When to Use Fishing Lures: 12 Tips for Conditions & Species

Wondering when a shiny piece of plastic or metal beats a juicy pilchard? The short version is this: use a lure when you need to cover water quickly, dodge bait-stealing pickers, or mimic a very specific prey item under changing light, temperature or clarity. By matching the style, colour and action of your lure to what fish are sensing on the day, you’ll trigger reflex strikes that bait alone can’t always produce.

Below you’ll find 12 field-tested tips that break lure choice down by time of day, season, water colour and target species—everything from surface walkers for dawn kahawai to glow soft-baits around wharf lights at night. First, a quick refresher: bait relies on smell and taste to draw a bite, while a lure relies on sight, vibration and flash. That distinction gives lures three core advantages—mobility, durability, and safer catch-and-release. Ready? Let’s pick the right lure for the next cast.

1 Dawn & Dusk: Deploy Topwater Lures for Aggressive Surface Strikes

That magic half-hour either side of sunrise and sunset is prime time for throwing something that splutters, walks or wakes across the surface. Low angles of light shorten a fish’s visibility cone, so predators push baitfish tight to the top where escape routes are limited. That’s why “dusk and dawn are best for lure fishing” keeps popping up in PAA boxes—nature has written it into the programme.

Why low-light windows fire up surface feeders

• Dim light hides the lure’s hardware, letting colour and action sell the ruse.
• Bait schools rise overnight to graze on plankton, putting them within strike range.
• Ambush hunters (think kahawai or bass) can silhouette prey against the brightening sky and attack with confidence.

Go-to topwater styles

• Walk-the-dog stickbaits (100–120 mm for kahawai/​salmon, 80 mm for largemouth bass) excel in calm to light chop.
• Cup-faced poppers (120–150 mm) move more water—ideal when wind riffles the surface.
• Wakebaits or crawling hard-bodies shine in glassy conditions when subtle V-wakes look natural.

Retrieve cadence that converts follows into hits

Start with a steady walk or pop, pause for two seconds, then burst into a short acceleration. On breezy mornings lengthen the pause: the added surface noise lets fish hone in through chop. If followers keep swirling and missing, slow everything down.

Species to target

• Saltwater: kahawai, kingfish patrolling harbour mouths, trevally under work-ups.
• Freshwater: brown or rainbow trout sipping evening mayflies—swap poppers for slim 70 mm wakebaits to match the hatch.

2 Bright Mid-Day Sun: Send Metal Jigs & Spoons Down Deep

Blue skies and a blazing sun can flatten the bite near the surface, but they don’t switch it off—predators simply drop into cooler, dimmer layers. Mid-day is therefore when to use fishing lures that sink fast, flash hard and stay in the strike zone. Compact metal jigs and spoons tick every box.

Light penetration and the mid-column refuge

Strong sunlight lights up deeper water, so snapper, kingfish and lake trout slide to ledges and mid-column thermoclines. Dropping a reflective slab right on their nose keeps the lure visible without forcing fish to leave their comfort zone.

Choosing metal profiles & weights

Match the jig’s shape to your goal:

• Thin flutter spoons dance on the drop—perfect for tentative fish.
• Knife-style jigs plummet straight down, ideal when wind or current pushes the boat.

Weight guideline:

Vertical vs cast-and-retrieve techniques

From a boat, work the lure vertically with sharp lift-drop “mechanical” pumps. Shore or kayak anglers can bomb a spoon long, let it hit bottom, then hop it back in two-turn bursts to mimic a wounded pilchard.

Optional scent & assist hooks

Adding a squid-based gel or swapping trebles for twin assist cords boosts hookups, especially with short-striking reef species. A quick rubber band wrap keeps the scent in place without muting the lure’s action.

3 Overcast or Low-Visibility Skies: Flash & Vibration Lures Stand Out

Grey skies, fog, or drizzle knock back underwater visibility but they don’t shut the bite. When sunlight is diffused, fish rely less on outline and more on pressure waves and momentary flickers. That’s the cue to swap subtle plastics for hardware that hums and flashes—think spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and in-line spinners. These lures push water, throw light in every direction, and stay easy for predators to track in the gloom.

