Soft plastics - when to strike?

[Jimbu]

Hi all,

I've dedicated a fair amount of time to plastics over the past year with varying success. Flathead seem to come easily, but I'm yet to fully master other species.

Much of the literature I've seen suggests striking as soon as you see/feel the slightest touch, particularly when chasing bream and jewfish. This definitely works for flathead, as they simply grab the entire lure in their mouth. The theory behind bream is that they mouth a bait and spit it out quickly, so if you're not fast you will miss the hook up.

However, a couple of attempts in the harbour had me striking at a number of touches and coming up short each time. A couple of weekends ago, a friend took me out in the harbour on his boat. He fishes the harbour regularly, always with plastics, and suggested that instead of striking at bites, that I should pull back gently and only strike when I feel weight. On the day he had a fair amount of success, boating several species. I also caught two undersize pinkies using this technique.

It got me thinking, when do other successful anglers strike when using plastics; particularly when you're not certain what species has touched your lure? Does it depend on what species you are targeting? Are bigger fish less likely to bite and more likely to engulf a plastic straight away?

Curious to hear everyone's thoughts.

Cheers,

James

[nbdshroom]

Hi James,

Hope you've been well and here's my 2cents I'm no expert on lures but I don't think you are doing anything wrong even if you cannot hook up on every hit you can feel.

Flathead are relatively easy to catch because they ambush prey and thus are not as selective. I guess they may lay in wait for a long time before a meal presents itself so that makes them less fussy. Also, they have a big mouth and engulfing an entire lure is easy.

Bream are much more inquisitive and mobile. Sometimes they will follow prey and examine it before deciding to eat it. They have small mouths and won't swallow a lure deep, unlike a flathead which makes hookups less likely. In my experience, bream don't really spit lures out all that quickly. They are likely to pick it up and carry it away from the competition but the lure can become dislodged if there is line tension. Being a more active fish, they may chase lures and short strike at the tails only etc. leading to no hook ups but continual bites. Striking immediately might lead to a hookup (mouth or foul) but more often than not there is no weight on the end.

Tentatively regarding jews, the common belief is that they spit out lures almost as fast as the hand can strike. In that case, timing is everything. If there are any jew experts out there, please feel free to add to this thread

I generally strike at a hit but not when it feels like the hit was stopped by my line tension. In that case I continue to work the lure and entice another strike and hope that the fish hooks itself by loading into it. If the hits are persistent, it is more likely that really small fish are harassing the lure and may not be worth the time so moving to a different spot might be better.

[Jimbu]

Thanks for your wisdom, Pete! Your thoughts definitely make sense; more to think about next time I get a bite...

[Witha]

I'm woth pete on this, depends on how active the fish are and how they're taking it, flatties yeah no problem just strike hard, bream I've found will definitely run with it a bit, if you've seen a group of them harass a bait you know they try and grab it and move, a lot of my bream have come off feeling a tap and then watching the line move before setting the hook, if it feels like a solid whack though I tend to strike up immediately. From my very limited experience with jew the hits I've had have been solid taps that require striking, the taps I've felt when distracted have come up nil as i was too slow. Whereas feeling the tap then striking home hard has produced hookups (too bad they busted me off!)

Just keep practicing and feeling what the fish are doing, aborted / tail strikes by bream are frustrating but they will smash it at time

[Jimbu]

Thanks for the tips, Witha!

[GreyNurse]

Hi James,

It might also be worth watching any footage you can get hold of on fish feeding on natural and presented baits. With the advent and affordability of so much great marine camera gear nowadays, there's plenty to watch on websites such as YouTube. Look how large mouthed fish such as flathead, barra and bass seem to inhale the baits by opening their mouths so that the water and anything in it immediately in front of them race in. At the same time, they will either turn and run, or just sit there. In either case, the bait is often well and truly toward the back of the mouth, so a quick strike will often make the hook penetrate. Other species such as bream and whiting will mouth the bait and try and crush it before swallowing, making the strike a bit trickier to time.

But a picture's worth a thousand words, so open some popcorn and watch some video for a while. It can't hurt.