The Best Sea Fishing Lures for 2026

Nearly every UK sea box ends up with a Dexter Wedge in it, and mine's no different. It's the metal I clip on when I just want to catch rather than think, because the wobble comes from the wedge shape itself and does the work whatever I do with the rod.

It shines off an open beach or a rock mark where distance matters. The weight range runs from 10g right up to 110g, so a light one covers shallow shore water and a heavy one gets down over deep or boat marks, and it's still strong and aerodynamic enough to punch into a breeze.

The reflective silver foil changes colour as it tracks through the water, and it's built properly with chromed solid brass blades, stainless split rings and decent hooks. It isn't only a casting lure either. I've dropped one as a jigging lure and swapped it in for a lead over a wreck when working feathers, and it earns an extra bite doing that.

It's a flashy reaction lure though, not a lifelike imitation, so on a hard day when bass want a soft sandeel it can get ignored. The open trebles also snag on rough, weedy ground, so over kelp I'd reach for something weedless instead.

When the wind's in my face and I still need to reach the fish, this is the little metal I clip on. It's a compact, dense blade built for ultra-long casting even into a headwind, which is exactly what an exposed shore mark asks for.

On the retrieve it comes alive, swimming lively and erratically with a 360-degree rotation on the slightest spin-stop that throws a lot of flash. That's what pulls mackerel, bass, pollack, garfish and coalfish, and a stop-start wind keeps it working.

Each one arrives with a Y-treble and a wide-gape single, so I match the hook to the venue rather than being stuck with one. The Intense Strike Point holes are filled with night-glow and UV epoxy back by the tail to drag the hit onto the hook. Sizes run from around 6.8cm to 10cm and up to about 28g.

The real appeal is that it's cheap enough to fish hard over rough ground without wincing every time it hangs up. Being light and small, though, it struggles to reach depth in deep or fast water, and it's a bright reaction lure rather than a natural imitation.

Snaggy, weedy bass ground used to cost me a lure every few casts until I started fishing a proper weedless sandeel. This one is pre-rigged and comes through kelp and rock cleanly, which means I'll actually fish the spots where the bass sit instead of avoiding them.

It has a lively kicking action on both the drop and the retrieve, and the rolling jig head brings it up through the water as I wind. The soft PVC body is a genuinely realistic sandeel shape, and that combination of movement and profile is what fools wary bass in clear water.

There's an internal glass rattle for a bit of provoking sound, and it's removable if I want it quiet. The Pro Peg holds the body to the head with a toothpick so it doesn't slide down, and the EWG hook clicks on and off. It comes in a 22g and a 33g size, roughly 11.5cm and 13cm, covering close shore water and a bit more range or depth.

A single weedless hook does sit a touch behind an open treble for hookups, but that's the trade I'll take over ground that eats trebles. The soft body also gets chewed and torn by fish, so I go through a few on a good session.

Nothing in sea lure fishing beats watching a bass climb all over a lure on top, and that's the whole reason this pencil is in the box. It's a saltwater topwater lure meant to be walked across the surface, and the takes are heart-stopping every time.

The way I fish it is a steady walk-the-dog, rocking it side to side with a rhythmic twitch so it zig-zags across the top. Calm mornings are prime, though it still works through a bit of chop. It comes in 9cm and 12.5cm, so I can go smaller on flat water and step up when there's a ripple, and pollack will hit it as well as bass.

Sensibly for the sea, it's supplied with proper saltwater sea-bass hooks and a treble protector, so there's no swapping out cheap freshwater trebles before it's fishable. The five colours in the range are all chosen with bass in mind.

Surface lures are situational by nature, so this one needs the right morning to shine and it's dead in coloured water or a heavy surf. On a day when the fish won't look up it stays in the box, which is just how topwater fishing goes.

Pollack are brutal on soft lures, chewing them to shreds in a session, so for rock and pier work I'd rather fish something that stands up to teeth. This hard ABS jerkbait does exactly that and keeps its shape hit after hit.

The body is shaped from a 3D scan of a real sandeel, so it looks the part, and the long slender hard shell takes the punishment that rock marks and toothy fish dish out. It suspends in the water and has a built-in magnetic long-cast system, which gives it the distance I need to reach fish off a breakwater or pier.

It's a lure I have to work rather than just wind, fished on the jerk and twitch to give that erratic, wounded-fish action pollack can't leave alone. Three sharp ST46 trebles pin the takes, and the sizes span 10cm, 11cm and 14cm for everything from schoolies to a better fish. Bass and coalfish take it too.

A hard body hung with trebles snags worse than a weedless soft lure over really rough ground, so I pick my spots. It also needs active rod work to come alive, so it's not the lure to hand a beginner who just wants to cast and retrieve.

Sometimes the whole point is to sort the better fish from the small stuff, and a 20cm eel does that for me. It's an iconic soft line-thru swimbait, and the big profile puts off the schoolies while getting noticed by cod, larger bass, pollack and ling.

The line-thru design is the clever part, letting a hooked fish slide the body up the line so it can't use the lure's weight to lever the hook out. That matters when a proper fish is thrashing at the net, and it's saved me landing them more than once.

It swims with a big lively curl-tail kicking action on both a steady retrieve and the drop, and the 4D colours carry a lamprey-skin print with added strike-triggering scent to seal the deal. There's a non-lead harness with a built-in steel rattle, plus a tournament J-hook and a removable Y-treble, and it'll fish cast, vertical or trolled.

That big profile is species-specific, so on a quiet day it won't keep me busy with mackerel and schoolies the way a small metal would. For average shore bass it's more lure than the job needs, which is exactly why I only tie it on when I'm fishing for something bigger.