Why clouds alter lure silhouette

Without harsh glare, the contrast between prey and background softens. Rather than spotting a crisp shape, fish home in on:

• Flash pulses as blades quarter-turn.
• Low-frequency vibrations felt through their lateral line.

Because the water column is evenly lit, they’ll roam wider, so a lure that calls from a distance keeps you connected.

Spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and in-line spinners

• Double-arm spinnerbait: best around weed edges; willow blades for flash, colorado for thump.
• Chatterbait (bladed jig): excels over muddy flats where its metal bill clacks like a dinner bell.
• In-line spinner: trout favourite in small streams; cast upstream and let it swing.

Colour selection under diffuse light

Gold, chartreuse, and black-nickel combos pop against grey water. If the water is tannin-stained, add an orange or red accent to mimic injured bait.

Target species & scenarios

• Freshwater: perch and pike prowling lake margins.
• Saltwater: yellow-eyed mullet, juvenile trevally, and harbour kahawai on breezy, clouded afternoons.

4 Windy Chop & Dirty Water: Rattle and Scented Soft-Baits Cut Through

When the forecast turns ugly and the water looks like a flat white, ditch the delicate stuff. In choppy, turbid conditions sight is limited, so lures that broadcast noise, vibration and smell grab the spotlight. Reaching for a rattling crankbait or a pre-scented soft-bait keeps you in the game when bait thieves thrive and visibility tanks—a classic scenario for when to use fishing lures over natural offerings.

How turbidity affects lateral-line detection

Muddy water scatters light, but it also amplifies pressure waves. Predators switch from vision to their lateral line, tracking low-frequency pulses that travel further than flash. A lure that clacks or wobbles loudly becomes a homing beacon, even in less than 30 cm viz.

Best noisy/scented options

• Lipless crankbaits with internal rattles for open flats
• Paddle-tail soft plastics soaked in built-in scent (e.g., Gulp! Nemesis)
• Curly-tails rigged on ¼ oz jig-heads: add a dab of squid oil for extra draw

Retrieve pace & line choice

Slow the roll so fish can lock on: a steady grind punctuated by rod twitches keeps the lure in the strike zone longer. Braid mainline delivers feel through wind-blown bows; finish with 60–80 cm of 15–20 lb fluorocarbon for abrasion resistance.

Practical example

A squally afternoon on the Hauraki Gulf: 0.8 m wind-chop, chocolate water. Switch to a 5-inch chartreuse paddle-tail, 3⁄8 oz head, slow-rolled over foul ground. The rattle-plus-scent combo cut through the murk and produced three keeper snapper in twenty minutes.

5 Gin-Clear Water: Downsize & Match the Hatch with Finesse Plastics

Glass-like visibility is gorgeous to look at but brutal for fooling wary fish. Every knot, split ring and unnatural twitch is magnified, so heavy hardware and gaudy paint jobs scream “fake.” This is precisely when to use fishing lures at the subtle end of the scale—slim, soft and almost invisible.

Spooked fish & the need for subtlety

• Higher visibility widens a fish’s strike window, giving it more time to scrutinise your offering.
• Sound travels further too, so clunks from sinkers or boat hulls quickly shut a bite down.
• Smaller, neutrally buoyant plastics land softly and glide like real smelt or bullies, reducing alarms.

Finesse rigging methods

1. Drop-shot with a #4–#2 hook and 1⁄8 oz sinker to keep the lure hovering nose-down.
2. Weedless wacky on a size-1 finesse hook for lake edges with ribbon weed.
3. 1⁄16 oz open-hook jig-head for mid-water darting—use light fluorocarbon (4–6 lb) to maximise action.

Natural colours & translucency

“Motor oil,” green pumpkin and smelt patterns blend into the background yet flash momentarily when they tilt—exactly like juvenile baitfish. Look for plastics with micro-glitter or slight translucence that catch and release shards of light rather than a solid glare.

