Nothing has had a bigger impact on my lure fishing in recent years than soft plastics. Some of the developments in tackle and techniques brought on by this rapid development have found their way into other types and styles of fishing I do and have certainly been responsible for me catching more and larger fish on lighter gear than I think I would have done without these improvements.
Soft plastics have broadened my angling repertoire. Soft plastics have allowed me to catch fish in a wider range of habitat and a wider range of conditions. Soft plastics have allowed me to catch fish in places where I didn’t think there were any fish. They have allowed me to catch different kinds of fish I’d never caught on lures before. As a fishing tool, soft plastics are convenient, adaptable, clean and cheap and soft plastics are FUN to fish with.
Soft plastics are also great for kids. They love the feel and they are real easy for kids to both fish with and catch fish on. There isn’t really a wrong way to fish them, from static to high speed, they catch fish!
Soft plastics have been available for many years, especially in the USA, but have evolved tremendously over the last few years and expanded their influence to all countries and almost every type of fishing situation, to the extent that there is now available a confusing array of different types, styles and rigging methods, a confusing array of jigs and jig heads and now we have gone a step further with soft baits that are not really plastic at all, the Berkley GULP range.
For our purposes, most of the GULP range can be fished pretty much the same way as soft plastics, but be aware that GULP is smelly and made of edible stuff, while soft plastics are not or may just be lightly scented in comparison. This gives us a little extra edge in certain conditions and makes GULP a little more versatile. The possibilities are endless, but GULP is a bit more expensive than normal soft plastics, so there is still a place for both.
Soft plastics differ from other lures in that with soft plastics, there are usually two parts to them; the tail or plastic and the jig head or hook. The angler has to choose and match one to the other and there are many different ways to make this match and to fish them. Most other lure types come pretty much ready to fish from the box, which whilst being a bit of a no-brainer, often limits the ways you can use them.
I am seeing more and more styles and types of soft plastics and jig heads/hooks in the KL tackle shops in just the year and a bit I have been in Malaysia, but I have fished them for many years, being a quick convert to the effectiveness of soft plastics. This suggests that perhaps Malaysian anglers are lagging a bit on adopting soft plastics. Hardly surprising that the commonest questions I get asked these days, even from experienced anglers, is HOW? How do I choose the right types? How do I rig them? How do I fish them?
If this is you and you haven’t really given soft plastics and soft baits a proper trial, or you lack confidence in them, I might be able to help, at least to the point where you can catch fish on them and start to experiment with them.
I want to try and cover as many of the various aspects of fishing soft plastics as I can using real examples, experiences and photos from both fresh and salt water situations. The topic is too big to cover everything, but a little imagination will suggest many additional possibilities. I’m still learning new stuff myself (as we all should) and soft plastics in particular lend themselves to experimentation.
I’ve already posted some stuff here on fishing with soft plastics that appears to have sparked some interest, so here goes for another marathon thread that will probably grow in the weeks and months ahead. I’ll have to change myself to do this, as I’m normally pretty lazy when it comes to getting fish snaps. I’ll have to start lugging my digital camera around with me!
Here is some ground already covered in the forum.
Discussions on GULP.
The bottom reference, 6044 is the one with all the photos on rigging methods. References and pictures of Texas rig, Carolina rig and Dropshot.
http://www.fishing.net.my/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7306&SearchTerms=soft,plastic
http://www.fishing.net.my/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6812&SearchTerms=soft,plastic
http://www.fishing.net.my/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6044&SearchTerms=soft,plastic
Discussion on Snakeheads and using Soft Plastics; this one has some soft plastics, rigging methods and techniques that work on Toman and Haruan. Also a picture or two of fish caught on soft plastics.
http://www.fishing.net.my/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5602&SearchTerms=soft,plastic
The importance of different styles of jig heads and fishing for Pelagics with soft plastics. Sitck baits and a nice GT on light gear.
http://www.fishing.net.my/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7475&SearchTerms=soft,plastic
SOURCE:http://www.fishing.net.my/default.asp?id=12&ACT=5&content=22&mnu=12
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