Shimano Lures
Shimano lures cover a genuinely wide spread of fishing, from stickbaits and poppers for tuna and kingfish through to compact hardbodies for bream in the Swan River. Across the range, different lure families are built around specific actions, buoyancy and presentations for everything from estuary fishing to offshore casting.
At Compleat Angler Nedlands, our Shimano lure range includes Ocea Pencil and Bubble Dip for offshore pelagics, Bantam Pavlo Shad, Enber and Ligen for lighter estuary work, Sephia Clinch squid jigs, Ocea Head Dip, Sardine Ball and larger stickbaits for offshore casting, Ledge Runner trolling lures and Squidgies S Factor scent. The range covers surface, subsurface, jigging, trolling, squid and estuary presentations rather than one generic lure style.
Choosing the Right Shimano Lure
Start with what the lure needs to do in the water rather than how good it looks in the packet. A stickbait built to be worked with a stop and go retrieve behaves completely differently to a popper built to throw spray and noise, even though both might get thrown at the same school of tuna. Buoyancy, weight distribution and action all change depending on the presentation the lure is built around.
For GT in the tropical north and tuna and kingfish off the WA coast, stickbaits and poppers let you cover water and trigger reaction strikes. For bream and other estuary species, smaller hardbodies and shads put more emphasis on subtle presentation and accuracy. For trolling, consistent tracking and the ability to control running depth become more important.
Shimano Stickbaits and Poppers
Stickbaits and poppers make up the most recognisable part of the Shimano lures range and cover everything from small rock fishing poppers through to serious GT and tuna gear.
Ocea Pencil
Ocea Pencil covers both sinking and floating models. The 115HS is a 42g sinking pencil that casts well and produces an enticing wobble on the drop, making it well suited to salmon and tailor. Larger floating models such as the 145F, 160F and 220F shift the focus towards bigger offshore predators, with the 220F better suited to tuna and kingfish than general salmon and tailor work. SCALEBOOST is used on specific versions, including the 160F, to create a baitfish-scale reflection pattern.
Ocea Bubble Dip and Ocea Bomb Dip
Ocea Bubble Dip and Ocea Bomb Dip are surface lures for aggressive pelagic fishing. The 93g Bubble Dip 220F sits between a stickbait and popper, combining a cupped surface presentation with FLASH BOOST, while Bomb Dip 170F provides a more traditional surface presentation. Both are designed for active fish rather than subtle subsurface work.
Coltsniper Gabbro and Rock Pop Slim
Coltsniper Gabbro is built specifically around the popping non stop jerk technique, with a nearly vertical buoyancy position that keeps the lure stable even in rough water off the rocks. Coltsniper Rock Pop Slim takes a different approach, blending the properties of a pencil and a popper so it can pop, dive and walk the dog from the same lure. For rock fishing where foothold and lure changes are limited, Rock Pop Slim's versatility genuinely earns its place in the bag over carrying several single purpose lures.
Shimano Diving Hardbodies and Pencils
Not every situation calls for a surface lure. Shimano's diving hardbodies and weighted pencils cover presentations that need to get down in the water column or push more flash than a stickbait alone provides.
Bantam Enber and Ligen
Bantam Enber 60SP and Bantam Ligen 66F give estuary anglers two compact hardbody options for bream and other light-tackle targets. They fit naturally alongside Pavlo Shad when you want to move away from larger offshore lure profiles and fish smaller presentations around estuary structure.
Armajoint Flashboost
Armajoint 190SF is a 53g slow-floating jointed swimbait built to create a natural baitfish action through its articulated body. It suits larger targets including Murray cod, barramundi, mulloway and flathead, giving anglers a substantial swimbait presentation rather than a conventional hardbody or pencil.
Shimano Estuary Lures
Freshwater and estuary lure fishing demands a completely different set of priorities to offshore casting, with subtlety and casting accuracy mattering more than raw size.
Bantam Pavlo Shad
Bantam Pavlo Shad 52SP is a 52mm, 4g deep-diving suspending minnow that reaches around 1.2m and incorporates a rattle. For bream, that combination of diving depth, suspension and sound lets you work structure and then pause the lure in the strike zone rather than having it immediately rise or sink away.
