Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Pro-Lure-Fishing-Tips » 5 Tips for Soft Plastics Beginners

5 Tips for Soft Plastics Beginners

By Sean Bekkers

A lot of anglers these days have been using soft plastics for years, however we now have new generations of kids coming through, along with some old dogs that are keen to learn a few new tricks, who have little experience with soft plastics or artificial presentations. Over the last 20 years it’s fair to say that soft plastics have exploded, with all sorts of brands and styles out there now. If you’re new to soft plastics fishing though, what are some basic tips to get you locked onto a fish? In this article I’ll step through my Top 5 Basic Tips to get you started. 

Research

I don’t think that I can stress this point enough. Soft plastics and soft plastic fishing in general is massive. In most cases you’ll walk into a tackle shop and see acres and acres of soft plastics swinging from the walls, not to mention hundreds of jigheads to choose from as well. Most soft plastics out there are packets of unrigged plastics and then you can select from a range of jigheads to suit. Other plastics come pre-rigged, with the weight integrated into them, such as the ZMan HerculeZ range for example.

So where do you start? I would strongly recommend that before you walk into a tackle shop, think about what sort of fish you’re going to target. It’s easy to watch a TV show on catching snapper on soft plastics, then think it’s going to be simple. If you’re a hardcore snapper angler, it could very well be, however, if you’re not, I would suggest targeting more accessible species first.

I honestly think that flathead or bream are probably the easiest fish to target when learning to fish with soft plastics because they are accessible to both landbased anglers and those fishing from watercraft. Okay, so we’ve selected a fish to target, now we can drill down on the specifics relating to how to target them. If you’re reading this article, then you’re in luck. Tackle Tactics has spent years developing content to help anglers get hooked up to the fish of their dreams, so you can jump onto tackletactics.com.au and check out the ‘Tips & Techniques’ and ‘Rigging Guides’ sections or check out the Tackle Tactics TV YouTube channel.

Furthermore, if you search soft plastic fishing on the internet there is tonnes of information to sort through. I would suggest reducing the scope of your search to the specific fish that you would like to target. Now it’s time to hit the shop. Once in your local tackle shop, take the opportunity to ask a heap of questions as these guys talk tackle and fishing every day and often know what’s getting the bites. This information is gold, and I would suggest taking advantage of it.

Picking the Presentation

Okay, now it’s time to pick some presentations. I believe targeting flathead is a great option to start with when trying soft plastics, for many anglers in much of the country, so I’m going to base my writing around them. However, the points that I mention can be applied to whatever fish species you decide to chase.

For a lot of anglers their introduction to fishing is through using baits, such as prawns, yabbies, live bait and dead bait and I was no different. Our go-to bait when growing up were yabbies because they were easily accessible. That and a good old block of pilchards. Now this may not seem like a relative point however think about all the places where you would catch flathead. Was it shallow or deep water, around structure or on the flats? Also, what sort of bait did you use? All this information provides an unreal advantage when choosing and using plastics for the first time.

For those of you that are new to fishing, you will need to think about the same things, including the areas that you’re going to fish. To keep things simple, flathead are predatory fish that spend most of their time on the bottom waiting to ambush a meal that comes to them. With this in mind, we need a presentation that is going to knock on their door. For me, the perfect presentation to start with is a baitfish profile and particularly a ZMan 3” MinnowZ. This little plastic has heaps of action when being retrieved slowly or at rest and lends itself to a wide range of jighead weights from a 1/8oz up to a 1/2oz, with a 3/0 hook size ideal. My go-to Jig heads are TT HeadlockZ, DemonZ and Big EyeZ, depending on how much I want to ‘bling’ up my presentation.

Now that we have selected a plastic, it’s time to select some colours. A good friend of my always said choose three colours in the style that you select, one bright colour, one natural colour and one dark colour. The bright colour for when the other two aren’t working and you need to show them something different and the natural colour for when you need to mimic natural bait colour in your local estuary, especially when the day is bright and water clear, allowing good visibility for fish to analyse the presentation. Now for the dark colour, this is awesome for the low light situations and dirty water, in a nutshell the plastic will silhouette nicely in the dark murky water. My choices are ZMan Gitter Done (bright), Baby Bass (natural) and Gold Rush (dark silhouette colour).

Rod and Reel Combo

I often see anglers that are new to soft plastics fishing tying on a plastic to their trusted old fishing rod that they’ve had for years to throw a slab of fish out. This is usually loaded with heavy mono line and leader, sometimes even with a swivel and sinker. Now, I’m not going to say that you can’t catch a fish using soft plastics and doing this… because I’ve seen it done. The thing to remember here is that we are trying to trick the fish into eating the presentation by imparting action into the plastic, actively hunting fish and keeping the session exciting and fun.

