Product Review: Bait Junkie Prawn

By Mark Gercovich

I’m sure we’ve all been fishing our local, or a spot you know well and watched another angler doing something slightly different, or “wrong”, and knowing they are really reducing their chances of being successful because of this. Well, it’s that sort of knowledge that frightens me when I go and fish new locations. It’s hard to get the “am I doing the right thing” thoughts out of your mind.

We all know that many fishing scenarios rely on persistently presenting the correct offerings to obtain any chance of success, so negative thoughts can be very detrimental to this happening. On a recent three-month trip north, where I was going to be fishing multiple and often new locations, there was going to be plenty of opportunity for such negative thoughts to enter my head.

Fortunately, there was one lure I could use that produced the goods in a wide variety of situations and helped alleviate the little doubt gremlin in my head. This lure was the bloodworm coloured Bait Junkie Prawn. From barra to bream, coral trout to golden trevally everything seemed happy to smash the Bait Junkie Prawn. Everything eats prawns and this lure just looked the perfect “match the hatch” in any clear-ish water scenario. They look super life-like in the water and I was particularly excited with how the newer 3” model had the same orange eyes as the 5” always had.

For flats and light reef work I preferred the 3”model, matched to a 1/6th Bait Junkie jighead in 2/0. Having the option of the finesse hooks for flats work/lighter leaders and the heavy wire jigheads for light barra/mangrove work with slightly heavier leaders, helped with the versatility of the Prawn in such a wide variety of situations. 

For barra and heavier reef/bombies work, going up to the 5” worked well fished on 3/8th to 1/2oz heads depending on the current. Even things like pelagics and sharks were happy to latch onto the 5” Prawn, which gave for some interesting encounters when fishing locked drag trying to extract reef dwellers from their homes.

Whatever situation you fished the Bait Junkie Prawn it was never necessary to impart much action to the lure other than a slight lift or twitch. With its natural look fish were happy to eat it simple on looks. This made it perfect for dropping down edges of reefs, around mangrove basses or places where fish were holding tight to. Casting close to cruising flats fish, it would usually only require a subtle lift or twitch to have sighted quarry dashing over to eat the lure.

Trips north often involve more tackle than you can often pack. If you're in this situation you know that a few packets of Bait Junkie Prawn will certainly be worth their place.