How to Catch Redfin on Lures

By Justin Willmer

Redin, also known as redfin perch and English perch, are a freshwater species that are regarded by some to be a pest or less attractive target species, however for many light line sport fishers and especially those in regional areas, with a reduced range of target species, redfin are highly regarded as both a sport and table fish. They look spectacular, with their big fins standing, flaming red highlights and beautiful bar markings down their flanks... and they fight hard on light gear. They are readily available, can be extremely aggressive and they love eating lures. Many areas hold numbers of smaller fish, however there are 50+cm trophy fish out there just waiting to eat your lure.

Where & When

Redfin are native to the cool-temperate waters of the northern hemisphere and were introduced to Australia around 1860, where they made themselves at home in Tasmania, before being introduced into Victoria, NSW, SA and southern WA. They are not found in the cooler headwaters and as they cannot tolerate water over about 31 degrees Celsius, they are not found in the northern half of the country.

A bit of local research and you'll soon find if redfin are available in your local area and they can often be found in small ponds and tiny creeks, through to large impoundments and rivers. Redfin can reach a maximum size of around 60cm and 10kg, however a 50cm fish in Australia would be the ultimate redfin trophy, with most fish landed around half that size and a 40cm fish considered a large fish. Stunting of their size can occur when food is scarce or an area becomes overcrowded, with fish adapting and maturing at smaller sizes to continue populating.

Redfin prefer still or slow flowing waters with abundant vegetation and their diet mainly consists of shrimps, yabbies and small baitfish. They are voracious predators, which makes them an excellent target for anglers fishing lures. It is extremely important to check your local regulations when targeting redfin, especially in relation to keeping and transporting redfin, along with whether they can be released or not in your region and how they should be disposed of.

Gearing Up

Light spin gear is the preferred option for targeting redfin and they are not armed with teeth that destroy leaders, so light lines and leaders are generally preferred. If fishing heavy structure where larger fish are common you may wish to step your gear up to the heavier range. Rods of 1-3kg and 2-4kg are popular, with 20-30 size spinning reels, loaded with light braids such as 6-10lb Platypus P8 or Platinum Plus and 6-10lb Platypus Stealth Leader.

Good

TT Fishing Copperhead spin rod / Okuma JAW reel / Platypus Pulse X4 Braid / Platypus Hard Armour Leader.

Better

TT Fishing Red Belly spin rod / Okuma Ceymar HD reel / Platypus Pulse X8 Braid / Platypus Hard Armour Leader.

Best

TT Fishing Black Mamba spin rod / Okuma Inspira ISX reel / Platypus Bionic X9 Braid / Platypus Hard Armour Leader.

Lure Selection

There are a wide variety of lures that will catch redfin, however two of the most popular are soft plastics and bladed reaction baits. Let's take a look at some tested and proven redfin plastics and how to fish them and then we'll look at four blade / bladed reaction baits in more detail - TT Lures Switchblades and Vortex spinnerbaits, ZMan ChatterBaits and Mepps Inline Spinners.

Lure Colour

When it comes to lure colour the light/natural, dark and fluoro colour theory definitely seems to work with redfin. If the water is crystal clear and the day is bright, start with a light natural colour. If the sky is overcast or the water dirty, start with a darker, better silhouette colour and if you're still not catching try a fluoro colour. In saying that many anglers will have their favourites and big redfin guru and Tackle Tactics Pro Angler Angus James has a mix of colours in his kit, including Pearl, Bad Shad and Pink Glow in a Slim SwimZ, Motor Oil in a GrubZ and Greasy Prawn, Drew's Craw and Watermelon Red in a 2.5" TRD CrawZ.

Soft Plastics

When it comes to soft plastics for redfin, plastics around the 2 - 3" size are the preferred option, with some anglers stepping up to 3.5 - 4" models if they are purely chasing a trophy fish. Many of the largest redfin have come on smaller plastics though and this is the best place to start. ZMan ElaZtech plastics have an advantage when it comes to smaller plastics as their 10X Tough, super-soft and flexible construction means maximum action in these smaller plastics, while the natural buoyancy of the material brings the plastic to life in the water and creates a natural tail up feeding pose or claws up defensive pose when the plastic is paused. Let's have a look at a few different styles of plastics and how we might fish them.

Curl Tails - Curl tail plastics have loads of built in action, making them ideal for beginners and deadly in the hands of experienced anglers. The curl tail will come to life on the sink, retrieve and tiniest movements, mimicking baitfish, shrimp, yabbies, worms and a stack of other prey. Go-to ZMan curl tails include the 2", 2.5" and 3.5" GrubZ, with the 2.5" a great starting point for someone wishing to target redfin.

