I just spent lots on on some hand made lures for an up coming trip to exmouth  think the thread is called 

"Exmouth 2013" 

If you like what youre looking at buy it, thats my shopping motto. 

I've got no issue spening $30 for a good lure though I am carefull about where I use them. I've got no worries throwing a $30 floating stickbait like an Xrap over the reef edge but I won't use a fast sinking one like the Adajio 105 Heavy because if your just a second slow on the retrieve it's easy to get snagged. The Cultiva Tango Dancer is a good lure & is on the right side of $20 if you buy it from the right place. Most of the time though I fish cheaper surface lures like the Richter Plug & Halco Roosta Popper. Though not stickbaits you still get that surface strike buzz without having the worries about losing an expensive lure. As a bonus they catch heaps of fish, I had a tailor swallow a 2oz Richter whole the other day & bite me off clean. The Lively Lures 'Fat R' & the Strike Pro 150mm popper are also good value & will pull plenty of fish. Fish a 30-40lb leader & you should be pretty right most of the time, even when a big fish decides it's time to play.

 I have a rule never to never buy a lure over $20. I am mainly bream beach rock fishing but I don't see the point in spending that much. Still never broken my rule yet.

Thanks

Im a tight arse....I love my gun popper/stickbait lure that is good for cast and retrieve for pelagics and trolls mint for the same, used to getem locally but not any more so I buy them 5 bucks each from ebay, doesnt hurt to loose them and work mint. I do still buy lures online that are available locally only because theyre half the price. An unsuccessful fishing session can be so much worse when its cost you mega bucks on lost lures (consumables)

Hi mate,

You dont need to spend a fortune on lures most of the time, Though at times the more detailed and inherentley more expensive lures catch more. Yesterday evening I was flicking around a Duel Hardcore Pencil and was having great success on Tailor to around the 40cm mark. These sell for $23.95 for Fishwrecked members. Maria Bullchops are another favourite for those fishing in surfy chop or offshore reefs. These are more again. Otherwise if you dont want to spend more than $20 than Stick baits like Gladiator Ocean Potions in 110mm size are dynamite or even the humble Richter plugs go for under $15 for all sizes.

Feel free to drop past and check out the different available options.

 Hahaha my mate dropped one of my $50 jigs overboard on monday.

 +1 for the gladiator ocean potion reasonably priced (even after upgrading to owner trebles), a few good colours and they work great.

Savings can be had by buying lures online. 

I have found Rapala lures for really good prices on Amazon, and Duel Adagio's and Blues Codes for ~$20 around the place.

i spend around 25 bucks each for a decent squid jig

No need to spend big $ to get the tailor. Smiling Jacks , Twisties, Gillies, and of course the good o'l cheap Richter Plug all do the trick. Lately I have been getting mine on cheap Kato lures, outfishing the mulies on them too.

Use Richter plugs first, if you're losing them, don't bother buying $20+ stickbaits

.......wait till you start demercal jigging or chasing bills......

 Lambels are expesnive but the best followed closely by shout!

dont even bother bill fishing if you dont wanna spend money.

i have spent in excess of $100 bucks on some billie lures to see them tail daincing in exxy only for my knots to burn through and brake. you live and learn, generally the hard way.

 I have no qualms in splurging on lures. Looking at one of my stickbait boxes in front of me at the moment, easily 25 stickies in there. Generally I buy 3-4 a week, always with the intention of using them, but never do haha. 

As if loosing my new $30 lure last night on the third cast didn't hurt enough I jump on the forum this morning and there is a thread bout it. Salt in the wound   haha shit happens i say and thats fishing its the same with all hobbies when the manufacturer sees money to be made they try make it and if it gives me the upper hand at catching that monster green back so be it. Coz if your fishing for tailor in their territory your gonna have the risk at loosing a few, especially when the waves suck back over the edge at the last second on ya. Lesson learnt just use cheap metals still get the job done.

 I spend up to $50 on GT lures, I have only  bought a few so far and I have my eye on some more expensive ones.

I have no problem forking out $36 for an OSP bent minnow for bream because I know they catch fish.

have lost many lures...tolling skirts, hard bodied, twisties....blah blah.

occasionally on first strike/ cast.....but...

nothing is as bad as when you loose the "trusted, chomped, old faithful !" that has caught more than it's fair share.    ;)

 Any thing over $10 and I'll swim an retrieve my lure, alway have some goggles in my bag, 

 yup, lost a $27 yozuri crystal minnow on the 2nd cast up in exxy few weeks ago to a large queenie, put up a good fight but lost it to the pylons at bundegi, oh well if we counted all the money we spent on fishing and fishing related gear we wouldn't do it, but hey where is the fun in that !

Cheers Joel

 Good call Joel 231!, if out misuses only knew also hahaha

Last count there was over $4000 worth of lures in my bream trays. The funny thing is I actually only use a fraction of those lure, most of them have never even seen water. If we think about the amount we spend really on rods, reels, line, bait, fuel etc it makes me wonder why we worry so much about losing a mere $30 lure.

 thats ten of my new lures  its my latest craze at the moment, whilst waiting for some custom rods to be built I've been buying hand crafted lures just to look at.

Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}

An interesting thread beachsoul.I quite like to muck around with cheapo lures to see if I can get similar results to more expensive lures. Most lure fishing in my current location involves dropping down into heavy timber for Barra, so if things are going off I can lose a few.

