Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Pro-Lure-Fishing-Tips » How to Select a Soft Plastic
How to Select a Soft Plastic
By Nickfish
Soft plastics are all the rage right now and I understand why. I love fishing soft plastics and I have done since the day I caught a fish on one… even before. There are a heap of styles and colours, which can make selection difficult, and even the way you rig them can make a huge difference between catching and not catching fish. In this article I want to look at these different plastics in more detail and discuss how I go about selecting plastics for different fishing scenarios.
There are heaps of different soft plastics available to anglers, however there are four main styles, paddle tails, curl tails, flick baits (jerkbaits) and crustacean imitations. Each of these plastics are designed to be more effective in certain situations.
Paddle tails are my favourite style, simply because of where and how I fish. What I mean by this is that the locations where I fish, small mullet and herring are the fish's first choice of prey. This plastic selection is then based around the basic desire to match the hatch, referring to selecting a lure that represents the food source in the are that the fish are feeding on. When it comes to how I fish, I really like a lure that starts its action on the fall (sink), with a tail that starts to kick with the smallest of movements. This allows me to fish light jigheads and still get heaps of action out of the tail.
Curly tails, ribbon tails or grubs, whatever you call them, these lures are also effective in a lot of scenarios. The curl tail has a tail, that instead of a paddle, is a curled over so that it flutters around in the water. This style of lure is effective for imitating shrimp or worms, making it deadly on a stack of species, including skinny water bass. I work this lure two ways, either with a hop, hop, followed by a long pause, which is great for imitating a fleeing prawn or shrimp, or I rig it on a mushroom style jighead (TT NedlockZ), as this allows the lure to rapidly stand upright on the pause. I'll use a very slow roll (wind) with the lure connected to the bottom, standing up when paused and this is effective when targeting bream and flathead, while being even better for bass.
Flick bait or jerkbait style plastics are extremely effective when the fish are super active or there's smaller fish that you need to fish quickly to get through. Jerkbaits either have a straight tail or a small, forked tail meaning that they have no natural action. The angler is required to apply the action to the plastic through the rod and reel. A fast hop, hop, is all that is needed to imitate a wounded baitfish. Although I normally fish these flick baits fast, when I’m chasing big flathead, I like to use a ZMan 7” Scented Jerk ShadZ with a weedless hook up the front and a stinger up the back, while slowing things down. This rig may take a few goes to get right, however when you do get it right it will glide through the water looking like a wounded whiting. Fathead just love it!
Crustacean plastics can imitate anything with a shell, such as a prawn, yabby, or crab, and they’re worked in very similar ways. The most important thing that I like to do when fishing them is keep them very close to the bottom as I find crabs or yabbies are not going to be swimming around mid-water column, rather they are going to be hugging the bottom and foraging around. If you get a hit, then you can add a hop, and this will often trigger a strike. I work prawn imitation very similarly except I'll hop them a lot more regularly.
It can be handy to have multiple types of lures rigged and ready to go because you never know when you may need to make that quick change of profile or size.
I believe that colour is something that needs to be changed up constantly during fishing, especially if the bite isn’t happening. Anglers will often get stuck on using the same colour just because it worked last time. Fish can change their mind daily in terms of what colour they want to eat, which can be impacted by many variables, such as water, weather, season, and available prey species.
I break the colours that I fish down to three types of colours: natural, dark silhouette and fluorescent colours. Each of these can perform better in different situations. Natural is always the best colour to go for if you're not a hundred percent sure what to use, as these colours are used to match the same colour as the baitfish. These can include greys, blues, browny yellowish (if you're imitating prawns), clear and white / Pearl. White / Pearl is a great colour for beginners because it can be used in any water colour effectively. The reason for this is because it takes on the colour of the water, which is basically what baitfish do for a bit of cover.
Fluorescent colours are bright, ‘out there’ colours, that often look like nothing the fish would have seen before. These lures can be especially effective when the lure needs to be seen and stand out, including when the water is dirty. Fluoro colours can also make it a lot easier for the fish to find the plastic when there are large bait schools, where a natural-coloured lure may still catch fish, however a pink coloured soft plastic pulled through the bait school will be new and different, which will often trigger a bite.
Darker lures (blacks, browns and purples are my go-to options) are great in dirty water. A lot of anglers are surprised by this, however the reasoning behind it is that when the lure is swimming, the darker profile creates a better silhouette, in turn helping the fish to find it.
Other things to consider when selecting a soft plastic is glitter and UV reactive qualities. Glitter is great because it catches the light and sparkles, which helps the lure look more realistic, like a natural scale flash, that helps the fish find the plastic as well. The focus on UV reactive qualities of lures is relatively new to the market. Basically, fish have receptors in their eyes that allow them to see UV light, reacting with and bouncing off objects. This means that they can see colours and ‘fluorescing’ on lures that we can only see with the assistance of a black light. I use these UV reactive lures in similar circumstances as I would with fluorescent lures, to assist it to stand out and get noticed.
Not only does the type of plastic you use make a difference, so can the style of jighead and how you rig it. The traditional J hook style jighead is the most common and basic style of jighead. These jigheads are ideal for increased hook exposure and for fishing open water with minimal snags. To rig these on your plastic first you need to lay the hook beside the plastic and get a rough idea where the hook will come out. Then slide in the hook point and begin threading the hook though, ensuring it stays nice and straight. The hook should come out near where you lined it up and the plastic sit snug against the weight of the head.
Weedless jigheads or worm hooks are great for flicking plastics in tight structure, with minimal chance of getting snagged. Rigging these however is completely different and you will find some excellent weedless rigging guides on tackletactics.com.au. To rig weedless, pin the hook through the chin of the plastic, pull the hook through so that the plastic is snug against the eye of the hook, then then push the hook point straight up through the stomach of the plastic so that everything sits straight. The hook point should then pull down and sit flush against the top of the plastic. When a fish hits the plastic will be pushed down and the hook will be exposed.
The final style of jighead is one that I've only just started to use recently and it's a mushroom style jighead (TT NedlockZ). This is great when imitating small crustaceans and works best with buoyant lures (ZMan) because, during the pause, the lure will stand up making it look natural and appetising for any fish species.
Soft plastics are a great way fish and in fact, my favourite way to fish. Though it can take a while to get the techniques down pat, trust me it's worth it. I hope this article inspires you to give soft plastics a go or helps you to land a few more if you’re already into your plastics fishing.
Cheers, Nickfish