Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Pro-Lure-Fishing-Tips » Favourite Retrieves for Estuary Soft Plastics Fishing
Favourite Retrieves for Estuary Soft Plastics Fishing
By Sean Bekkers
One aspect of soft plastics fishing that I often talk about but never really dive into is the different types of retrieves that I use when flicking plastics in the rivers and estuaries, and more importantly when I choose to change them up. Sitting back and thinking about it, my common retrieves really come down to four, which are a slow roll, standard hop and pause, double/triple hop and pause, and a suspended twitch. Let’s look at each retrieve in more detail and breakdown where I utilise it when fishing.
Hop and Pause
When soft plastic fishing really took off there were heaps of different ways that anglers chose to work their presentation, to convince a fish to strike. The most common back then and still today, would be the hop and pause. The reason for it being so popular is that it suits most soft plastic presentations out there and nearly all species of fish will happily take a presentation on the drop, or when paused on the bottom for a few seconds. So, it makes sense that I usually start my session using this technique.
For the novice soft plastic angler out there, this is the perfect technique to start with. Simply cast your presentation out there, let it sink until you see a big belly of line, indicating the presentation has touched down on the bottom. Wind up the slack, give it a hop using a lift of the rod tip and let the presentation drop to the bottom again. From here it’s rinse and repeat, until you’ve wound the presentation all the way in... or you get hooked up!
So, what presentations work well for me on the hop and pause? Nearly all of them. It doesn’t matter if I’m throwing a ZMan Slim SwimZ rigged on a 1/8oz jighead, or a larger presentation such as a 5” DeiZel MinnowZ, rigged on 1/2oz jighead, the hop and pause works perfectly. Lure selection really comes down to the area that you’re fishing and whether the fish are going to play ball on the day.
Hot Tip: The best way to see how the presentation is going to work is to go try it in some shallow water and literally hop the plastic around the place to observe how it responds. You’ll soon get a good idea of how it’s going to look once you cast it out into deeper water.
Double / Triple Hop
As you may have guessed by the name, this is a variation of the hop and pause. Basically, on each lift of the rod tip I will impart two or three hops, instead of one longer one, before allowing the presentation to settle back on the bottom. Imagine the presentation being lifted up off the bottom and twitched up through the water column, representing something like an injured fish and more importantly an easy meal.
I tend to use this style of retrieve with my lighter presentations, for example a ZMan 2.5” GrubZ or Slim SwimZ, rigged on a 1/4oz jighead or lighter. The reason for this is that the lighter presentation will suspend a little longer in the water column, before heading for the bottom. Have you ever seen a school of small bait fish? They dart around all over the place, kind of erratically, and this is exactly what I am trying to replicate with this style of retrieve. Often when the bite is a little slow this retrieve can assist with getting the bite.
Slow Roll
This retrieve is awesome for your paddle tail style presentations, no matter how big or small, or how heavy the jighead is either. As the name suggests, you literally cast the presentation out, allow it to sink to the desired depth and then slow roll (slow wind) it back. There is a little more to it than that, so let’s get into that now. With the light presentation, where I may be running a ZMan Slim SwimZ through shallow water, I literally cast it out and pretty much slow wind it back with the rod tip nice and high. As you can imagine this represents a small baitfish quite well as it is cruising over the flats.
With a larger presentation, such as a ZMan 5” DeZiel MinnowZ or HerculeZ, I’m usually working these in deeper water, and I’ll cast it out and let it drop (sink). After a while I’ll start slow winding it back. Depending on the depth sometimes I may have to slow the retrieve down to keep it near the bottom, while other times I may need a faster retrieve. It really comes down to the presentation that you’re using and the area you’re fishing, with retrieve speed and rod tip height simple adjustments for regulating the running depth of your soft plastic presentation.
Suspended Twitch
Now, this retrieve has been dynamite when flicking around the ZMan 2.5” PrawnZ, rigged on a 1/16oz jighead. As the name suggests, you need a presentation to have a lot of hang time in the water column. With this in mind, the retrieve is really effective with very lightly weighted presentations. As you may know, ZMan 10X Tough ElaZtech plastics are naturally buoyant, so any ZMan Slim SwimZ, GrubZ or PrawnZ matched up with really light jighead from the TT HeadlockZ Finesse range are awesome when fished with this style of retrieve.
Early on I spent a lot of time watching the presentation in shallow water, to get a good idea of how it looks and performs when twitched. The most effective way to use this presentation is to cast it right into an edge or structure and, with a high rod tip, twitch the presentation. Keep it up in the water column, then pause. On the pause the presentation will drop slightly and then after a few seconds start twitching. The idea is to keep the presentation in close to the structure, rather than ripping it back out too quickly. As you can imagine the presentation will have heaps of hang time, allowing any fish nearby to think they’ve scored and easy meal. Of late this presentation has been my go-to for any lightly weighted presentations I’m throwing around, including the proven ZMan 2.5” PrawnZ, Slim SwimZ and GrubZ.
For me, I will usually use a combination of these retrieves when fishing and keep cycling through presentations and retrieves until I find one that works. I hope that this has given you some insight on how I like to the retrieve my go-to plastics and more importantly gets you the bite on your next adventure.
Cheers for reading,
Sean