Durras lake. What tackle?

[Kevlar]

Ok, I have searched the forum a fair amount and looked into the wiki but can't find a 'specific' list of essential lures to take to Durras. Probably too late to do anything decisive now as I am heading there in a few hours but I will be taking the whole shabang with me, SP's, poppers, divers. I have an idea from what I have read and think I will be armed ok but those that have had success in that area what did you use and have most luck with?

Cheers in advance.
Kev

[Revo]

Hi Kev ... have only just seen your post so I've probably missed you - hope your session at Durras is a good one. At this time of the year, it's worth trying different lures to suit the weed and surface condition. Poppers should work well, so should shallow diving hard bodies like SX40s, Predatek MinMins, etc. SPs will work well too - particularly on the flatties.

[Kevlar]

Cheers, my mate found tackle info on the durras trip report (I must have had a boys look). We fished for a few hours with no luck - lots of interested fish but nothing taking the lures. Heading back we had a few more casts 'just in case' and I landed my first kayak fish - a 36cm flattie - using a soft plastic yabbie/prawn, clear with a glimmer of orange. No pics unfortunately. I realised as I was filleting it last night I never took a snap first !

[Revo]

Well done on the flattie Kev - I think I know the type of sp you used. I've used it once but without any luck. It's good that you had a chance to explore the Durras system. When there's a lot of stinkboats around, it's harder to get a quiet area of water to fish. How was the ribbon weed? It should be starting to settle now.

[Kevlar]

The water seemed pretty clear for the most part. We paddled from the boat ramp up and around to the 'bay' that you can see from the road in and didn't encounter much ribbon weed. Apart fromt he flathead the highlight was watching an eagle swoop down and catch a cracker of a fish, normally only see that on Nat Geo.

[Jon]

hey Kevlar

well done of the flatty. yeah like revo i had the simmilar experience of when i was last time i was down there there was heaps of ribbonweed around snagging on my HB every cast. but by the sounds of this it has settled down. i might have to do a day trip sometime. yeah that bay that you can see from the road is quiet good to get away from the stickboats as it is pretty shallow getting into it.

Jon

[Revo]

G'day Kev. Thanks for the update on the ribbon weed - sounds like it's a good time to hit Durras again. I've been thinking of a quick outing on Burrill Lake too to get a sense of the prospects there for the AKFF February gathering.

[Kevlar]

Saturday night we fished from the boat ramp and a fella came in so we asked how his fishing went and he only had 4 for a few good hours on the water. He reckoned due to the lake being closed to the sea for such a long time that the 'good fish' had already been taken over the chrissy break, makes sense as we were out for quite a while and had hardly any interest or bites. Burril might be a good choice??

[Revo]

Yeah - the Christmas rush may have depleted stocks a little - but I reckon it's worth a fish near the protected arms - with the right weather to get the fish on the move, there could be good prospects there until the water cools right down.

[GregL]

G'day Kev. Thanks for the update on the ribbon weed - sounds like it's a good time to hit Durras again. I've been thinking of a quick outing on Burrill Lake too to get a sense of the prospects there for the AKFF February gathering.

Hey man, make sure you give us a bell when your coming!
Smeg

[skippinlures]

Try trolling River 2 Sea or Predatek Min Min lures around 70 - 75mm long. SX40s also work well. Try a Gold / Black colour with a little pink or red on it. For the whiting try 75mm (or larger) poppers. I like bronze / Gold colours best but I do find that after a few weeks of pelting these poppers at whiting they go off the chew until the crowds thin out after Auystralia Day.
Brian

[paffoh]

Interesting theories,

'The Estuary Bums' that frequent the area swear by 30 - 40mm poppers, mainly around the smaller Bubblepop size. Its true some Whiting in certain locations tend to go off the chew fairly quickly in heralded populous but to be honest in years of fishing the place I hardly ever see anyone throwing surface lures for 'Ting ( Unless they are fishing from a kayak ). These fish are well educated and can be on and off like a switch, some of us have mastered the place and others ( Like myself ) struggle to pull anything but Bream or Flathead off the surface... You wont here me complaining though!

Gun lures for me at the moment are Damiki 'Vault' Blades - Flathead, Storm Hopper Popper - Whiting, PX 45 - Bream and any slender / fat profiled crankbait like an SX 40, Mini Micro Mullet or Chubby style lure. At first I was unsure of colour selection when fishing Durras but when its closed to the ocean try natural colours, brighter when water quality returns.

Enough from me, Craig?

[craig450]

I agree totally with Paff, 35-40mm poppers are definately the preferred choice for me when im after bream and whiting, i never use anything over 50mm and only use the 50's when its very windy. Im not saying the 75's and bigger dont work, but i dont have any luck with poppers over the 50mm size.
I find with smaller sizes it takes longer for the whiting to go off the bite, and even when they do its just a matter of changing colours or brand (for a slightly different rattle) and you will continue to get them.
The Px45's, Towadi's and other "walk the dog" type surface lures are great for when the water is dead calm, or when the fish are shy, especially for bream, flathead will just about hit anything, but if im specifically targetting flatties on the surface i use 50-60mm poppers retreived very slowly.
Ive only just got onto the blade lures, but ive been using the Ecogear Vx35's with some success, and also Atomic hardz, crank and minnow with reasonable success.
The list of SP's is endless, but probably the standouts for me are the Squidgie wrigglers in bloodworm, Or Squidgie lobby.
All the lures i use in the estuaries are natural colours, i dont usually buy any of the standout/bright colours, i just dont have confidence in them so i stick with what i know works well.

[Kevlar]

Thanks for posting up further choices/info guys. Will definitely help out the likes of me that have hardly fished outside of fresh water creeks and rivers. I had a friend return from a trip fishing durrass and he got a good catch of flatties using prawn style sp's - light green with a gold fleck.

When you talk about retrieving the poppers slowly are you talking only just moving along the surface on a constant wind or a jiggle here and then bring it in a little, let it float etc?

I am hoping to pick up some extra tricks of the trade at the burrill meet.

Kev

[craig450]

When im after bream and flatties, i retreive quite slowly, couple of twiches, then pause and so on.
For whiting, a fairly fast constant retreive with no pauses will get em everytime.

Good luck, but be careful, its highly addictive