What are the essential soft plastics and how you rig them

[Jack Hanson]

What are your favorite soft baits that you won’t leave home without? How do you rig them? What rod do you throw them on?

[MN Fisher]

Berkley Pit Boss - never leave home without it.

 

Trailer on jigs, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits - MH/F rod

Bubba shot on a H/F

Sometimes weightless like a fluke on a M/F

[Jack Hanson]

Nice choice! I always carry a fluke M/H I fish it weightless on a Texas rig.

Creature bait M/H for a trailer and Texas rig

I don’t carry many soft plastics, just the minimum.

[casts_by_fly]

Here in nj, a green pumpkin beaver, Texas rigged. We have so much grass and such clear water that you need something that will get down through pads and mats, slide through all of the pondweed, and still be subtle enough in the 10’ visibility water. I’ve not seen a difference in the brand or specific shape, but color has made a difference for me. 
 

 

[Jack Hanson]

Nice, I live in South NJ and at most lakes it’s all just weeds and grass when fishing from the shore.

[WRB]

Robo worms 41/2” FX Sculpon, 5 1/2” curl tails, 6” straight straight fat tails mm3’s, Oxblood red flake drop and slip shot rigs.

5” Senko’s #301 & 330 wacky rigged.

Tom 

[Wprich]

5" Senko in Green Pumpkin Magic Wacky rigged on 7'1" M/XF spinning rod

4" Strike King Game Hawg in Blue Craw Texas rigged 1/8 or 3/16 ounce tungsten 7'1" M/XF spinning rod

 

 

[scaleface]

Yum Dinger,  Texas rigged with a 5/16th oz weight .7 foot hvy action rod .17 lb test Trilene xl in clear blue flourescent .  3.0 or 4.0 VMC offset hook . June bug and Bama Bug are the only colors I carry . Thats my bread and butter setup to present a lure properly to shallow bass in thick cover 

 

 The VMC hooks now have that stupid 3 degrees offset bend that is useless . I straighten it out with pliers , no problem .

[Jig Man]

Elaztech worms and TRDs are all I need.  I rig them from open hook to Tex skin depending on where I am fishing, using the lightest head possible.  I use rods from ml to mh depending upon the situation.

[treble hook]

7-1/2” Plastic worm, Texas rigged is my go to. Junebug, Watermelon, or Red Shad color. Senkos fished weightless would be next. Then 6” lizards. I catch a lot of my fish on plastics.

[Mike L]

Magnum UV Speed Worm/Rage Cut R

Trokar TK 120 hook,

3/16 unpegged,

junebug. 
 

7’ MH/F Ark Lancer Pro 

Curado I w/ 16# Sniper 

or

Curado K w/ 40# Power Pro

 

 

 

Mike

 

 

[gim]

A stick bait like a senko would be an important plastic for me. I also keep a fair amount of tubes, TRDs, power/ribbon tail worms, and strike king rage tail menaces for trailers.

[DaubsNU1]

The lakes I fish, anything in pumpkin green -- TRD, Senko, craw, power-worm. 

[GRiver]

Texas rigged ribbon tail worm, June bug or watermelon pearl 

from BPS in garlic scent.

[J Francho]

Rage Craw, Texas Rig

Senko, wacky

Crosstail Shad, drop shot

[DitchPanda]

4 hours ago, scaleface said:

Yum Dinger,  Texas rigged with a 5/16th oz weight .7 foot hvy action rod .17 lb test Trilene xl in clear blue flourescent .  3.0 or 4.0 VMC offset hook . June bug and Bama Bug are the only colors I carry . Thats my bread and butter setup to present a lure properly to shallow bass in thick cover 

 

 The VMC hooks now have that stupid 3 degrees offset bend that is useless . I straighten it out with pliers , no problem .

I really like the vmc hooks..they are about as nice as it gets for the money. But I hate that offset bend and also straighten them out.

[king fisher]

Zoom Ole Monster- Junebug.  T rig, and C rig.

Zoom Magnum Trick Worm Watermelon Candy T rig and C rig.

Zoom Trick Worm  Junebug, and Green Pumpkin chart. tail T rig

7 inch Senko. June bug T rig no weight( to be politically correct, no weight weedless)and wacky.

Magnum Rage bug Okeechobe Craw T rig, C rig

Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper, Purple Smoke, T rig, swim bait head, and A rig.

[Choporoz]

20 hours ago, Jack Hanson said:

  I fish it weightless on a Texas rig.

Uh oh

20 hours ago, Jack Hanson said:

I don’t carry many soft plastics, just the minimum.

Same here.  But my 'minimal plastics' bag weighs about seven pounds

[Jack Hanson]

7 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Uh oh

Same here.  But my 'minimal plastics' bag weighs about seven pounds

I’m fairly new to fishing, check back in two months and I’ll probably have 5-6 pounds of soft plastics.

[Jig Man]

We had 33 bass today.  25 of them were caught on Elaztech baits (TRDs and Zeros). Most were on Zeros.  We didn’t bother with any other plastics.

[NYWayfarer]

4” GYBC Senko or 4” Bass Pro Shops Stik-O rigged wacky on a 1/0 Owner Camo wacky rig hook or Weightless on a 2/0 Ozark Trail worm hook.

 

Z-Man TRD TicklerZ Texas rigged on a 1/0 Ozark Trail worm hook and a 1/8 to 3/16 oz tungsten weight

 

Z-Man finesse TRD on a Ned rig 

 

Storm 360 GT searchbait swimbait

[PourMyOwn]

Hula Grub on a swim jig

Texas rigged hard head tube

7.5" ribbon tail worm

TRD Ned 

 

The ned is the only plastic I buy, the rest I make. I pour all of my own baits except the TRD, and will continue to buy them. 

[WVU-SCPA]

Zman followed closely behind by maxscent products.

 

If you haven't tried maxscent yet give it a try. Promise they aren't a gimmick. 

[Jack Hanson]

5 minutes ago, WVU-SCPA said:

Zman followed closely behind by maxscent products.

 

If you haven't tried maxscent yet give it a try. Promise they aren't a gimmick. 

I’ll try them out, I’m a big zman and Berkley fan

[Bass Rutten]

My essential never leave home without it plastic is a straight tail worm, I like the netbait tmac, and for a smaller profile the zoom swamp crawler. As far as rigging you name it, they can do it all. In order of most to least used rigging method for me; shaky/slider head, flick shake, split shot/mojo rig, neko, weightless, jika, wacky, dropshot, carolina, texas rig.