North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Hello all

Been playing around with light/colours underwater and have reached the stage of looking at lures with internal LEDs.

Anybody got experience with them?

I've bought 5 five different models from Balista to test.

I've never used them but m cousin in NSW wales swears by the big ballistas for cod.

Thanks, Wombat

Have heard that. Be deep diver?

Mostly, cod fishing would be in dirty water?

All the stuff I've seen about light penetration into water is based on clear water. Very little (if any) done on dirty water where the rules are very different.

Also, all research is done on the sun being the source of the light and how water reduces the penetration from the surface.

Anyway, I think I've got a good handle on that.

Then it crossed my mind to think " forget about the sun as the source of light struggling to penetrate dirty water" and think about the lure taking its own source of light with it. Bit like underwater photography needing its own light source.

Came across Balista lures with their LEDs and another rechargeable lure that jiggles itself around (not real keen on that one).

That's all I could find.

Don't want to rely on marketing hype but would rather hear from people who've used them plus my own testing.

Yep dirty water, and with Cod fishing a lot of the time your'e looking for a territorial strike more than a feeding strike so big and obnoxious is a good thing. I'm not sure if LED lights would be a positive or a negative on finicky fish, a bit like rattles I suppose, but if fish are feeding in dirty water and just need a hand to spot your lure lights have gotta help I suppose. He's mainly casting in 4m or less of water, but it's generally not far off coffee colored water.

Got the lures. White ones. Been busy nearly all year with that research stuff I was talking about for Matt's article.

Now been re-fitting boat. Finished yesterday so all set to go.

Got quite a few things to try out over the next couple of weeks.

Been going stir crazy and getting intolerant these days. Maybe some on-the-water activities will sort that out.

There is a guy in VIC that has one model with flashing light in Tribal Lures
think there on Ebay Too

Wazza is his name.

Cheers

My deckie tried casting 2 different types for Barra for a few trips unsuccessfully but that's not to say that there were fish there in the first place.

I'm no good with remembering names and he doesn't either but I can add that these lures also buzzed and having no on off switch they had to be wrapped in a rag to stop vibrating through the tackle box and making the boat hum when it was dead silence. I wonder if the vibration was too much and scared the Barra!

fff1964 wrote:There is a guy in VIC that has one model with flashing light in Tribal Lures
think there on Ebay Too

Wazza is his name.

Cheers

Thanks for that.

Hey ronje
Got the 72 on a ballista in black whilst strolling

barra-and-estuary-fishing-trip-reports- ... 41255.html

Thanks Gibbsy.

Didn't see your writeup previously.

Guy got a 1.3m barra here in one of the comps doing the same thing in the current while he was doing something else.

Happened to me in Clear Ck ( at the junction a couple of 100m up from mouth) a few years ago with a poltergeist.

No worries ronje I had the whole of about 2 mind sleep before my mates rudely woke me up and told me I was on I thought they were s$&t stirring so told them to get f@!$&d lol the hooks on that lure were flogged out after the first fish so changed them out for some vmc’s

Mate I was commenting on "strolling" using normal hardbody (not a LED vibe).

Jury is still out with me (like you) about strength of LED vibes for bigger fish.