Soft Plastics - Using the Correct Tackle

By Sean Skip Thompson

Part 1: Using the Correct Tackle

Fishing with soft plastics is a natural progression for those new to fishing and those wanting to try lures after many years fishing bait. However, I have seen and heard of too many anglers dismissing it as too hard or not all it’s made out to be, simply because they ‘don’t know what they don’t know’.

So, in this article I’ll try and cover the basic do and don’ts for choosing the right tackle for soft plastics fishing.

Soft Plastics Tackle – Don’ts

I’ve seen all sorts of soft plastic rigging contraptions over the years. These have included running sinkers, split shot sinkers and various bait type hooks. Both the sinker travelling up and down the line and various shaped curved hooks that will not present the lure naturally, which is essential.

Likewise, keep the whipper snipper cord for cutting your lawn edges. Thick monofilament line tied directly to your lure has several disadvantages, including stifling the lures action, causing extra drag in the water and it is also much easier for the fish to see. Other cons of monofilament line for plastics fishing include fitting less line on the reel and the increased stretch, which can mean missed fish strikes!

The next mistake that new anglers to plastics fishing can make, is rod choice. Huge 10’6” soft and whippy rods should be left to whiting fishing. Such rods have a ‘slow action’, which means the rods bend a lot more when you put pressure on the tip AND they take longer to return to the normal or neutral position. The consequence of this when fishing soft plastics is that the rod will be absorbing much of the movement that you are trying to impart into the lure and it also makes it harder to feel bites and set the hooks on bony mouthed fish, such as flathead, bream, and grunter.

Then, when it comes to fishing reels, anglers should avoid mismatching rods and reels. For example, you don’t want to be putting a light, 1-3kg, 7’ graphite soft plastics rod together with a huge 6000 size spinning reel or vice versa put a tiny 1000 size reel on a heavier 6-8kg flathead stick. Casting continuously with heavy 6000 size reels would be uncomfortable and its likely too much line will peel off the big spool during the cast and tangle in the smaller rod guides. Likewise, it would be difficult to cast braid a long distance with a tiny diameter spool releasing line though the big thick runners of a heavy rod.

Soft Plastics Tackle - Do’s

Starting with the all-important hooks. Most flathead and bream soft plastics anglers use jigheads, which have a weight, built around a hook, that you can use to rig various styles of soft plastics on. My personal favourite is the TT HeadlockZ series as these have a ‘head lock’ keeper halfway down the hook shank, making it more difficult for the plastic to slide down and bunch up over the point of the hook.

From there, you want to be using about 2-2.4m of fluorocarbon leader, direct from the jighead to the braided mainline. This has two main advantages. Fluorocarbon is much harder for the fish to see under the water and it is also more abrasion resistant to teeth than nylon monofilament.

This leader should then be tied to a quality braided line that is thin for its strength and has properties that cast well. I am a long-time user of Australian made Platypus lines and last year I upgraded one of my reels to the new Bionic Braid X9. This line is incredibly smooth to cast, lays well on the reel, and I’m yet to get a tangle using this braid. It’s hot pink colour also makes it easy to watch for any hits from a fish and to know when it goes slack, meaning your lure is on the bottom.

Finally, rod and reel. High modulus graphite rods are ideal for soft plastics fishing. The weight rating of your rod will depend on the depth and style of fishing that you are doing, however a good starting point is a 2-4kg rod in the shallows. More experienced anglers might even go down to 1-3kg in the shallows for fishing finesse soft plastics. TT Fishing has a perfect range of rods for this style of fishing, that are well priced also. The Black Mamba or Red Belly series have you covered, and you can advance to heavier rods for other styles of plastics fishing within the range also.

When it comes to a reel, make sure you match it up weight wise with the rod you are using. In the 1-3kg or 2-4kg range I use and recommend the Okuma ITX 2500. This reel is around $200 and is packed with features, including a smooth carbon fibre drag (meaning less lost fish to clunky drags), and a hydro-block gasket to help prevent saltwater intrusion. Great reel.

So, there you go. The Do’s and Don’ts of tackle choice when fishing with soft plastics. Keep an eye out for future articles in this Do’s and Don’ts series from Sean (Skip) Thompson of Ontour Fishing Australia.

Gearing Up:

TT Black Mamba Spin Rods – BMS701ML 7’ 2-4kg
TT Red Belly Spin Rods – RBS701ML 7’ 2-4kg
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reels – ITX-2500
Platypus Bionic Braid X9
Platypus Hard Armour FC Fluorocarbon Leader
TT HeadlockZ Finesse Jigheads
TT HeadlockZ HD Jigheads
ZMan 10X Tough ElaZtech Soft Plastics