The lure with 9 lives, died. RIP

Well it took a long time and a lot of fish but I finally lost the first Rebel Pop r that I had ever owned.

Champion Lure accounted for at least 50 fish

I have blogged previously about the near misses that I had had with this lure but today its luck finally ran out. I had upgraded the hooks after the first time that I fished it, with some apprehension as it was only the crappy hooks that saved it a couple of times by straightening on runnaway fish.
Today my plan was to play around with some soft plastics that I had received, but after an hour I hadn't caught anything more than rainbow runners so I decided to tie on the popper. It took about 10 minutes before it was snaffled by a large trevally. The fight was looking promising but I was quickly running out of line and needed to drive the boat after the fish to try and stop it. Just as I had the boat in gear my main line (20lb) brushed the coral. I was bummed but there is nothing you can do and besides its always better IMO to lose a lure to a good fish rather than lose it to a snag/shark bad knot etc. I had only brought one other popper along with me and it was too big to use one my light outfit so I tied it on my jigging rod (Saltiga SA-JG66MFS), not ideal but better than nothing. After a few casts I hooked up on a small GT

Healthy little takka at 75cm

A move to a nearby reef resulted in a nice Blue Fin Trevally

The only fish of the day that didnt make it back into the water, a beautiful 64cm Blue Fin Trevally

After I had dinner secured (BFT) I went back to casting the soft plastics. All I can say is that I must suck at soft plastics, all I caught after that was 1 pink snapper.... I have a lot to learn when it come to soft plastics. At the moment for me, poppers are more fun and catch more fish! Weather permitting the new Orion Lures will be getting a swim, chasing some larger prey, stay tuned!