Species focus

• South Island brown trout stalking spring-fed creeks
• Lake Taupō rainbows sipping smelt mid-column
• Reef fish such as goatfish or leatherjacket nosing around kelp gaps

Keep movements minimal—short shakes followed by long pauses often beat an aggressive retrieve in water this clear.

6 Cold-Water Months: Slow-Rolling Spinnerbaits & Suspending Jerkbaits

Winter and early spring don’t have to mean hanging up the rods. Fish still feed, just less often and with less energy. The trick is to offer a meal that looks easy to catch and hard to ignore. Two lures tick those boxes: a spinnerbait crawled along the bottom and a jerkbait that hangs motionless in the fish’s face.

Metabolism drop and slower prey

As water temps slide below about 12 °C a fish’s metabolic rate slows, shortening strike distance and making long chases unlikely. Prey items—whitebait, smelt, juvenile flounder—also move lethargically, so a lure that dawdles through the strike zone feels natural rather than suspicious.

Spinnerbait blade swaps for winter

Standard willow blades are built for speed. Swap them out (or pick models) with round Colorado or Indiana blades that:

• create more lift at slow RPMs
• thump harder, sending low-frequency pulses through cold, dense water
• stay higher in the column without extra weight

Rig a 3⁄8 oz model with a soft-plastic trailer and “slow-roll” it just fast enough to feel the blades tick.

Pausing jerkbait technique

Choose a 90–110 mm suspending jerkbait tuned to sit nose-down and neutrally buoyant. Retrieve pattern:

1. Two short downward snaps
2. Wind slack and let the lure sit for a full three seconds
3. Repeat, varying pause length until bites come

That static hover is deadly—fish don’t have to burn calories to inhale it.

Cold-water favourites

• Freshwater: perch lurking in canal bends, rainbows staging below hydro tail-races
• Saltwater: harbour snapper schooling on shell banks, kahawai shadowing pilchard pods

When the thermometer dips, this slower approach is precisely when to use fishing lures instead of lifeless bait. Keep it crawling, keep it suspending, and watch “dead” water spring to life.

7 Peak Summer Heat: Fast Crankbaits & Surface Walkers for Reaction Bites

Sun-soaked afternoons, 22 °C water and cicadas screaming from the willows—classic holiday conditions and the moment when to use fishing lures that can outrun, out-flash and outright annoy hot-blooded predators. High temperatures jack up metabolism; fish don’t ponder a meal, they smash anything that looks like it’s getting away. Fast-moving crankbaits and surface walkers tap straight into that reaction bite.

Warm water equals high metabolism

In water above 18 °C a snapper, trout or bass processes oxygen and food faster, so it must feed more often. Prey fish swim higher in the column chasing plankton, meaning predators are willing to rise or chase laterally. Presenting a lure that zips past their nose forces a split-second decision—strike or starve.

Diving lip sizes & running depths

• Square-bill cranks (shallow 1–2 m): perfect for smashing through drowned weed or rock edges.
• Medium divers with a 45 mm lip (3–5 m): scour channel drop-offs where snapper and perch cruise midday.
• Surface walkers (pencil-style, 90–120 mm): work over flats too snaggy for treble-armed divers.

Choose brighter hues—cicada green, whitebait silver—when visibility is good; swap to darker craw or purple when tanin stains the water.

Burn-and-kill retrieve

Crank the reel 4–6 quick turns (“burn”), then kill the lure dead. The sudden pause makes it kick out sideways, imitating a stunned baitfish. Count to two, repeat. With walkers, snap-snap-snap, then stall—boils often happen during the freeze.

Top NZ targets

• Mid-column snapper hammering anchovy schools on the Bay of Islands pins
• Brown trout ambushing cicadas under shaded banks on the Tongariro
• Kahawai blitzing sprats around harbour marker poles

Keep a lip-grip handy—summer reaction bites can be savage.