Shimano Trolling Lures
Trolling asks something different of a lure again, since it needs to swim consistently and predictably for hours rather than being worked by the angler.
Ledge Runner
Ledge Runner offers three depth settings and uses Shimano's HCW (Hydro Control Wing) to help the lure track straight at speed. That lets anglers adjust running depth while maintaining stable trolling action for species such as Spanish mackerel, wahoo, tuna and mahi mahi.
Shimano Squid Jigs and Lure Scent
Squid fishing is a major part of the Perth lure scene, while scent provides another way to change a soft-plastic presentation without changing the lure itself.
Sephia Clinch Squid Jigs
Sephia Clinch squid jigs cover 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 sizes, giving Perth anglers options for different squid sizes, depths and conditions. Selected models incorporate Shimano technologies including FLASH BOOST and JETBOOST, while Sepy provides another squid-focused option in the range.
Squidgies S Factor
Squidgies S Factor is the Shimano lure scent in our range, supplied in a 35ml UV-enhanced tube for applying to soft plastics and other suitable lures. It gives anglers a scent option when fish are following or showing interest without fully committing.
Understanding the Shimano Lure Range
The Shimano lures range makes more sense once you stop judging every lure purely on size and start looking at the presentation each one is designed around. Ocea Pencil and Bubble Dip approach surface and subsurface pelagic fishing differently, while compact Bantam hardbodies are built for a very different job in estuary fishing.
That's also why owning the biggest lure in the range doesn't automatically improve your results. A compact estuary hardbody has a very different role from a large surface lure for feeding tuna, and matching the lure to the species, bait and presentation matters more than simply stepping up in size.
What Shimano Lure Do You Need?
GT, Tuna and Offshore Casting
For GT in northern WA, and tuna and kingfish more broadly, Ocea Pencil and Ocea Bubble Dip cover different surface presentations, with the Pencil suited to a stop-and-go stickbait retrieve and Bubble Dip providing a more aggressive surface disturbance.
Rock and Shore Based Casting
For tailor and salmon from shore, Coltsniper Gabbro and Coltsniper Rock Pop Slim provide surface-oriented options, with Rock Pop Slim particularly versatile when you can only carry a limited selection of lures onto a rock platform. For mulloway, look instead towards subsurface presentations such as soft plastics, vibes and larger swimbaits including Armajoint.
Bream and Estuary Fishing
For bream, Bantam Pavlo Shad, Enber and Ligen provide compact hardbody options. Pavlo Shad is particularly useful when you want a deeper-diving suspending lure that can be paused in the strike zone.
Trolling
For trolling Spanish mackerel, wahoo and tuna, Ledge Runner gives you depth flexibility from a single lure rather than needing several similar lures at different diving depths.
Shimano Lure Technology Explained
Shimano applies a similar engineering mindset to lures as it does to reels and rods, focused on solving a specific problem in the water rather than adding features for their own sake.
SCALEBOOST
SCALEBOOST is Shimano's holographic scale-pattern finish, used on specific lure models and colours to imitate the reflective pattern of baitfish scales. It is a model-specific feature rather than something applied generally to newer Ocea Pencil colours.
FLASH BOOST
FLASH BOOST uses a suspended internal reflector that continues moving and flashing even when the lure itself is stationary. That means the lure can keep producing visual attraction during a pause rather than relying only on movement through the water.
JETBOOST
JETBOOST is Shimano's internal casting-weight system, designed to shift weight during the cast for improved distance and then return it for the lure's intended swimming balance. It features on selected offshore lures including Ocea Head Dip and Rocket Dive.
Ledge Runner HCW and Depth Settings
Ledge Runner combines three depth settings with Shimano's HCW (Hydro Control Wing), which helps the lure maintain straight, stable tracking at trolling speed while letting anglers adjust its running depth.
Are Premium Shimano Lures Worth It?
Premium Shimano lures make the most sense when the specific presentation they're built around genuinely matches your fishing. Paying more for Ocea Pencil over a generic stickbait is worth it if you're specifically working a stop and go retrieve for pelagics, since the wobble and casting weight are tuned for that exact technique.
