Many lures are pretty poor for casting and a lot of them 'tumble' in flight rather than go scooting out like a clipped down bait on an aerodynamic lead.
In calm conditions longer casts are possible but if there's any wind to speak of your distance will be robbed.
Heavier lures will obviously give you more distance but they may fish too deep for what you are trying to do.
It's all a trade-off.
I like to fish either 20lb or 30lb braid which is as strong as a strong thing but super-thin, so it casts really nicely with 30 - 60g lures in all but really foul conditions. Cuts your hands like a knife if you get snagged up though - so be warned !
Unless you're chasing a shoal of mackerel that are bursting 80 yards out then a short cast is fine.
Most good rock marks don't need a long cast out. You are usually much better off casting a few yards out and along, and working the lure back close in. That's what I do when I go to Dunstanburgh and it works magic for pollack and coalies. I try to cast maybe five or six yards out from the cliff and thirty or so yards along, let it sink for a few seconds and then I alternate the retrieve between sink and draw and jerking.
One of my favourite rigs is a jelly worm fished several feet behind a 1 or 2 oz bullet or barrel lead, bumped over the top of any weed. In ideal conditions I can throw it maybe 50 yards at the very most. Maybe. Most days it's a lot less and, as casting rigs, go it's about as aerodynamic as a brick.
Lures need to be worked through cover close in and not blasted for miles into open water.
I took a few nice coalies off Blyth pier last week on lures just a few feet out from the base of the pier, casting along the pier and working the lures back towards me, rather than casting out to sea.
Good luck
