we had a guy on the boat having a go yesterday, did no good, but seen impressive pics of snapps coming off them

Pure Fishing will, or have, started bringing in Sebile hard body lures in to NZ of a size that should be sweet for snapper. We use to use these in the US to good success for all sorts of species, species that we also used to target with on Gulps. I'm hoping since most of us have had success with Gulps we therefore might still do alright on the Hard Bodies... Guess time will tell. So far I've only got the trolling and vibrating blades and caught plenty of snapper on them this summer, and had by catch of snapper on various rapalas cast and retrieved from the rocks back in the days so can't wait to get my hands on some more styles.

I would look no further than the bream fisherman in Aussie, they use hard body lures to great effect...Spinner baits may even be worth looking into...

I guys , in the photos are some lures I have been using for casting on the reef up here on Cape York , [ they are a casting lure ,]  I have caught a number of different fish on them  , I started to use them late in our fishing season last year  , and I found them to work very well when I wanted to have a lure to get down deep , what I do is cast them out and let them sink to where i want them , then wind them in  , so here is the info on them , they are 200mm long and weight 80 grams , they have a Magnetic weight tranfer system in side that aids in casting , the metal balls move down to the tail where there is a magnet that holds them in place so all the weight is at the tail for casting , and dudes do these things cast , when you retieve them the weight tranfers to the front , they are a very strong lure , I had a hell of a job breaking one open with a hammer , I wanted to see the insides , I also think these would work well on kingfish .

I dunno about spinnerbaits eh, I have used them here trying to get kahawai, no luck, in the tropics for mangrove jacks etc, no joy eitehr, yet swap over to a SP or a hardbody minnow, and wham, straight away.
I have heaps of the damn things though, they look sooooo good,......

Whattcha gonna get Mitch?

I caught Snapper on vibrax spinners before. If a snapper happily grab soft lures and even Jigs I see absolutely no reason why other hard body lures would not also work. Assuming one can get them deep enough.

Was on ebay yesterday stocking up on "crankbaits" for trout fishing and garbed half a dozen Yo-Zuri Livebait Minnow Jigs, mainly to try on Kahawai at the river mouth but also going to try them on Snapper.  I am not entirely certain wither its a Jig or a hardbody lure but I am certain something would smash them and they were only double the price of a locally brought hex spinner. 

I own a small pile of different hard lures and most of the time my Rapalas are still the go to lure, Although I do prefer the YoZuri Mag series for distance casting . While expensive lures do catch fish I do not beleive they work better enough to justify the higher price. The best cheap lure I have tried is the Storm Wildeye, only shy away from them because had quite a few trout hooked in the gill area. 

 

Hi RAL.... mostly just the ones similar to those you have pictured. Kilwell were clearing out a heap of their stocks of these, and I got about 20 of different types then.I have popped soft plastics on the tail of ones I have used in the past, the firsttime I was using them would have been .....hell, 10-15 years ago perhaps, I used them with berkley scampi (the twin tailed things?), the 1st of the powerbaits we were able to get here at the time... they look awesome in the water, and I know they love them in the states, but I just couldn't get a touch on them.
Same old thing though, use them when nothing else seems to be working, and then act all surprised if they don't work either, I am sure we have all done that! :-)
I really thought they would get nailed around the mangroves in the sollies though, but nothing, while Joe who was using the standard old halcos was getting hit repeatedly, and as soon as I swapped back, so did I.
I would feel a lot happier using one if you could somehow get the hook a good couple of inches back further from the spinner, not directly under it. Maybe using a small assist hook or something to extend back a little, with an SP on that....

Hmmmm.... now some of those are going to have to wind up in my box. especially for flicking around the reefs up in the sollies! That big one is a very sexy beast!
Bet the mangrove jacks will ike 'em too....