Words & Images by Eddie Fischer
When Kosta (Hooked Up’s editor) handed me a McLures Mogul 9in and told me to give it a run, I will admit I did not know a great deal about the brand. I had not asked what it cost, and Kosta never mentioned the price. I just looked at the lure, gave it the usual once-over, and thought: this thing looks pretty good.
That is often how it starts with new gear. You do not always know the story behind it. You just look at the shape, the finish, the rigging potential and the overall build, then decide whether it deserves a spot in the spread. On this occasion I was heading out chasing barrel tuna, so it was not exactly a casual test. When you are launching out of Port Phillip Heads, burning fuel in an Edencraft 255 Formula and putting a full day into looking for big southern bluefin, there is no point cutting corners.
I have always believed that if you are going to spend serious money getting offshore, you may as well run tackle you trust. Cheap gear that does not swim properly, does not hold together, or does not give you confidence has no place behind the boat when the fish of the season might be the next bite. The funny thing with the McLures Mogul, though, is that while it comes in at a very good price for the quality (about $30 less than comparable models), it did not look or behave like a budget lure. It looked like something that belonged in the spread.
The spread it had to compete with
The plan for the day was to run a mix of skirts and hardbodies while searching for tuna. We had a five-lure spread out, and the other lures were all well-known names. Big brands. Proven brands. Some of them were almost twice the purchase price of the McLures. The Mogul was not being given an easy test among unknown competition. It was swimming alongside gear that had already earned its reputation.
Early in the day we found some fish, but after that things went quiet. Very quiet. We covered ground, moved a fair distance away from Port Phillip Heads, and kept working. Anyone who has spent enough time tuna fishing knows that feeling. You can be around life one minute and then spend hours wondering whether you are in the wrong water, running the wrong direction, or just waiting for the ocean to give you another chance.
The blind troll home
Eventually, we started heading back. By that stage we were pretty much straight out the front of the Heads, maybe only a kilometre or so out, and almost ready to call it. Instead of pulling the gear in straight away, we decided to blind troll our way back. It was one of those “we may as well” decisions. No great strategy. No hot bite. Just lures in the water for the final run home.
About ten minutes later, the Mogul got eaten.
The fish was a proper barrel, estimated at around 110 kilos, and the most interesting part was not just that it ate the Mogul. It was that it picked that lure out of the spread. There were four other lures back there, all proven, all from recognised brands, and the tuna chose the McLures.
That says something.
How it swims
This season there had been a lot of talk about heavy bullet-style lures for tuna. Lures without a huge amount of action, but with plenty of weight and the ability to be trolled fast. They have their place, and plenty of people have confidence in them. The Mogul is a more traditional style of lure. It has a deep-running, heavy cup-faced head, four jet holes to create a strong bubble trail, and a skirted profile that gives it a lot of presence in the water.
We were trolling at around six knots, so not especially fast, and the lure swam beautifully. That was one of the things that impressed me most. It was not erratic in a bad way. It held its position, worked cleanly, pushed water and left a strong bubble trail. Some lures look great in your hand but fall apart once they are in the water. This one did the opposite. The more I watched it, the more confidence I had in it.
The outfit
The setup was not a traditional tuna trolling outfit either. I was running a Shimano Talica 25 with 24 kilo monofilament top-shotted over 80 pound braid, finished with 150 pound leader. It is closer to my marlin gear than a dedicated tuna trolling setup, but it handled the fish fine. Experience helps, but the gear still has to do its job, and in this case everything came together.
The specs
The lure itself is a serious blue-water offering. The Mogul measures 11.5 inches overall, carries a 9 inch skirt and weighs 165 grams. It has a resin head, Red Crystal 3D eyes, UV over-skirts and McLures’ Luminite glow under-skirts. Those features all sound good on paper, but the important part is what happens behind the boat. On the day, it ran properly, looked right, and then got picked out by a big tuna.
That is the only test that really matters.
The verdict
What impressed me most was the value-to-performance side of it. This was not the most expensive lure in the spread. It was not the best-known name in the spread. But when a 110 kilo tuna had five options, it chose the Mogul. That does not mean it will always be the magic lure, because fishing does not work that way, but it absolutely earned its spot.
I will definitely be running it again.
For anyone chasing southern bluefin, especially bigger fish, the McLures Mogul 9in is worth a serious look. It has the size, weight and action to sit comfortably in a proper offshore trolling spread, and it swims with the kind of presence that gives you confidence. It also proves that a lure does not have to be the most expensive option on the boat to be the one that gets eaten.
On this trip, the Mogul was the outsider in a spread full of established names.
By the end of the day, it was the lure with teeth marks.