Due to their lively tail action, curl tails will respond to almost any retrieve, allowing you to slow roll (slow wind) them over the top of weed beds, hop them around structure or make long prospecting casts and mix up your retrieves until you find the retrieve that entices a strike.

Paddle Tails - A favourite for many anglers, small paddle tail plastics represent the baitfish that redfin feed upon. The ZMan 2.5" and 3" Slim SwimZ have been game changers when it comes to smaller paddle tail plastics as the softness of the material and under hooked tail create a lively paddle tail action that was previously impossible to achieve in a smaller paddle tail soft plastic, due to stiffer materials. Their realistic narrow profile and action has seen them account for many trophy redfin.

Paddle tails are retrieved to mimic a small baitfish, so they are generally slow rolled (slow wind), shaken and twitched on a slow roll, or fished with a burn and kill (wind and pause) retrieve. They are excellent for covering large expanses of water, fanning long casts over the area being fished and allowing the paddle tail to call fish to the lure. Jighead weight and rod angle can be adjusted to drive the plastic just above structure, bump the structure occasionally and prospect the entire water column.

Crustaceans - Another lure that has become a go-to and already produced a stack of big redfin is the ZMan 2.5" TRD CrawZ. This little yabby profile combines the biological realism of a yabby, including segmented body, eyes, antennae and claws, with ElaZtech's natural buoyancy that sees the claws float up and away from the body in a natural defensive pose when at rest, attracting fish and triggering strikes. This profile is ideal for slower retrieves and targeting structure, such as working weed edges, snag piles and lilies.

The aim with this plastic is to mimic a fleeing or defending yabby, so effective retrieves can include hopping and pausing the plastic, or slow winding it with a twitchy and shaky retrieve. This plastic also excels fished on the Ned Rig, a US Midwest finesse technique that see the plastic rigged on a mushroom style jighead (TT Lures NedlockZ) to create a stand up presentation that rapidly hinges from fleeing on the retrieve, to defending on the pause.

Jig Spinners

A dynamite accessory when fishing soft plastics for redfin, Jig Spinners consist of a stainless steel wire frame that clips onto the eye of the jighead, your line is attached to the tow point at the bend of the wire frame and then a swivel and blade are attached at the other end of the wire. When retrieved the blade spins, adding flash and vibration to your soft plastic presentation, with the added benefit that the wire frame adds a level of snag resistance to the presentation.

Jig Spinners are available in gold and silver coloured blades, with silver often preferred in clear water, while gold excels in tannin stained and murky water. There are also a range of blade sizes available allowing you to change from a small blade and more subtle presentation in skinny water or when targeting smaller fish, to a larger blade when prospecting larger waterways for big fish. Using a Jig Spinner can be a game changer, drawing fish from structure and switching on the bite, while being a more subtle presentation than a spinnerbait or ChatterBait.

Jigheads

When it comes to selecting jigheads for redfin many anglers prefer lighter gauge / fine wire hooks as they are using light line and light drag settings. In saying that if you are extracting fish from structure you may opt for a jighead with a heavy wire, black nickel chemically sharpened hook that combines good penetration with a brutally strong hook.

HeadlockZ Finesse

TT Lures HeadlockZ Finesse jigheads are built on fine wire, black nickel chemically sharpened Gamakatsu hooks and are all about turning the most subtle taps into hook sets. They are available in a stack of weights and hook sizes to suit the go-to ZMan plastics for redfin and feature a unique 'head lock' grub keeper that is designed to lock the 10X Tough ElaZtech material in place on the jighead.

When it comes to skinny water redfin, anglers will carry a selection of jigheads around 1/16, 1/12, 1/8 and 1/6oz, with the addition of some 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2oz jigheads as the waterways get larger and deeper, and long casts in wind become another requirement. As most of the plastics are smaller, hook sizes around the #2, #1, #1/0 and #2/0 are common and you can check out the 'Rigging Guides' section of the website for guides to selecting jigheads for ZMan plastics.

DemonZ

Anglers often include a selection of TT Lures DemonZ jigheads in their kit in case the bite is tough. DemonZ are painted jigheads, with realistic 3D eyes, that can be matched to your favourite soft plastic colours for an extremely realistic presentation. They also feature the 'head lock' keeper to lock your soft plastic in place on the jighead.

