When it comes to hard-bodied lures, these days it seems like the sky is the limit when it comes to price. Incredibly some up-market Japanese barra lures are selling for up to $75 and even bream and bass fishing lures seem to regularly be asking over $20 each. But do you really have to part with so much cash just to catch a few fish?

The answer is of course you don’t. There are plenty of great locally made and some imported lures going for less than half that price and let me tell you they all work every bit as well as their more expensive counterparts.

Take Trollcraft Lures for example. Trollcraft have a whole range of lures which are perfectly suitable for Australian fish and conditions and they can be relied upon to catch just about anything you want to target.

Now, we all know that bass only eat the most expensive, Japanese rattling bibless lures don’t we? Wrong! Bass are quite happy to eat all sorts of lures and they absolutely love the Trollcraft Prism Murrin 2. This 12 gram sinking rattler is deadly on bass, despite the fact that it only costs around the $7 mark in most tackle shops.

True, it might not come in 100 different colours or have the same intricate paint job that the more expensive models have, but that doesn’t detract from its effectiveness. You can use them to work the weed edges just like you would with any other sinking lure and this is a deadly way to target really big bass.

Big bass like this live along the weed edges.

Fishing weed edges

Most weed beds have a defined edge or ‘drop off’ where the weed finishes and the open water begins. To fish these places, simply position the boat parallel with the edge of the weeds and cast along the face of the weedbed. By allowing your Prism Murrin to sink beside the weed edge, you are inviting bass to dart out of the weeds and nail it ‘on the drop’.

Check out the little bits of weed still stuck on the trebles of this Prism Murrin 2. That’s how close to the submerged weeds you want your lure to swim.

If a fish hasn’t hit you lure by the time it reaches the bottom, simply give your rod tip a quick flick to make the lure dart up off the bottom, like a small fish busting from cover. This quick burst of activity can sometimes trigger reflex strikes from curious bass which have swum over to investigate your lure as it sank towards the bottom. However, if you still haven’t had a strike, simply continue with a slow, steady retrieve or ‘slow roll’ to use the trendy terminology. Of course, you can always mix things up by stopping your retrieve and allowing the lure to sink back to the bottom again and repeating the process or by incorporating little flicks to give the lure a little more noise and action. The choice is up to you and the fish because you will soon find out what sort of retrieve they favor on the day.

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