They work!

Went down the river for an hour this afternoon with my new packet of red heads and caught a 12 pound pike unfortunately I left my bloody camera at home

Here is the shad:

Gobio - my faith in the red head is now restored.

Is that size your preference or do you keep a variety of them?

[ 01. February 2005, 09:07 PM: Message edited by: Newt ]

Gobio,
Just took delivery of my new spinning rod and Chubby Shad this morning. Where did you get yours from. My 1 cost me £4.50 for the 4" version. Also how did you fish them?

Newt,
These are the only red heads I have. I love the Storm lures and now have a variety of colours and sizes but mostly they are curl-tails. I have bought them all on ebay. This was my first attempt with a shad. I really need to find a good UK stockist of Storm lures, I have found some but not many sell the ones I like with a single hook on the top of the lure, they never snag the bottom.

Comus,
You paid 4.50 for one lure? If that's true you are paying too much. I cast them downstream and leave them to sink for a while (you can vary that bit) then I simply reel 'em in, but every few turns of the reel I pause for a moment, it makes the lure look like it's diving for the bottom. I fish the shads faster than the curl-tails to get them wobbling, but this can be varied also. I have now caught seven pike on my last three outings on the river and lost two more, today's was the biggest. These new lures have been a revelation (for me anyway). Good luck mate.

Don't use the rod to work the lure. Just cast out, let the lure hit the bottom, keep the rod up high and give the handle a sharp turn every 5-6 second or thereabouts. More often than not, the Pike will simply inhale the lure off the bottom as soon as it settles again.
You actually want the lure to spend more time static than moving.

Gobio - even with the shipping, VAT, and all of that, take a look Here and More Hereand Still More Here.

Note that as of today, $3.00 US = £1.59

Thanks Newt,

I checked out the H M Customs and Excise site here: Customs and it says this:

If you purchase goods through the Internet you should be aware that Customs duty and VAT will be payable, as follows;

* Customs duty - if the amount of duty is £7 and over; and
* Import VAT - if the value of the goods is £18 and over

The duty part is a mystery but it surely can't be £7 on what I ordered.

Using this simple currency convertor I find that £18 is worth $33.9638 at today's rate and shipping to the UK from that supplier is $6.95.

So it seems to me that the optimum order would be about $33 to get the max for your shipping costs and remain under the VAT threshold.

I personally have just ordered some great lures for $24. There are lots of other tackle bargains on that site.

One last point Newt, there are lots of interesting lures on the site but they have no hooks, how do I know what type/size jig heads to buy?

One point that you should be familiar with, is that the 'value' upon which VAT and Duty are calculated includes postage and insurance. Its known as the CIF value. That is Cost, Insurance, Freight. If it slides over into the chargeable zone, the carrier will charge between ten and fifteen pounds 'admin' to collect the Duty from you and pass it to HMC. The only way around this would be to talk George Dubbya into joining the EEC. Not invade it... just join it

Sadly, it dosn't always pay to use http://www.bassproshops.com amd http://www.cabelas.com unless you have a big order. Small orders up to around 50 quid and sent via the US Postal Service mostly slip through unchallenged. Unfortunately neither Basspro or Cabelas use this carrier. So you virtually always get shafted when you use them and the total cost is sometimes higher than a UK purchase. Theres an earlier thread from a few weeks ago which explains the 'postage' problem in more detail. I'll see if I can find it.

If you are to be rigging the various soft plastics, it depends on how you plan to rig them.

Jig head is certainly the simplest and you can just get them with a hook the size you'd normally use on a lure for whatever your target might be.

If you plan to do Texas rigs (with bullet weights) you just use a 'worm hook' that is shaped to work with the lure. Same for Colorado rigs.

Show me which lures and I can be a little more specific. Some of the regular soft plastic users on here (Tim Kelly, argyll, Peter Waller, others) can also give you their views.

Might be worth starting a thread for 'rigging soft plastics' for that.

For instance, this is a typical way to put a hook in a soft plastic when you need it weedless. With a 3 inch minnow and for pike, probably a 3/0 to 5/0 hook would be the choice.



You then put a bead on the leader/hooklength to protect the knot if using regular line to the lure or just for the extra noise if using wire where the knot isn't likely to be damaged. Glass bead will give more noise when it clicks against the weight. Weight will be one of this style and you can get them in lead (cheapest), steel (next cheapest but lighter) or tungsten ( most expensive but more weight per size than lead). Standard Texas rig would have the bullet free sliding on the hooklength.

hmmm.........HMC never mentioned CIF! Very misleading, they state, "If the value of the goods is £18 or over."

Still, I am still under the limit, my total including postage was about £16.

Thanks argyll.