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Soft Plastic Fishing


wrek3000

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Guys i have tried and tried with sp fished different methods , tides , locations and still havent had a single taker. Got me wondering if im doing somethin wrong! Tried many locations throughout parra river , iron cove h&C Gladeville area Lane Cove river and yet a bit fat doughnut. Mainly using squidgy fish in the silver fox and a couple of small hard bodied lures. Any help would be appreciated. Any if any of you guys want to go for a flick let me know, love to learn something from you guys!

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anyone want to have a fish? im dumbfounded. was an avid bloodworm/nipper fisherman tried to swing over to sp but dam its definately got me by the ball! really cant win..Just want to catch a fish on sp do away with costs im throwing into lb, which dont get me wrong,I have scored some crack fish. esp kidney slapping whiting on as far up as meadowbank. and yes i do and have been eating fish out of the reaches of parra river,for a long time and no i havent grown a 3rd eye :clapping: yet

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not sure but its very light, cant get much distance out of the cast..dont they say fish as light as possible? what size should i match the jig and sp?

IMO, if you are really new to SP's your target should be flathead.

May I suggest using a 1/4 jig matched with a 3inch minnow, grub or swimming mullet.

You want this to hit the bottom and jig up bouncing the sp on and off the bottom. Yes this is a heavier jig than most people will use but it will help you feel what the set up is doing and will keep you in the strike zone. Once you have caught a few, you will understand what you have done right and go from there!

This is just my opinion, and I am relatively new to SP's but have already managed quite a few different fish including jewies!

Flatty are the entry level to sp fishing!

Good luck!

Cheers scratchie!!!

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What Scratchie said. And try find a drop-off to cast over and then retrieve back bouncing the plastic on the bottom.

There's lots of flatties at this time of year in the shallows on warm afternoons. As the sun heats the shallow water the flatties come out to feed. You just need to find some underwater structure and have a good feel of the lure doing it's thing. Heavier jig heads make it easier to cast/feel and won't put the flathead off too much.

I'll go for a flick with you one afternoon if you're keen, just PM me your details and we'll figure something out.

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I would certainly take the advice provided by Grant :1worthy:

I know I have and my results in IC and similar western harbour bays have only gotten better :)

In those bays the water is generally quite shallow hence fishing the big tides if you can is important as the fish feel more comfortable swimming onto the flats surrounding the shoreline. Even better if the high tide coincides with low light or overcast conditions.

As Oarderve mentioned, go for a walk or bike ride and have a look around on a very low tide and look for promising areas that are exposed at this time. Look for areas that will attract/hold bait ie. mud flats with worm and crab holes or tracks, small rocks that small creatures can hide under, weed areas that small creatures hide in, drains with storm water running out etc.These areas in turn will attract the bigger fish on a high tide as they come into feed looking for a tastey morsel.

When inspecting a potential spot at low tide look out for the nasty snags and try to keep this in mind when fishing the area so as to minimise the loss of a cherished lure ie. throwing a well loved blade into an area with oyster encrusted rocks on the bottom or directly over a sunken tree is only going to end in disaster as I've found out myself :(

Exercise some stealth when approaching the water line as the fish are usually very close in and are easily spooked.

If yours is the 702 Catana rod I have the exact same outfit except I have 4lb braid / 6lb FC leader and it is a nice little combo for the price and has served me well.

I've had success with the 80mm bloodworm wriggler on a 1.5g (1/18th) No.2 squidgy jighead and also the Berkely 3" Power Bass Minnows in pearl/watermelon on a 1/28th & 1/40th No.1 & 2 hidden weight TT jighead. What I did find was that the choppers loved these plastics as well and I was wasting too much time continuosly replacing damaged plastics and rigging up so I've been using the ever reliable 2.5" Zman grubz in either watermelon/red, bloodworm or motor oil mostly on a 1/18th No. 2 squidgy jighead. A bit of scent applied to the sp also helps.

Also I've found it best to find a stretch of shoreline with the wind either directly behind you or directly against you rather than a cross wind. In doing so you will have better contact with your lure as a cross wind will put a big bow in your line especially when fishing light jig heads. Of course fish as light as you can for the conditions and fish with a controlled amount of slack in your line - not too loose and not too tight, just the right amount of slack to see and feel what is going on at the other business end.

I'm certainly no expert, far from it, and I'm putting the pieces together myself and learning from each outing but this is what has worked for me after recieving valuable advice on the Forum from experienced Raiders.

I hope this helps and do yourself a big favour and leave the bait at home!!

Good luck and it's all about spending time out there and putting the pieces together. Once you've had some success you won't look back.

Looking forward to your upcoming report advising of your SP success!

Ian

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1/8th is ok in deeper water, but.....

Where you are thinking of fishing is a max of 2 mtrs deep at high tide.

1/16th would be the heaviest I would go. even down to 1/28th would do it.

1/8th simply sinks too fast. It will be o.k for flatties but you won't catch much else.

The hook size is fine. It's the weight that worries me.

Read Chelubs post in depth. There is some good info in there & he didn't once

mention a 1/8th weight for a jig head.

Cheers,

Grant.

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Firstly, for the original post, If you are looking to get the hang of sp's, i would highly reccomend what i have recently done. Go to Bray's Bay on the parramatta river. Its mud flats that can be acsessed from the park at any tide. Its snag free and home to some flathead. Go down an hour after high tide and give it a go. That gave me a basis to learn and Ive caught some ok flaties there in the process.

Secondly, my question. How exactly do you cast a 1/16th weight? I stuggle to get distance and resort back to adding extra weigth (1/4-1/8). I use a relatively stiff rod, is this the problem? Should i use lighter gear? Any opinions would be awesome.

Cheers

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Krause,

My usual outfit is a 2-4kg 7ft graphite rod, 2500 reel spooled with 4lb/5lb braid and about 1.5 rod lengths of 6lb FC leader. This combination makes casting easy work even when using 1/18th & 1/28th jig heads. Considerably more distance can be achieved when casting directly with the wind.

I have found that you will get far more casting distance when your reel is correctly spooled with just the right amount and rating of braid. If you don't have enough braid on your spool or if its rating is too high for your outfit you will not achieve maximum castability..... that's just the laws of physics. Of course you don't want to overspool your reel either otherwise you might end up with a big tangle similar to that demonstrated in the Instant Fisherman add.

It's not always about casting the furthest distance, sometimes where you are casting is more important. If you do need extra casting distance position yourself on the shore line so you are casting with the wind.

You will have far more chances of catching a broader range of species if using a lighter jig head in the areas mentioned. Also heavier jig heads are not only more prone to snagging, they create more splash in the water and plummet to the bottom thereby increasing the chances of spooking the fish in the area you are fishing.

Good luck

Ian

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Cheers for the imput. The out fit i use was bought for spinning for pelagics, and i substitute it for the sp's. Its 8-10kg 7ft grafite rod paired with a 4000 reel loaded with 20lb powerpro. Big difference between what im using and what you guys are recommending. With this outfit it is near impossile to cast anything less than 4g more than a few metres. I am deffinately keen on getting into the sp more, and might just go and invest in a cheapie set up. Does anyone have any suggestions? Roughly 40 bucks for 150yds of 5-6lb, then how much for a cheap rod and reel. Again any thought would be appreciated, cheers.

Also on a side note the other day i caught a bass/perch on sp? I was trying to catch anything that was around but mostly flatties. Are bass a common catch/something you would target on sp's? If im honest that was the first one id ever caught or seen, so i released it and set off home to work out what it was. It was 32cm long... Is this good/big? I gave it a google and can only find wieght records and stuff. Just wondering, thats all :biggrinthumb:

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