hey tim heres a few pics of the lure retriever we made..
its about 6meters in total.



screws together pretty easily..



a tackle back has been fitted in the end. lots of araldite and drilled and a pin put through..



done the job pretty good and its prob 5 or 6 years old now. could prob fix it up abit, slighty bent but ill keep using it still it goes. very sturdy. from memory it was a misson to get the tackle back to fit in, abit of shaving and banging was required.

Weve got a commercially made extenable type and it dosnt compare - not as long and very flimsy in the current. mind you very good for billabongs.


As for 'getting' less snags. theres a few methods that will decrease your snag rate. I do pretty much whats mentioned above in the way on technique. Certain lures will help you alot to. Pretty much all classics and rmgs are good for backing up off snags, killalures like barrabaits and river rats are worth a mention to. i troll with my rod 90' to the water. When you feel the snag drop your rod back so its pretty much pointing at the snag. often this is enough slack to let the lure back up. sometimes you need to hit freespool. when you have abit of practise youll be doin it in one montion - dropping your rod back and engaging freespool. It helps if ur the skipper cause as soon as u feel contact with the snag wack it into neutral and it will give it even more slack. Give it ago, let us know how you go..
Worth mentioning is, when you get a snag trolling with the current its often a bastard to get off. the current is pushing the lure onto the snag. most of the time you will need to go back over it. dont put any pressure on as u wind back until u get on the other side. a few jigs of the rod should see it come off..
Most lures i lose to snags are a result of trolling with the tide. you will also notice ur lure goes much deeper this way to..

Hope that helps anyway

For a cheap lure retriever go to the hardware (Howard Springs of course) and get a thick piece of dowell (3or 4 mtrs long) and screw a curtain ring in the side of the dowell close to the end,the curtain ring is not a fully closed circle so you can slide your line in and Bobs your aunty,oh and if you drop the bluddy thing it floats not like my fibreglass thing in the East Alligator

Wicked Bandit, thanks for the snaps. I reckon I will give that a go this week. Planning a trip to Cape Hotham in the new rig next weekend so will have something prepared before we go. Also really value your explanation on working snags. I really have no idea and am learning as I go. Your detail was just what I was looking for cheers mate.
I will post a pick up here once I have something to show.
Thanks
Tim