Hardbodies lures have been around a long time and come in every shape, size and colour imaginable. It’s therefore hard to come up with a lure that offers anglers something new that works as well as your proven classics; however, there is always room for improvement and sometimes someone gets it right. Tacklehouse are a top shelf Japanese lure company that make high-quality product and they have definitely gotten it right with the Elfin Shrimp. I am in the process of testing out a few of their offerings at the moment and they are all amazing lures that have some very intelligent designs. The lure I have reviewed for this issue is the Tacklehouse Elfin Shrimp.
As the name suggests the Elfin Shrimp is a shrimp/prawn/yabby imitation designed to look like it is swimming backwards with eyes and a pointed nose at the rear. It’s 45mm in length, sinking and weighs 3.4g. This lure is very well suited at targeting bream and trout and has an excellent colour range to suit both species; including black, which I find very pleasing. The construction of the lure is of the highest quality as are the trebles, rings and finish. It’s the kind of lure that any experienced bream or trout angler would look at and buy without knowing much about it. It just looks like it will catch fish; and it does! I was fishing Malacoota targeting bream upon the day of testing and I was doing well with metal vibes fishing some deep banks. Coming upon a nice submerged log that I knew would have fish under it I needed to switch to something that would get me into the strike zone quickly but wouldn’t sink as fast as a vibe. In these situations I might usually switch to a light weighted plastic but the Elfin Shrimp provided success where I don’t think a plastic would’ve worked as well. Casting just above the submerged log I worked the Shrimp over the other side with a few slight jerks and hooked up almost instantly to a very nice bream.
The tight wobbling action and vibration this lure offered is largely responsible for the strike and a plastic would not have provided this kind of action. It’s heavy enough and shaped in a way that you can cast accurately and its sinking action allows for a speedy descent into the strike zone. I used the lure in a similar way over the course of the day and managed to land a further three bream with it. The Elfin Shrimp is an extremely responsive lure that reacts to a very light touch. It has a tight, aggressive wiggle action when cranked and jerked which makes it great for fishing tight structure. While you may be hesitant to throw a lure of this quality into the snags its excellent colour, shape and action is what will yield you great fish whether fishing a freshwater river for trout or a canal or estuary for bream. The Elfin Shrimp is now a staple and go to lure in my tackle box and I’m sure will become a favourite amongst Australian anglers.
www.gladiatortackle.com.au
