.

Probably the most important aspect about the lure size is if YOU can handle it ALL DAY LONG or not........if in doubt, cast the heck out of a heap before the next trip to find a few good "ALL DAY LONG" size lures in the pack.  No point wrecking yourself with heavy gear and massive lures if you cannot do it.  It's better to keep fishing with a smaller lure and pace yourself than to tear your muscles working and I Cup Hammerhead because someone said that's the only lure for here.........you need to be able to work each cast as good as the one before and cramping joints/burning muscles does not help you do that.

Brandon,
Yep.....colours....she's a flogged topic!
The only attachment to colours for me has come from certain trends from certain reoccurring events.
I cannot dismiss the logic in having some very specific colours in the pack when they seem to be a strike trigger when I have tried to use everything BUT the evolved "hot" colour.
Having said that, most of the colours end up either dark (silhouette) baitfish (fusilier, yellowfin, pilchard) in colour, with the good ole Qantas colour in their for good measure

Aaron.

[Scott Maybury]

I found when I started out I wanted to take 2 of everything and was having trouble keeping it below 30 lures. I was also paranoid about losing 4 or 5 lures a day and running out haha.

Now I have found that whilst you can have bad runs (yes I lost 5 lures in a day at Bugatti, yes 2 were craftbaits and one was a patriot design, no I don't want to talk about it) it is more about having lures you like to use which are good for the situation you will be fishing.

I now find, with a bit more confidence in what I like to use and experience in what lures I can work well with my rods, skill, physique etc, that I try and keep it down to about 15 lures for 5 days fishing, with usually about 10 poppers and 5 stickbaits, and I try and actually only take about 5 or 6 popper styles as I do like to have back ups in case I lose a lure that I am feeling confident with.

There is obviously a lot of variation in what different people do but that is how I approach it.

On colours, I have little regard for this except when fishing in Fiji, the skipper we fish with insists that the darker lures in the larger size catch the biggest fish, and over 2 trips he has been consistently proven correct, all of the big fish have been taken on completely black, dark purple or dark red lures, whereas larger lures in brighter colours, which have been used plenty, have not really accounted for anything largeish

[Brandon Khoo]

Scott - I love the "yes, I lost five lures in a day and no, I don't want to talk about it"!

[Rob Langridge]

G`Day all
I have been wanting to ask the question for some time now but just haven`t come across the right topic to ask the question.
I know the question is ( How many Lures ) but i see the topic is also about lure colours and size.
 
My question is are fish colour blind...?

[Josh Stuckey]

I took a mix of 30 poppers and stickbaits to Ono Island in january and returned with all of them. In fact it turned out only one lure did the damage for me, a black 130gm Jai bighead. I'd get a follow or hit on that lure and swap out a couple of different lures for no result, return to the black Jai and bingo strike/follow again. The thing is if I only took a couple of lures, murphy's law says I would have been smashed and lure less on day 1.

On 20lb spin gear I got spanked on just about everything I hooked, but thats always the risk with light tackle.

Josh