NedlockZ

As mentioned earlier, the TT Lures NedlockZ is a mushroom style jighead that creates a rapid stand up presentation that ensures the plastic is always working to trigger strikes, either fleeing on the retrieve or rapidly hinging to a claws up defensive pose or natural tail up feeding pose on the pause. When shaking and dragging a plastic on the bottom, with the occasional hop or slow roll, the Ned Rig is often irresistible to fish.

RevlockZ

The TT Lures RevlockZ is an underspin style jighead, meaning it has a blade mounted under the jighead that spins on the retrieve, adding flash and vibration to your presentation. Like a Jig Spinner, it allows you to quickly and easily change up your soft plastic presentation, adding subtle flash and vibration that may in turn switch on the bite. RevlockZ jigheads are ideal when teamed up with a curl tail or paddle tail plastic to cover ground and draw fish out of the weed and other structure.

SnakelockZ Finesse

A fine wire version of the TT Lures SnakelockZ jigheads, SnakelockZ Finesse jigheads are ideal when fishing extremely snaggy and weedy areas. The worm hook design sees the barb and point of the hook sitting snug against the plastic, allowing you to fish timber snags, lilies, weed and other structure that would not be possible with a traditional jighead. The free-swinging front head weights are interchangeable and give you the casting distance and sink rate required to get your plastic into the strike zone.

Switchblades

Another lure style that is extremely effective on redfin and one of four different reaction baits that we will discuss in more detail, is a TT Switchblade+, a baitfish shaped metal vibration blade that has accounted for cricket score catches of redfin. The Switchblade+ casts long, vibrates on the retrieve to attract fish and trigger strikes and it is extremely versatile as it can be cast and retrieved, trolled or fished vertically.

Its ability to be fished vertically has made it legendary in terms of targeting schooled fish as you can position the boat above the fish, keep track of them on the sounder and fish the Switchblade+ amongst the school with short, sharp pulses of the rod tip to make the Switchblade+ dart, vibrate and twitch. You don't need to move the lure far to make it work. Lower it into the water beside the boat or off the bank so that you can see the action you are applying to the lure and then when it's out amongst the fish you can mix it up until you find what they want on the day.

The Switchblade+ is also an excellent lure for covering water, especially for land based anglers as it casts like a bullet. The 1/8oz and 1/4oz are the two most popular sizes for targeting redfin. Make a long cast and lift or lower the rod tip, or speed up or reduce speed to control how deep the Switchblade+ runs in the water. This allows you to fish a wide range of water depths with a single lure. You can then fish a slow roll (slow wind), burn and kill (wind and pause) or even hop and pause the lure on the bottom if the area is not too snaggy.

Finally if you are a kayak angler or have an electric motor on your boat, the Switchblade is excellent for covering water on a slow troll. This is a great way to locate fish and then you can cast in the area. Again you can lift and lower the rod tip, or increase or reduce speed to control the running depth of the Switchblade. Mixing up the speed, depth and pauses will allow you to work out what fires the fish up.

There are a wide variety of colours available in the Switchblade+ and you can again follow the light / natural colour with Silver Minnow and Wagasaki Minnow colours, the dark silhouette colours with Nightmare, Blacktreuse and Matte Olive, and the fluoro colours with Flamin' Shad and Avo Shad, just as a few examples.

Spinnerbaits

Spinnerbaits are a big fish favourite, however it's important to select a small profile spinnerbait, such as a TT Vortex+ spinnerbait in 1/8oz or 1/4oz. The Vortex+ is built on a chemically sharpened hook and includes a stinger hook, both designed to turn subtle taps into hooksets. The Vortex range also come fitted with quality silicone skirts, gold and nickel plated blades, along with ball bearing swivels. Tested and proven quality.

Spinnerbaits are a deadly reaction presentation that allow you to cover plenty of water and their wire frame design makes them extremely snag resistant for fishing timber, lilies, weed beds and other structure. The Vortex+ is also designed so that its blades helicopter on the drop, allowing you to fish it vertically down the face of weed beds, timber, lily edges and other structure.

You can speed up the retrieve or lift the rod tip to fish higher in the water column, or drop the rod tip or slow the retrieve to run the spinnerbait deeper. This allows you to bump the top of the weed or timber and draw fish out of the structure, while the spinning blades create flash and vibration that also attracts fish from further away than many other more subtle presentations. Go-to Vortex+ colours for redfin include, Purple Mauve, Red Nightmare and Purple Glimmer.

ChatterBaits

ChatterBaits are a lure that have become a go-to for big redfin, with the ZMan ChatterBait Mini Max 1/4oz and 1/2oz both claiming trophy captures. The ChatterBait combines the erratic action of a hard body, profile of a skirted jig and flash and vibration of a spinnerbait into one unique fish catching presentation.