8 Tidal Changes in Estuaries: Soft Plastics on Light Jig-Heads

Estuaries are living conveyor belts. Every six hours the tide flips the flow direction, flushing prawns, crabs and whitebait off the flats and past waiting predators. If you’re wondering when to use fishing lures rather than scraps of mullet here, the answer is during those moving-water windows. A lightly weighted soft-bait drifts with the current far more naturally than bait pinned to the bottom, and you’ll cover fresh water on every cast.

Reading the tide

Focus on the last third of the run-out and the first push of the flood. Bait funnels off shallow banks and collects along channel drop-offs, piling fish into predictable bottlenecks. Slack water equals slack bites—move when the flow stalls.

Rig weight vs current speed

Too heavy and you plough the mud; too light and the lure never touches down. Rule of thumb: use 1/8 oz of lead for each 0.5 knot of flow, then add 1/16 oz per extra two metres of depth.

Bounce-and-glide retrieve

Cast uptide, let the jig sink, lift twice, then allow the current to waft it downstream on a semi-slack line. That glide keeps the plastic in the strike zone longer than a straight hop.

Best estuary species

• Flounder nosing soft bottoms—slow, subtle lifts.
• Trevally schooling mid-water—chartreuse paddle tails.
• Juvenile snapper hugging shell grit—natural brown shrimp patterns.

9 River Runs & Currents: Hard-Body Minnows and Micro-Spoons

Flowing water calls for lures that hold their line, flash erratically and can be steered through narrow strike windows. Hard-body minnows and tiny spoons do exactly that, making fast currents one of those classic moments when to use fishing lures over bait; they cover distance, bounce off rocks rather than snag, and mimic the small baitfish rivers are built on.

Current seams as conveyor belts

Fish sit on the soft edge of a seam—where boil meets calm—and let the flow deliver food. Present your lure so it drifts naturally past these ambush points instead of fighting the full force.

Lure placement & swing

Cast 45° upstream, allow the lure to sink a touch, then close the bail. As it swings across, keep light tension; the wobble you feel is the bill or spoon working, advertising an easy meal. At the hang-down directly below you, add two quick twitches before re-casting.

Diving bill sizes for depth control

• Short, square bills for knee-deep riffles
• Medium round bills (1–2 cm) for shoulder-deep glides
• Clip-on leaded hooks for pocket-water over 2 m

Micro-spoons (3–5 g) flutter on the pause, ideal for pocket eddies behind boulders.

Primary quarry

• Brown trout stalking South Island freestone runs
• Sockeye or kokanee holding below hydro dams
• Juvenile kingfish haunting tidal rivers after whitebait

10 Targeting Big Predators: Knife Jigs & Flutter Stick-Baits

Kingfish, amberjack and small tunas don’t waste calories on peanuts; they hunt 20–30 cm mackerel, koheru and saury. That’s exactly when to use fishing lures with serious bulk—long knife jigs dropped into the depths or beefy stick-baits swept across the top third of the water column. The increased profile mirrors the local groceries and keeps smaller by-catch from chewing up your gear.

Matching baitfish size

• Knife jigs 180–300 g for reef edges in 40–80 m.
• Floating or sinking stick-baits 160–220 mm for surface-feeding schools.
• Choose colours that echo the dominant bait: blue/silver for jack mackerel, green/yellow for koheru.

Vertical vs sub-surface stick-baiting

Vertical: Drop the jig to the bottom, rip two metres up, then rhythmically pump the rod tip—fast for kingfish, slower flutter for wary amberjack.
Sub-surface: Cast a sinking stick-bait past the bust-up, count it down five seconds, then sweep-pause-sweep so it slaloms like a fleeing garfish. Both methods keep the lure in the kill zone longer than trolling.

Gear considerations

• 50–80 lb braid mainline for minimal stretch and brutal lifting power.
• 80–130 lb fluorocarbon leader to resist scuffed pylons and raspy jaws.
• Rod: PE 5–8 jig stick or 8 ft parabolic stick-bait rod for long, controlled sweeps.

Safety note

Treble hooks on big wood or resin bodies are lethal. Crimp barbs or swap to 5/0 inline singles. When fishing solo, keep a long-handled lip gaff handy and land fish away from exposed hooks. A moment’s prep avoids an A&E detour.