If you're fishing a handful of sessions a year with fairly general lure requirements, a smaller, more affordable selection covering the basics will do everything you need. If you're specifically targeting offshore pelagics on stickbaits and poppers, or bream on suspending shads and compact hardbodies, the more purpose-built Shimano lures start earning their place through the specific presentation they provide.
Shimano vs Halco and Nomad Design Lures
For Western Australian lure fishing specifically, Shimano isn't competing in a vacuum. Halco and Nomad Design are both extremely well regarded locally, and the comparison is genuinely worth making before assuming Shimano is automatically the right choice.
Different lure brands bring different designs and actions to the same fishing. Within Shimano's range, the useful comparison is between the specific presentation you need, whether that's an Ocea surface lure for offshore pelagics, a compact Bantam hardbody for estuary fishing or Ledge Runner for trolling.
Why Buy Shimano Lures From Compleat Angler Nedlands?
Compleat Angler Nedlands has helped anglers choose fishing tackle since 1993, and our team brings more than 200 years of combined fishing experience. Our Shimano lures range covers stickbaits, poppers, hardbodies, trolling lures and scents, and we can talk you through which presentation actually suits your fishing rather than just selling you whatever looks good on the wall.
That advice matters more once conditions and target species get specific. Someone chasing bream in the Swan River needs a completely different lure selection from someone casting stickbaits at tuna or kingfish off Rottnest, and we can help you build the right selection for the fishing you're actually doing.
If you're in Perth, bring in your current lure selection and our team can point out the gaps rather than simply adding more of what you already have. Shop our Shimano lure range Australia wide through our online store, or visit us at Level 1, 154 Stirling Highway, Nedlands WA 6009, above the Taylor Road IGA.
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Shimano Lures
What Is the Best Shimano Lure?
The best Shimano lure changes with the fishing. For offshore tuna and kingfish casting, Ocea Pencil and Ocea Bubble Dip cover different surface presentations. For rock fishing, Coltsniper Rock Pop Slim offers useful versatility. For bream, Bantam Pavlo Shad, Enber and Ligen provide compact hardbody options, while Ledge Runner is built for trolling.
What Is the Best Shimano Lure for GT and Tuna?
Ocea Pencil is the lure we'd recommend first, worked with a stop and go retrieve rather than a constant wind. When fish are actively feeding on the surface, Ocea Bubble Dip often out performs a stickbait, since the noise and spray trigger a more aggressive reaction.
What Is the Best Shimano Popper for Rock Fishing?
Coltsniper Rock Pop Slim is the more versatile option for rock fishing, since it can pop, dive and walk the dog from the one lure, which matters when foothold and lure changes are limited. Coltsniper Gabbro is the better choice specifically for rough water, thanks to its stable, nearly vertical buoyancy position.
What Is the Best Shimano Lure for Bream?
Bantam Pavlo Shad is a strong bream option, particularly when you want a deep-diving suspending minnow that can pause in the strike zone. Bantam Enber and Ligen provide additional compact hardbody options for varying presentations around estuary structure.
Do Shimano Lure Scents Actually Work?
Squidgies S Factor gives anglers a scent option for soft plastics and other suitable lures, particularly when fish are following or showing interest without fully committing. It can be added without changing the lure profile or retrieve.
Is Shimano or Halco Better for Trolling Lures?
Both brands offer different trolling options. Ledge Runner's three depth settings and HCW give anglers a way to adjust running depth while maintaining stable tracking at speed, so the better choice comes down to the lure action, depth and target species you need.
What Is the Best Shimano Lure for Beginners?
For beginners, a straightforward lure matched to a common local target is the better starting point. Bantam Pavlo Shad suits light estuary fishing, Ocea Sardine Ball suits straightforward casting for salmon and tailor, and Sephia squid jigs are a practical option for anglers starting with Perth squid fishing.
What Does FLASH BOOST Mean on a Shimano Lure?
FLASH BOOST uses an internal suspended reflector that continues moving and flashing even when the lure is stationary. This gives compatible lures visual movement during pauses as well as while they are being retrieved.