I fish HB's alot & I havn't lost a lure for about 6 months now & even then it was only because I forgot to take my tackleback with me. Sounds like you should invest another $12 & get a tackleback, you can use it to get most of your lures back.

i'm pretty tight mate and hate loosing lures! im not much of a bream fisho but love my flathead fishing and go nearly every week (north bank of the swan - mosman park area mainly - coombe reserve and walking the bank both up and down river from there is the go). i use 4-6kg braid main line and a short but heavy leader - might sound like overkill but 30cms of 40-60lb "very supple" clear leader will get your lure out of some very ordinary snags and river weed/slime. 

Also i have been known to walk up to my arm pits in some very cold water in the past to go get a snagged lure! 

I have a pretty good hook up rate with this set up, i reckon most people would say its too much and such a heavy leader isnt condusive to a good hook up rate and they're correct but trial and error has lead me to this set up and it seems to work for me.....

go the soft body 2 inch vibes light brown colour (not sure of the brand) but never seem to fail, same as the glow in the dark 2-3 inch 'shrimp' style gulps with a 1/4-3/8 oz head (but the blow fish love the gulps too) - dont retrieve too fast either as you need to keep it nearer to the bottom than the top of the water body.

try fishing lures with shallow bibs and rising to high tide as the bait hides along the shore and brings the fish right up close also give the plastics a go mate like snap back grubs if your fishing the canning or upper reaches ive lost heaps of blades it sux and thats just breamin.

thanks for that, ill take note for next holidays. just wondering the tacklebacks ive seen before are huge, i guess they make smaller ones.

greame, just wondering, you do get snagged often, then use the tackleback to free the lure or you dont get snagged much?

btw, little stickbaits are the friggin worst, suppose to cast, let it sink then lift...........then #$%$! snagged. does anyone use them? or stick to floating bibbed ones

thanks

Fisharoo, the best thing i can recommend to you is buy some cheapish lures that swim good(there is plenty of good copies) and play around with those. When you are confident enough go for the more expensive ones, good luck!

I get snagged a fair bit when I'm fishing tough structure for bream but not much at all flatty fishing. Using braid & getting the feel of what the lure is doing so you can drop the tip as soon as you feel a snag is very helpfull & helps me avoid most snags before the lure actually gets stuck. Of course that only works with floating lures. Once I am snagged up though I'll break out the tacklback. I've got the light model which I guess is around the 40g mark (only a guess) & it works fairly well. It's certainly paid for itself many many times over. The light ones can be a bit hard to find in Perth as most people fish fairly heavy but if you look around you should be able to find one somewhere. If not just ask your local to order one for you, I'm quite sure they will be happy to. There are other lure retrievers around to so perhaps look into those & see if they would suit your purposes.