Fantastic-soft-plastics

WARNING… Mimicking an injured baitfish in order to trick a predator can be addictive!! 

On my quest to fish lighter, Soft Plastics have got into my head in a big way making me borderline obsessive with the vast range of styles and techniques needed to work them. With a bit of practice they can be deadly and maybe like me, change your approach to fishing all together.

Lure fishing, especially the LRF side of things seems to create a lot of attention when you’re out and about. Whether it’s a passer-by or another angler, I've met a lot of inquisitive people out there, some which are excited by artificial bait techniques, others that are not so convinced. Whatever the weather I'm always keen to chat especially to other anglers and lure fishermen alike. Apart from rods and reels the main things that people seem to ask is which lures are the best to get when starting out and obviously what techniques to employ to get them to work properly. Being quite new to the sport I don’t like to advise too specifically about what they should buy but I can share what I have learnt so far and what’s worked for me. Besides, I'm starting to see how much personal preference there is out there with lures and what works for one angler isn't necessarily going to work for the next. Weedless, weightless and jig heads well that’s a whole other post. For the moment I'm just going to share a few of the lures that I've done well with so far.

Size wise I think one key for me was starting out ultra light and working my way up. Fishing in the shallows with baby sandeel imitations was an enlightening and informative process that helped me get to grips with SP’s. Such a visual experience at close quarters was in no way prep for bassing in a big swell but certain principles would help pave the road towards a better understanding. With the exception to X-layers I've only recently tried more 4 and 5” patterns and that’s as the colder weather has arrived and fishing’s become less productive. I think in general its been the 2-3” baits that have done it for me this year proving as I already knew that you don’t need a massive bait to catch a decent fish.

Ecogear Power Shirasu

Literally the first SP I fished with. They came as part of the Ecogear pocket in Merabu set which is a great little box to get anyone started with LRF. Pictured are the 2" pearl variety, they have a multi-contoured body with a thin tail and a ball at the end. Fished on a small jighead (1g#6ish) these little babies really ignited the fire for me. Twitches followed by a pause seemed to make these invaluable over my local sandy ground accounting for lots of baby pollack and the odd bass.

Delalande Skeleton

I haven't heard so much about these lures apart from my own experiences. Again these came as part of a little box set, this time the Delalande Macadam Chest. Big, interchangeable eyes, a  ribbed, vibrating body and more vibes from the big paddle tail.. Sink and draw or straight retrieve at any given depth make these lures easy to fish with amazing results. 3g heads made this an enticing lure to fish sub surface, bass just couldn't help but to rise up and hoover them in. 

Lunker City Fin-S Fish

When I first started looking into SP's it seemed everyone was talking about Slug-go's. Also from Lunker City the Fin-S Fish is one of my favourite SP's. Pictured in black glitter 2.5".  There were days when this lure just wasn't allowed to sink and would get smashed to bits on the drop accounting for dozens of fish in quick succession. So realistic as a baitfish imitation, if it wasn't getting chased by a predator other baitfish were trying to make friends!!

Megabass X-Layer

If you've done your research then you just can't have missed these. So much hype I had to get some to see if it was all true.. Pictured in Ayu this is my last one left, after 3 or 4 catches on weedless set-ups they do get shredded. Ribs for vibration, built in rattles and a killer aniseed scent make for my favourite lure so far. Fished weedless or on a jig head they can be bumped along the bottom or twitched in the top layer of the water. These produced fish for me on days when things got tough and helped me to learn that lure fishing does work in the dark! Love em!

I’m not sure why but I haven’t really felt the want to experiment with hard lures yet. I can’t deny that more recently I have seen a few occasions where a hard, surface or sub-surface lure maybe have been more appropriate for the conditions I was faced with. I suppose the fact that I’m mentioning them now means I will no doubt add some to my collection in the near future and it will be interesting to see how much difference it makes to my lure fishing. At about 10-20 quid a pop (and the rest!!) it’ll be hard when I know how much new soft stuff I could get but the thing I’m worried about most is losing the finesse. Maybe cranking the hard stuff won’t be as exciting for me as the darting, twitching and fluttering you can create with SP’s. I suppose if they produce the goods for me then I won’t be complaining it’s just from where I’m stood right now they don’t look like as much fun. I know they don’t all rely on straight retrieve and I’ve seen the reports with the Komomo’s and Patchinko’s hanging out of a bass’s mouth I just haven’t felt the need let alone had the cash to spend so far so remain uneducated. I do know however that when I do try it will be with single hooks and not 2 or 3 trebles. That for certain will detract from the finesse I enjoy with SP’s not to mention my views towards care of your catch. It’s a unbelievable feeling as you lift into a bass on a weedless hook and simplicity to remove. Anyway I haven’t even tried the hard stuff yet and feel I’ve said too much, my first inexperienced rant maybe? I remain open to options!!