The 120 X-Rap is an okay lure for this technique at times (with a bit of extra weight on the leader) but a blatant rip-off, the Saku Swimbait is around half the price and pretty much exactly the same lure. Perhaps I’m being naive and Saku uses sweat-shops in Third World Countries to keep their overheads down. Admittedly I haven’t done the research and will change my purchasing habits accordingly if someone informs me this is the case, but seriously… around $22+ for the X-Rap versus around $13 for the Saku!

Another go-to lure for this type of fishing for me is the Outback Lures: Jabiru Jerk Bait which you can get at places like K-Mart and Big W for less than $5. Okay the trebles need re-placing and if you want to land a fish over 60cm you’d want to chuck a bit of Araldite on the wire points attaching the hooks to the body BUT there are plenty of other far more expensive lures around that you’d need to do the same thing for.

Here’s a related question: What are your “Best Value For Money” lures?

I know there are plenty of fish caught on Metal Slices and Feather Jigs that cost less than $5 but what about others? From my limited experience, many of the best “Value For Money Lures” I have used come from Halco. I’ve used Roostas for Tailor and other surface stuff, Tilsans and Hammas for Barra, Laser Pros for Macks, Tuna, etc and they’ve all been great. I’m pretty sure at most shops all these would come in under $15.

What are other people's thoughts on their "Best Value For Money" lures?

P.S. Sorry about the gibberish at the start. I typed on Word first to edit and I think that's the result. Any help on how to avoid this would also be appreciated.

I have a tackle box of lures that I will never will use I think lures catch more fisherman in the tackle shop than they do fish in the ocean in saying that I think the best lure is a red and white cd 18 for up north (they are best known as a maurise rioli)

Thank you  all for sharing your thoughts

 I purchased 1 of the ocean potion stickies yesterday to try out....gave it a go ( seemed OK) but with the swell yesterday and limited time I did'nt manage any fish. Got none on my go to lures either

My favorite cheap Tailor lures that I don't leave home without are..........

• The metal Toby lures in 40g. Amazing on mid sized Tailor when they are reluctant to hit poppers. ( yes out fish bait at times )
•   Halco Roosters. Work a treat on larger Tailor

  i Have loads of lures. I never buy stuff im not going to use in the very near future unless they are on special                                                                                           

 Yep used Richters in the past and they were great. May need to revisit them. Ive fished alongside my brother both of us spinning using Tobys and i out caught him by around 30 fish he  did'nt get that twitch just right...glad it was'nt the other way around I would have been pissed lol   

 Cabelas for brand name lures for me, just ordered 16 vibes delivered to the door for $145 and $45 of that was postage!

Same lures here are well over $20 each.

And if you're prepared to invest the time searching online you can find places that wholesale or manufacture and as long as you buy a minimum of twenty or so of each you will pay ridiculous pricing. Three bucks or less each and that's with Owner hardware. Up those quantities to a minimum of 200 of each and you have your own brand and the unit price comes down even more, way more.

Have a look at the Payobait ebay store, then google Payobait and you can be a lure "designer" in no time and with your own brand to boot. Then it's just a matter of sponsoring a website and a couple of keen young fishos that like to blog and can string more than two words together and hey presto!! You're a tackle magnate.

 lost two sx40s today - one to a tree and other to one of those annoying Garrat Rd Bridge pylons........ I buy lures to lose them basically, but it never feels good losing two in a session

I have only caught a handful of fish using the ecogear sx40 lures. i have taylor lures but they just don't work as well as bait for me. its definitely hard work and painful when you lose a lure or two in a fishing session.

my budget is no more than 30$.

i still believe lures catch more fisherman than fish, as someone above said

 I'm surprised no one mentioned plastics? They are awesome because you can lose heaps and not sweat it plus they can work any depth. In a tailor session the other day me and a mate went through half a dozen due to bite offs and snags and still got our share plus less than 15 bucks spent fishing a psycho area

City flicker

i ve most probably owe u a richter plug - if it was  white one - i caught a 47cm tailor with a richter plug in its guts- about 3 weeks ago

how it survived i dont know

 I lived on Willis Island in the Coral Sea for 9 months. I took 40kg of tackle, mostly lures (poppers, stick baits, spoons, metal slices and lead heads) mainly targetting trevally (blue, black and giant) red bass, trout and mackerel. Everything but the spoons, metal slices, lead heads and one particular stick bait (until a red bass steam rolled it at the waters edge) were a waste of money as they looked nothing like what the local predators were eating. The poppers and stick baits were really only good for frigate birds and gannets who would dive on them as soon as they made a splash (they put up a great fight but it is a bit unusual fighting something in the air instead of the water). Crome twisty lures, cheap ones, bagged most of the GTs I caught while I was out there and I lost count of how many that was.  

Cheapo lures are just as good as pricey ones if they look like prey to a big fish.

 its painfull when they go i pinged a maria bullchop off (aprox $30) off while casting a couple of weeks back i was pissed cause i had just landed a 3 kg tailor on the previous cast and i didnt have another one watched it sink away in about 4 - 5 metres of water came back the next day with a shiny new bullchop to throw at the fishies and there it was sitting in a pool in the reef, bonus no fish that day but a $30 lure came back to me stoked

On our annual trip to the Daly, we always find heaps of lures.  I no longer need to buy any, cos I find way more than I lose.

On a 2 week fishing trip, we usually find about 60 barra lures!