▲TopBRIDGEWATER LURES REVEIWED

I had the pleasure to spend a day with Jason Austin from Bridgewater Lures (www.bridgewaterlures.com.au) on the 4th of December 2006. Jason and I spent the day on the Murray River fishing the fast water below Lake Mulwala. This was my first opportunity to see the Bridgwater Lures in action and I was suitably impressed.

The market for Spinnerbaits has grown considerably in the last ten years in Australia. As the market has grown so has the manufacturers supplying that market.

Unfortunately as in any market there is a big variation in the quality of the product. For the uneducated angler it can be a difficult process distinguishing between a high quality and an inferior product. Often when I am taking out clients with Cod Hunter Fishing Tours they will ask for my advice about their lure range. It is often the case where anglers tackle boxes will be filled with inferior products or lures that are not suitable for the task at hand. When looking at spinnerbaits the quality of the components being used is very important. Bridgewater Spinnerbaits has made a decision to concentrate their efforts on making a top quality product, directed at the most precise angler.

Bridgewater lures use a spinnerbait wire with a R bend style. These are my preferred style especially when targeting large native fish such as Murray cod. They are made with a high quality Stainless wire with a diameter of .040” in diameter. The wire strength is superior to many cheaper versions of spinnerbaits which are available on the Australian market. The majority of anglers will use a small piece of rubber tubing over the wire this allows a release clip to be used, to minimise the down time when changing lures.

The jig heads are designed in a fish head style. The jig heads have a lot of detail in their design; the eyes on the lure stand out well and provide a good contrast. The lures are available in a variety of weights from 1/4oz, 3/8oz, 5/8oz, 1/2oz and 1oz. The jig heads are made from lead and unfortunately like most spinnerbaits can suffer from cracking in the paint work if lures are cast too heavily against solid structure.

Bridgewater spinnerbaits are available with a variety of blades styles and colours. Combinations of Willow leaf, Colorado and Magnum blades make up their range. They are available in indented blades or standard depending on the desired amount of flash wanted to be achieved by the angler. They are available in gold, silver and copper. I was suitably impressed by the performance of the copper magnum blade. This was the stand out lure on our day out on the Murray.

The skirt quality is very good and a significant amount of pressure can be placed on the skirts before a breakage will occur. The skirts do hold their shape well in the water and don’t tend to collapse under a faster retrieval speed. The skirt colour range is currently at eleven mixed colours. Jason is continuing to develop Bridgewater Lures range and will increase the colour range in the future. The present colour range has a good mixture of contrasting colours such as pink/purple, lime and orange. These contrasting colours are great for targeting Murray cod or golden perch in dirty water or in low light conditions. A good range of natural colours such as gold/black silver/black are also available.

Bridgewater Lures use a Worth’s high quality roller swivel. This ensures a very good blade rotation during a very slow rolling retrieve. This can make a big difference on a shut down day when targeting natives. The quality roller swivels allow an angler to retrieve very slow and still achieve good blade rotation this increases the amount of time the lure is spent in the strike zone.

Bridgewater lures uses an Eagle Claw Laser Sharp hooks. The strength on these is very good and the sharp point on the hook is very good ensuring good hook penetration and a solid hook up. The hooks are wrapped to the wire so they are capable of holding the largest Murray cod. We had no problems landing quality cod and perch on them.

Bridgewater lures have managed to produce a quality spinnerbait which any angler would be happy to add to their collection. The popularity of spinnerbaits continues to increase and so will the number of fishermen using and having success with Bridgewater Lures.

Roger Miles
Cod Hunter (www.codhunter.com.au)