To a lesser extent than a spinnerbait the design also assists in reducing snagging, which makes the ChatterBait a popular option for fishing around timber, weed, lilies and other structure. Being a reaction bait, like a spinnerbait, its flash and vibration calls fish to the lure and attracts brutal strikes from larger fish.

Fish your ChatterBaits over the top of weed beds and amongst lilies, in and around timber, along the edges of weed beds and lilies that hold fish, and also utilise it as a search bait, making long casts and varying your retrieve speed to cover different heights in the water column until you locate fish.

Go-to colours in a ChatterBait Mini Max for redfin include Purple Nightmare, Red Nightmare and Purple Glimmer.

Mepps Spinners

Mepps inline spinners are often labelled the World's #1 Lure, with more record captures around the world than any other lure. They generally feature a centre wire running the length of the lure, with a tow point at one end and a treble at the other end, with a variety of beads and bodies on the wire, along with a blade that spins around the centre wire to create flash and vibration. Mepps spinners are recognized worldwide due to their quality materials, precise design and balance, and the resulting action that is the combination of these factors. They also have a unique selection of colour patterns and finishes that give anglers a varied arsenal of presentation, even within the inline spinner category.

A few Mepps that are favourites on the redfin include the Winner - an unweighted spinner that is ideal for fishing shallow water and over weed, the Furia - with its proven black, yellow and red blade colouration, Aglia-e Brite - with its UV enhanced blade and bright 'e-Attractor' bead, and the original tested and proven Aglia.

Choose 3 Lures

All of the lures above are effective on redfin... if I could only choose three...

1. ZMan 2.5" Slim SwimZ on a #1/0 TT Lures HeadlockZ Finesse jighead, with a #2 TT Lures Jig Spinner attached. A great searching presentation that can be fished with a wide variety of retrieves. (Clip the Jig Spinner off and you have a different presentation)
2. ZMan 2.5" TRD CrawZ on a #1 TT Lures NedlockZ jighead. A slower, more finesse presentation that has already accounted for a stack of big redfin.
3. TT Lures 1/8oz or 1/4oz Switchblade metal vibration blade. Casts long, great for covering water and deadly fished vertically to schooled fish.

Scent

When they're aggressive redfin will attack most presentations without scent, however when the bite is tough or the fish shutdown, scent can be used to fire them up or switch the school back on again. Pro-Cure combines the best of the laboratory with real ground bait, combining powerful bite stimulants, amino acids and UV enhancement, with real ground shrimp, mullet, squid or other bait, to attract fish and trigger strikes.

Go-to Pro-Cure flavours for redfin include Mullet, Shrimp, Aniseed and Bloodworm. Being super-sticky, just squirt a small amount on each side of the head of the lure and smear it down to the tip of the tail, applying every 30 or so casts and after landing a fish.

Land Based Tips

Redfin are an excellent target for land based anglers as they are readily available, aggressive and they school, so once located numbers of fish can be caught. A great place to start is your local tackle store, who can give you a few tips on where to start your land based search for redfin locally. The internet is also another source to find a land based starting point.

Once you find a local pond, impoundment or creek that has redfin, it's just a matter of packing your backpack and heading out to prospect the area. Work your way along the bank, fanning casts as you go and mixing up your retrieves until you attract the attention of a fish. Once a fish is landed it's worth spending a bit more time in the area, just in case the fish are schooled in the area.

As you work your way down the bank, pay close attention to any obvious structure, such as fallen timber, timber piles, lilies and weed beds, as structure that could potentially hold fish is worth a few extra casts. Also keep an eye out for less obvious structure in the water, such as rocks, timber, weed beds and drop offs that are below the surface. It's also worth paying attention to any baitfish, crustaceans and insects that you see in the water, as 'matching the hatch' by imitating the profile and movement of this possible redfin food may be a game changer.

If fish follow your lure but fail to strike at it, try mixing up the retrieve to see if you can entice a bite. If this fails it can pay to change up your lure presentation to something more aggressive, less aggressive, a different profile size or a different colour.

Landing & Handling

Redfin are relatively easy to land and handle, with just the fin spikes to avoid once landed. A landing net can be a handy addition to the kit to avoid tearing the mouth of the redfin and dislodging the lure, potentially losing a trophy fish.

Redfin are aggressive predators that are great fun on light gear, love eating lures and are considered a quality table fish. Do your research, check your local regulations and get out there in search of this cool looking fish... your next bite may be a 50cm trophy redfin.

All the best with the fishing...
Justin Willmer