In this episode, Daniel speaks with his father, the creator of the cod lure - Predator Lures. David Brauman first started playing around with wooden lures around 1985 & at that stage only a handful of people were making wooden lures within Australia The lures were predominantly developed for the Native fish species of Murray Cod & Yellow Belly, in & around the lower Ovens River, including Lake Mulwala area.
His original lures were all made from Western Red cedar with the shape formed using a wood rasp & then sanded by hand to a smooth finish. For Dave it turned into a passion & many hours were spent trying to achieve the shape & more important the wide action & swim depth for a successful lure. It was also time to put a name to the lures – Predator Lures would be the chosen name forward.
The current shaped Predator Lures had evolved & before too long he had built a copy lathe which made almost identical lures & production easier. The 90mm wooden lures were manufactured for about 7 years & the 75mm wooden lures for around 4 years, until around 1990. Some of these wooden lures are now sort after by collectors & are sometimes traded on Ebay & various Facebook organisations.
The manufacture of Predator lures then had a significant change & went to plastic injection with a smaller sized 75mm lure being added to the range. The change to plastic injection created some new challenges & it did take some time to get a plastic lure to swim with almost the same characteristics as a wooden lure. The swim depth remained very similar at around 2.5 – 4mtrs depending line size, type & if trolling the distance from the back of the boat.
Today Predator lures have a great following among many anglers & is not uncommon to hear of not only other species of fresh water fish but some salt water species being caught also Predator Lures are proudly Australian manufactured & assembled (including packaging). Only components not available in Australia are purchased offshore.