# Soft Plastics



## Hoffy (Feb 12, 2008)

As a life-long bait man the huge push for soft plastics has run me down and I'm currently experimenting with the huge variety of brands and types on offer, without much luck.

Some basic questions that may save me time and money: 
1. which brand works best, Gulp?
2. what shape works best for bream? Gulp Pumpkinseed Grubs and Sandworm are pushed hard in the shops.
3. the return - must it be kept slowly moving back to me or do you let it lay on the bottom like a bait?

Any tips would be much appreciated.

Hoffy


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## theclick (Jun 25, 2007)

the trick is to set your retrieve to the conditions.

For example

Bream; Around pylons, jettys ect cast right into the structure, give the plastic a few twitches and let it sink to the bottom. Try and keep as light as possible, 6lb line, under 1/20 jig heads and 2" or 3" plastics. Pumpkin seed works best. You will usually get taken on the fall, but once it has hit the bottom, let it lay for a few seconds, twitch a few times thus lifting the plastic by about a meter, let drop again, bring up slack, repeat. Always keep in contact with the plastic, and dont rush, 10 seconds of pause is good. The idea is to keep it slow.

For boat hull and floating objects, go really light or unweighted, and flick it in nice and close, and drift it under it.

For flathead, use a heavier leader, and heavier weights. You want to keep it just bouncing along the bottom slowly with a bit of action. 4" minnows are good for this.

Gulp are good, especially for dirty waters, but they are messy and can go off (i spose you are a bait man so it doesnt matter). I seem to have just as much success with actual plastics such as powerbaits and atomics.


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Hoffy said:


> As a life-long bait man the huge push for soft plastics has run me down and I'm currently experimenting with the huge variety of brands and types on offer, without much luck.
> 
> Some basic questions that may save me time and money:
> 1. which brand works best, Gulp?
> ...


1. Many brands work well. Gulps have the advantage of strong scent but others have better action
2. Many shapes work for bream. Location can be important. Remember that you are trying to mimic something a bream will eat, be that a worm, prawn, sprat, ... From the variety of styles that do catch bream I'd say that bream eat many things, but they won't just eat anything
3. A variety of retrieves will work. Gulps can be treated as bait because of their scent, but they have action too. Other plastics work mostly be action so you have to try mimic things that move in the water. This includes speed, pauses, change of direction, raising and lowering. Early advice I received was to slow it right down so you think you're retrieving very slowly. Then halve the speed. I had early success with 3" power minnows next to shallow weed beds. Cast, count slowly to 10, lift, count slowly to 5 while winding in slack, repeat to end of retrieve. Watch the line at all times for unusual movement or pauses then strike


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## BENM (Jul 4, 2007)

Totally aggree with the above recommendations.

I personally do not use Gulps that much anymore. Hate the smell and they do suffer a lot from pickers..

When selecting plastics, it is really the same as selecting the right bait for the area you are fishing. eg; If fish are feeding on prawns in your area, select a prawn soft plastic to match.

Ben


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## rob316 (Oct 2, 2007)

I'm contemplating going the opposite way....plastics have not been doing to well for me lately  , so i'm thinking of going back to basics and old style...real bait - for real fish...always said i wouldn't go fresh on the yak , but i reckon it might be time to go there and check my results against the plastic brigade.. . 8)


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## oldmanandthesea (Mar 26, 2007)

Personally I find catching bream on plastics very challenging but exciting when you get one.I have amassed an enormous amount of different plastics, scented and unscented,and find my current favourite to be a 2inch jigging grub.The tail has a very enticing action in the water.


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## Guest (Apr 14, 2008)

In some cases plastics will out-fish baits, other times they won't. But if you're consistently having trouble catching fish with them, chances are you're doing something wrong. Could be the wrong lure for the time or area (try to match the hatch so to speak), could be the way they are rigged, quite possibly the way they are retrieved. Whatever the problem is, I would encourage you to keep at it. Once you start bringing home the bacon, the pay-off is worth the effort. Not to mention that plastics are just the most convenient means of catching fish from a kayak (personally speaking, I also reckon it's more fun than just dangling baits). As for brands, as others have noted here, there really isn't one 'best brand' in a general sense. I do have my favourites for particular lure types, but in my collection there are at least 6 brands present and they all catch fish. I use Storm, Atomic, Finn-S, Berkley Gulp & Squidgy lures often but even some of the no-name lures are rather effective in the right place at the right time. Same goes for HB lures.


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## Swamp (Nov 20, 2007)

It depend where you are fishing and what conditions. Gulp is good... very good... ok pretty much all i use :lol: 
My best bream have come from 2inch worms and 3 inch fry on no2 jigheads 1/40oz centre weighted-taken on the drop
But recently i have been getting ripper fish on 2/0 jigheads 1/8oz and 4 & 5 inch jerk shads. (10x30-35cm bream in the last three trips)

Here are some greedy bream  
4inch jerk shad








100mm snap back fish









Light leader is a must.


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## Red Herring (Dec 18, 2006)

Yep, agree with the above posts. I've had days when a dead slow retrieve works well and other days when a somewhat faster retrieve seems to get the fish excited. Using a twitching or lift and drop action is also recommended. Plastics and lures in general required confidence to get results so try different types to find out what works for you.

So why fish SPs? IMO its generally more entertaining and exciting, usually results in a larger caliber of fish, and doesn't stink up the kayak.

I've been using SPs exclusively for a while now and seem to be getting enough for a feed on most occasions whish is enough to keep me happy. Remember fishing structure, time of day, tide etc all still need to be considered to get results. Let us know have you go.

Cheers,
RH


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## FoolInjected (Feb 4, 2008)

Check out the video clips in the following thread for Flatheads
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=15372&p=165995#p165995


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