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Courtland Babcock

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How long does a lure last you?
November 14, 2015, 10:24:35 AM
This is not meant to be a "what is the best brand" type of discussion. Just more of an odd question. I fish in an area with lots of sharks at times, heavy structure at times and tons of toothy critters most of the time.

I often tell my charter customers about their lures, "don't throw it in if you really want to see it again!"

They smirk and over the jig or popper goes. Lots of times the first few jigs on a spot never make it to the bottom. Barracuda, king macks and wahoo will cut a few off every time. By the end of a trip they are looking for the cheapest stuff in their bag. Often I will lose every lure that I have on every rod, maybe 2 times over. Actually, I remember 1 day that a group of 4 of us lost over 50 jigs.

Poppers and stickbaits too. Big amberjack taking you into structure and getting your tuna taxed are the biggest culprits. Of course if you are lucky you can find the lures that float after getting cut off. I think my buddy Scott got to re-tie a yellow G-Cup 5 times in one session in Kirinda. The Spanish wouldn't leave it alone.

I honestly don't expect to get my lure back nearly every time I toss it over. The odds increase in my favor when I move to "live bottom" areas except this time of year when the king macks are thick. They eat everything.

So the question is- How long do you expect a lure to last you? How many lures do you go through in a session?

Being from the US I have only taken 2 GT trips, fishing a total of 12 days. I lost 1 sinking stickbait to the reef while untying a wind knot and got reefed 1 time when I dropped to PE4 just to test Murphy's Law during a tough bite in Sri Lanka. So in 12 days of GT fishing I lost 2 lures, 1 to a fish.


Cameron Mundy

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Re: How long does a lure last you?
November 30, 2015, 02:21:11 AM
I once had a group loose 16 lures in 45 minutes in Southern Oman in some gnarly terrain.

David DeCourcy

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Re: How long does a lure last you?
December 22, 2015, 04:57:50 AM
About the only lure I used for two consecutive seasons. Maybe fifty odd fish on it

David DeCourcy

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Re: How long does a lure last you?
December 22, 2015, 07:55:28 PM
Surface lure, jigs don't tend to survive that long

Andrew Hurley

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Re: How long does a lure last you?
January 09, 2016, 03:55:59 PM

Where I get about its toothy critter central with many poppers having short life spans :(. Been running a short single strand wire leader on pencil/diving poppers and chuggers which has increased the survival rate. Hasn't been tested on larger models, >15kgs. With surface sticks I find it cocks up the swimming action.

Damien Rynja

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Re: How long does a lure last you?
April 25, 2016, 12:26:29 PM
Every high end popper I took on my last trip is still there :( But both my Jai Big Heads came home. Go figure. I've had those 2 poppers since my first GT trip in 2012... They're honourably discharged from duty now.
On that note I had lures that only last one cast.
My 2 most successful stick baits also came on my first trip in 2012 as well, but I haven't lost any as I don't (or haven't had the chance to) use them as much as poppers.

Mark Richie

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Re: How long does a lure last you?
April 26, 2016, 09:12:48 AM
For me, it seems like the more expensive a lure is, the quicker the sea claims it! But just like you Damien, my 2 Jai Big Heads refuse to die or get taken despite some big fish in shallow water and the odd Spanish and cudas hitting it.

My longest serving lure was a 125g Cubera which saw just over 2 years of service till a month ago when I got a hit and then instantly slack line. Wound it in to find my split ring and swivel attached to about 2 inches of wire. Not sure what happened there but the lure had had a hard life and spent 6 months buried up in my gunwales during a fishing hiatus without a wash down. No doubt down to corrosion.

Damien Rynja

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Re: How long does a lure last you?
April 26, 2016, 11:07:24 AM
One of my Jai big heads got snipped and floated back to the surface and was retrieved, you think I can get that to happen with any thing else? Hahaha.

I've watched poppers float away because I'm too scared to swim after them :(