North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

My favourite lure at the moment costs- $1.90 each, sometimes less marketed stuff is pretty good! Like many people I find it hard to fork out $20+ for some thing that will most likely be tossed at a snag in anger and promptly snag up and lose. But of course after reading this I will probably buy one Oh well -you cant spend when your dead.

Interseting that 4 of the 5 previous photos were hooked with the rear treble that some suggest removing.

Hi all,

Besides the suggestion by deeplack about removing the rear treble and replacing the other one with a Decoy Y-W77, has anyone changed (both) hooks over? To me, the ones on them look pretty weak (and small). To do that though would presumably change their action. Any thoughts?

If your looking for less snags, id suggest taking the front treble off, not the back one, the back one catches fewer as it rides up higher, The stocko hooks are 3x vmc size 4, this type of lure usually hooks fish inside the mouth and because of the flex the hooks dont get as much of a hard time as a hard body lure, theres been quiet a few barra over 120 long taken on the lures straight out of the packet, the vast majority fish for fish in the 50-80cm range and there a great hook for that, the fine line for sure is the gape of the hook, the wider you go the more the action is stuffed up, its better to increase the thickness of the wire if you have to and run a size 4-6.

Threadybuster, great to see a local producer supporting his product. I have bought a few and caught a couple of Barra on them. Great advice from the maker and this sort of loyalty to your product from the manufacturer is what generates loyalty from us customers.

Thank you for the sage advice with regard to hooks, a great product. Keep up the good work.

Cheers,

Doors Off

Thanks Threadybuster,

Will leave the hooks as they are for now then.

I'll let you know if they are any good for barra in xs of 120cm (not hugely likely - biggest barra I've ever caught far is around 85cm!).

Was cutting up a barra last night and checked to see what it had been eating. Caught on a 20g TB in light grey hue.

Found a perfectly preserved large prawn of perfect bait size. Washed it and put it to one side.

Couple of minutes later while brain was million miles away, I glanced across from the filleting to see the prawn.

Thought to self "Must shift that threadybuster before grandson gets spiked by trebles".

Then realized it wasn't a TB.

But the way the prawn was lying u'd have thought it was.

Then started to think a bit.

Size is right. Legs hanging down look like trebles. Colour is right.

Action in fishing TB of a shimmy up and a fall back down with most strikes coming on drop.

Prawn action in water in couple of flicks to change position quickly followed by a glide down with legs dangling and moving was so close to the way TBs are fished ( I do anyway). Also accounts for why the strikes are usually on the drop.

Even though to me the TB looked liked a poddy mullet, it performed like a prawn in the water with the shimmy drop technique.

U can't get better bait than a live prawn and I think that's why I get strikes when nothing else seems to work.

Must have a bit more of a look at the similarities.

Hello all

Time is drawing nigh for our annual Roper River expedition.

Can promise some different results this time around. 1300 barra from last year will be a hard act to follow in terms of numbers, but we reckon that quality is the go this time.

We'll be tagging again this year couirtesy of NT Fisheries unit. Hope to do another 750.

We've got some different lures this time around to try out. Chinese hard bodies and soft vibes. Wedgetail mullet. Some US plastic shads.

We had a couple of threadybusters last year and lost them to timber snags quickly. But they sure worked.

Have refined our threadybuster techniques over the past year and reckon they will outdo the others easily.

To that end we've stocked up over the year with 90 Threadybusters from Smoking Drag Lures. Got the last 55 today.

Dan's no longer there but Rob ( a previous partner) is now running things. A more obliging person you'd go a long way to find.

We'll try them out on metre+ fish ok as we're expecting better quality this year.

There is a bigger T/buster in development stage at the moment. Be interesting.

Just bought my Frt see how how go hey

Took out the TB today, first test was much better then first expected!
between 3 of us 11 barra total, 8 to the TB and the other 2 blokes have never heard of them. Hahahahahaha suckers!, So they were not very happy campers and I had a great day thanks to a stand out lure.

Was sceptical about them and for 20$ a pop was cautious at first. Got game and started sinking them down on the snags and bam, fish after fish.

Although I did have the wire from the back treble come out? Any one else have this before?? I had no previous snags with the lure and it was only on the 4th fish but the barra were that keen they kept swolling in down deep and the front treble still was working so yeh

Although I did have the wire from the back treble come out? Any one else have this before?? I had no previous snags with the lure and it was only on the 4th fish but the barra were that keen they kept swolling in down deep and the front treble still was working so yeh

I fished a new Trans Am style lure - they are called Shads "Soft Ons" - An Australian company (though like all things foreign made). They retail for $16 at Frenchy's Tacklebox and are a great lure. They only come in 20grams but strewth they work. The Trans Am 20gm caught plenty of fish, four other anglers were casting all kinds of plastics and not getting hits, my deckie was too scared to put on a Trans Am/Threadybuster so I told him that the Shads Soft On were a lot cheaper. He put it on and went better than fish for fish with me using the Trans Am.

The Threadybuster/Trans Am style of lures were the only thing working and turned an ok trip into a great trip. The Soft Ons have a smaller profile and solid through wire construction, do not look as high end as the Threadybusters but they work just as well, if not better. This was fishing on the Daly and the Barra inhaled them.

I get no freebies or anything like that, just wanting to let people know that there is a cheaper option out there and that they work as good if not better than the more expensive ones. Mind you, $16 aint that cheap.

Cheers,

Doors Off

check these blokes out www.barratackle.com.au
stocking the threadybusters for under 20 bucks
check out there hard bodies as well, I reckon some great prices

I still love threadybusters. BUT they get inhaled by the fish and do a bit of damage on removal.
I usually chuck a cheapie lure down around the snags first and then swap over to TB after
They are too bl..dy expensive though