Soft Plastic 101

[coryn h. fishowl]

I admit, I woefully underuse soft plastics, most likely due to my having taught myself to fish at a young age. I needed a fast, more interesting way to fish. (I was ten and got bored easily.)  Now however, I would like to better utilize them.  When do you use soft jerkbaits vs paddletails vs soft craws vs worms vs tubes.  Which ones are used for used for what situation as  opposed to others.  I fish most w/ a t-rig.  Which do you rig in what ways for what circumstances?  Mostly I use jerkbaits in more open spaces, above and around the edges of weedbeds/stumps.  I use soft craws to drag/yo yo along the bottom.  I use tubes in heavier cover, and worms for smaller spaces where short casts are necessary (I fish from the bank) i.e. through lily pads, heavy cover, and bluffs/steep areas where vertical presentations are used.  I tend to use paddletails as an alternative to jerkbaits, especially in muddier water.  I have no experience w/ grubs, or really any soft plastics outside of these listed. Also, which are better search baits and which are fished slow (oviously the got worm there) and how?  Rereading this I feel like I total novice. So, I guess this is soft plastic 101.Thanks in advance.

[annexation]

I'm still learning myself, honestly. I wasn't much of a soft plastics guy until last year when I first learned to texas rig a senko. As a bank fisherman myself, there doesn't feel like a wrong time, place, or way to fish those things. I've been experimenting with other plastics, but the 5" senko is still boss for me.

 

I will say I've had good luck with Z-Man Crawdadz rigged texas on a 3/0 weighted EWG hook. They stick to the bottom well and the claws are really buoyant and wave around enticingly, even when deadsticked. Skin hook it and it's perfectly weedless (the weight might get hung up if there's lots of rocks, though). Drag 'em slow through fishy looking spots. 

[The Young Gun]

Soft plastics are endless. I can throw on a 4" power bait wih a hook through it and my girlfriend can catch bass left and right. There's no really wrong way to fish it.. I like mine with lots of scent like power bait. 6lb mono and a zebco spin cast reel could bring in bass on plastics. Just be creative.

[FLangler8]

I am also a bank fisherman in central florida and in the past year got into soft plastics mostly from watching YouTube videos. I am still trying to learn what's best for what situation. In late summer they were killing a white zmann paddlerz. But in the late fall they killed a big bite baits swimming craw in watermelon red being flipped into grass. Since then I have Cought nothing so I am back to watching videos to see if I can find something else to use.

[JunkYard814]

I love fishing crankbaits, spinnerbaits and jerkbaits, but soft plastics are pretty much my go-to if all else isn't working. I use a few main ones: zoom fluke/super fluke (soft jerkbait), 4" or 5" senko (wacky rigged), and the Berkley gulp sinking minnow. If you learn to vary your retrieves,  you can pretty much catch bass at any time of the year on soft plastics. 

 

Those are just a few I feel really confident in. Every time I'm in Cabela's, I usually pick a different bag of plastics to try out. The options are pretty much endless. 

[PondHunter]

I fish from the bank, and I am really gonna give this new JIKA rig a shot this year.

[Marty]

All soft plastics catch fish and there's loads of overlap. You may think a certain style is good for, say, holes in the weeds, but you can use worms, grubs, tubes, creatures and other styles for that purpose. There's no one right answer. You have to make arbitrary decisions, use trial and error and fish with what you've built up confidence in. It's my personal opinion that if a bass is going to take a soft plastic, it would take many different types of plastic that would have been in the same place at the same time.

 

As to search baits, that term is more associated with faster-moving horizontal lures like crankbaits, spinnerbaits and topwaters. If you're going to use a plastic for that purpose I'd use something with an action tail. Another thing you can do is put a plastic on a jighead, attach an overhead spinner and fish it like a spinnerbait. When I do this I use a simple curly tailed grub. This isn't very sexy or fashionable lure but it can be very effective.

[Felix77]

Small swimbaits rigged on a 1/16 - 3/16oz weedless swimbait hook are a must for me from the bank.  I can usually find fish pretty quickly with that little bass snack.  Senkos, finesse worms on a shakey head are also bank fishing staples year round.

 

I am rediscovering the grub and when the situation arises I love throwing the horny toad in pads and stuff.

[NC bassin]

I'm still getting back into soft plastics, But today I caught a nice fat 2 and a half pounder on my Strike King Shim E Stick watermelon color. but I would say just use what works and try all of the soft plastics you have and see what there hitting. about 10 minutes before i caught him, I Had one come up and swollowed it but i missed the hook set, but good luck man. P.S I normaly fish on the bank aswell seeing as i fish alot of private ponds with big bass in them.

[bartdude186]

I am somewhat of a collector of softplastics and tend to buy anything that catches my eye instead of catches fish. I have the most luck on Zoom Super Flukes ( pearl white, baby bass) Zoom 6" lizards ( June Bug, black, watermelon) paca craws( any of them) and yum dingers/senkos/ shimmy sicks etc. if i had to pick one it would be a super fluke, i catch fish year round and in all conditions just by slowing or speeding up how fast i work it. the pearl white can't be beat IMO.