Soft plastic fishing is not a set and forget approach to catching fish. Put simply you will generally have your rod in hand the whole time that you are on the water casting, retrieving, catching, and repeating. After a few hours on the water, a big heavy rod is going to become cumbersome and uncomfortable. So, this next point I can’t stress this enough. Find yourself a nice light combo, that’s well balanced and if I’m being a little picky, in that 7’ range. It doesn’t need to be the most expensive thing on the market either. I would go for a 1-3kg or 2-4kg rod, matched to a 3000 size reel or smaller when targeting flathead. I’ll leave my favourite combo in the tackle box section below.

Line is also important. If you haven’t come over to the dark side, being braid, now might be the perfect time. The benefit of using braid when using soft plastic is huge. For the same mono to braid breaking strain comparison, the braid diameter is a lot less. Basically, you can fit more on the spool for starters and by having a smaller diameter it casts lightly weighted soft plastics easier and will cast further, with less drag in the air and in the water.

Once again, do your research. It doesn’t need to be the most expensive braid on the market however choose from a well-known brand. For me the Platypus Pulse range is a great place to start, in either a 6, 8 or 10lb. I’ll keep this next point short, use a leader with your braid (a section of line between your braid and lure, often about a rod length) and like the braid choose a quality leader. For flathead I would choose a 10lb as a starting point and once again Platypus do some nice stuff, with my favourite being the Hard Armour (Supple).

Pick Your Location

Now, I know we touched on location already but let’s look at it in a little more detail. It’s easy to think that fish are always found in the same place because you’ve caught them there previously. Don’t forget that fish move about depending on the time year, season, weather, tide and so on. So, when choosing a location to start fishing soft plastics, I wouldn’t limit myself to just one spot. Maybe choose a few places that you think may hold a fish, preferably places that hold bait.

Sure, you’ll find the odd fish in a seemingly empty area however to increase your chances of landing a fish on plastics for the first time, look for those places that hold a food source. This could include weed banks and the edge of the flats on a dropping tide, a couple of my favourites. As you can imagine all the bait is being flushed off the flat and is going to hold up tight on the edge. Often this is where you’ll find a flathead or two.

Hot Tip: I like to target flathead on a dropping tide because there is less water for them to spread out in, concentrating them in areas holding bait and structure.

Persistence

This is by far the most important point and often one that I need to keep telling myself when learning something new. Be persistent. I remember my first time trying to catch a flathead on soft plastics and put simply I didn’t… for a couple of reasons. The first and biggest one was that I couldn’t let go of having a bait in the water as I was drifting along. I was throwing a plastic on one rod and watching what the bait rod was doing on the other. Looking back, I paid more attention to the bait and didn’t take the time to interpret what the plastic was and was not doing whilst in the water.

My main suggestion here, when trying to catch a fish with a soft plastic for the first time, is to just take soft plastics with you and leave the bait at home. Learn to recognise when the plastic has hit the bottom on each pause (the line goes slack) and practice casting into the right areas. Fishing with plastics is all about feeling what the fish is doing and after a while you can literally feel the fish pick the plastic up, drop it, tail grab the plastic and so on, so that you’ll be able to make the subtle changes required to get a bite. All it takes is time, so don’t get disappointed if the fish don’t come for the first few attempts. Each session you will learn more about what works and what doesn’t, what structure is available, where the bait tends to hold and eventually you will call the fish before you even make the cast… there’s got to be a flathead in there.

Before I finish writing, I couldn’t help myself and needed to drop one more tip, scent up! Scenting up your plastic I think is a key to really selling your soft plastic as fish food and I would suggest something in the Pro-Cure range to get you started. It will also get the fish to hang on for a little longer, often being the difference between setting the hook and not. I hope you enjoyed the read and if you’re new to soft plastics I hope you are inspired to get out and give it a go. Thanks for reading.

Screamign Dragz, Sean (Outcastangler)

Sean’s Tackle Box

ZMan 3” MinnowZ – Gitter Done, Baby Bass & Gold Rush colours

TT HeadlockZ HD / DemonZ / Big EyeZ Jigheads – 1/4oz 3/0 – 1/2oz 3/0

Pro-Cure Super Gel Scent

Combo 1

Okuma Cerros 1-3kg or 2-4kg rod matched up with and Okuma Epixor XT 30 reel

Platypus 6lb braid Bionic X9 or P8, 10lb Hard Armour Supple leader

Combo 2

TT Black Mamba 1-3kg rod matched up with an Okuma ITX 1000 reel

Platypus 6lb braid Bionic X9, 10lb Hard Armour Supple leader