Halco Tilsan Bass

An oldie but a goodie – I have had this lure a long time. I recently freshened it up by adding a clear coat of UV paint and new trebles. Tonight I caught a Tailor and an Estuary Perch on the T121 Classic in fading light on a run out tide. Good lure diving fast and straight.  Show details

Very good – I have used these in freshwater on bass, up at Hinchinbrook on jacks and trolled them at home and nailed good snapper. Tilsans are very good although lure fashion has them less popular these days. I also like the Tilsan barra and minnow although I have seen a few barras break bibs.

What were a great lure, Halco have improved on it – The original Tilsan Minnow and Bass were a ground breaking lure back in my day. They promised a lure that dove as soon as it hit the water upon retrieve and a body that was as strong as it came with the one piece stamped body wiring. In reality it'd all been done before with Rapala, Nilsmaster and many others. A Balsa wood body with a stainless… Read more

steel body wire, the only drawbacks is / was that if a powerful fish ever took the lure it could rip the lure in half, and not loose the fish due to the internal body wire set-up.

The Tilsan lures were light, and too light to use in a windy environment, mostly balanced for trolling and casting with the wind. The bodies are made from balsa wood which was coated in a plastic material and painted / printed with the exterior colours. Balsa wood has its natural downsides that it absorbs water and breaks down and finally fish like Jacks just tear it to pieces.

The bib material on all the Tilsans is Polycarbonate a relatively indestructible plastic you may think, wrong. I managed to snap two bib's parallel to the tow point while trolling? I think that they were too over stressed when manufactured and positioned with the stainless steel tow point, which caused both to snap.

The lures trolling ability was fantastic, however knowing that the bib was defective you knew that at any moment that the lure could just break and render it useless. I honestly hope that the new Halco design is bettered the brand and that they have put careful consideration into R&D (Rip-off and Duplication).

If I had the chance to buy some more Tinsans, I probably would however they've retained the high price they once were and are just out of my price range today. Fit and finish from the box, good quality hooks and split rings Bib's snapped, and always the chance that a big fish could ruin the body with teeth and pulling apart.