11 Schooling Pelagics on the Surface: Poppers, Metal Slugs & Skipping Lures

Few sights raise the pulse like birds diving and bait spraying across the surface. A surface “work-up” means fast-moving pelagics are slashing through anchovies or pilchards, and this is exactly when to use fishing lures that cast a mile and move even faster. Hard baits let you reach the school, survive repeated strikes, and keep you fishing while bait-anglers re-rig shredded traces.

Bird activity as your early warning system

Watch for terns and gannets wheeling tight circles, then plunging. Fish will be underneath, pushing bait up. Approach up-wind, kill the motor 40–60 m short and drift into range; running straight over the school will only drive it down.

Colours, tape and profile that match a blitz

Silver, white and chrome patterns mirror flashing baitfish. When the sun is high, adding holographic or reflective tape down one flank creates strobe-like pulses that attract fish from outside the melee. If the water is slightly green, swap to blue-silver to avoid a “too bright” look.

Retrieve tempo that triggers

• Metal slug: long cast, rod tip down, crank flat-out for five seconds, then a quick pause—most hits come on the acceleration that follows.
• Poppers: pop-pause-pop, keeping splashes sharp but short; over-working just scares fish.
• Skipping plastic gar or flying-fish lures: high-rod angle and steady burn so the lure skips erratically.

Likely candidates

Kahawai, skipjack tuna, Australian salmon and marauding trevally will all clobber these offerings, giving you blistering runs and bent rods until the birds finally settle.

12 Night Sessions Around Lights: Glow-in-the-Dark & UV-Enhanced Soft Baits

After dark, every wharf lamp becomes a mini-ecosystem. Plankton swirls in the cone of light, baitfish zoom in for an easy feed, and predators sidle up to ambush the distracted crowd. That predictable conveyor belt is exactly when to use fishing lures that remain visible once the sun’s gone—glow or UV-treated soft plastics.

Nocturnal feeding patterns

Most estuary and harbour species switch to low-risk, high-reward hunting at night. They lurk just outside the bright halo, darting in to smash bait silho­uetted from below. Matching that profile with a softly glowing lure keeps you on their radar without spooking them with excess flash.

Selecting glow/UV materials

Pick plastics moulded in phosphorescent white, chartreuse or “midnight squid.” Charge them with a head-torch for 20–30 seconds; they’ll emit a gentle aura for several casts. UV-reactive additives, though invisible to us, pop under moonlight and shallow UV from LEDs, extending visibility without an artificial look.

Slow, lift-and-drop retrieve

Cast beyond the light pool, allow the jig to sink to mid-depth, then ease it back with 30 cm lifts followed by slack-line drops. The fall mimics stunned baitfish drifting back toward the glow—pause often; hits usually come on the drop when the lure hovers at the edge of shadow.

Example locations

• Auckland’s Silo Park wharves
• Tauranga Bridge Marina pylons
• Lyttelton’s timber jetties on a flooding tide

In each spot, keep noise down, downsize leader to 12–15 lb fluoro, and you’ll quickly turn lamplight into tight lines.

Key Takeaways for Smarter Lure Choices

• Light rules the roost: bright sun pushes fish deep, low light pulls them shallow—pick lure running depth accordingly.
• Water clarity dictates subtlety; the cleaner it is, the smaller and more natural your presentation should look.
• Temperature sets the speed limit: crawl lures in cold water, burn them in mid-summer for reaction bites.
• Vibration and scent outweigh colour in dirty or windy conditions; rattles and pre-scented plastics get you noticed.
• Use blade, spoon and metal jigs when you need long casts, fast sink rates or maximum flash.
• Soft plastics rigged light excel in currents and estuaries where they can drift naturally with the flow.
• Match hook and leader to target size—heavy gear saves heartbreak when kingfish or tuna crash the party.
• Always vary retrieve cadence before swapping lures; a pause, twitch or speed change often turns follows into strikes.

Ready to put theory into practice? Check out the full range of lures, rods and terminal tackle on the Action Outdoors store and gear up for the next bite window.