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Soft plastics


arthur06

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After a long and quite successful record bait fishing, I have decided to go for the "better" option. For soft plastic lures. For a first try for flathead or anything that will bite on SPs in general, what should I use? In the ranges of gulp soft plastics, what weight and sizejigheads do you reccommend? I have a rod and location but how should I jig or reel it? Thanks guys

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1/4 oz jighead with a 2/0 using a zman pearl white 5 inch jerk shad. Smother it with pro cure saltwater gel. Just let it sink to the bottom and then hop it back to you lifting the rod sharply. Visualise a shad doing 1 to 2 foot hops towards you along the sea floor. They're often hit on the drop.

Edited by Guest123456789
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I use a range of weights depending on depth, 1/8 and 1/4 oz and size 2/0 jig head and a 2.5 or 3.0 Zman Grub (paddle tail) in Motor Oil or Aromic Chicken.

i also use Sfactor scent 

i am no expert and I have only caught about 4 legal flatties and a bunch of bream In about 6 outings

i do the double lift and slight wind method.

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You'll want to go as light as possible to suit the depth (boat based) or if land based the area / cast distance. Your rod weight will also determine how light you can go. What rod weight are you using?

Generally any of the fish like SPs will do the trick on flathead. Just hop along the bottom, and pause occasionally, they'll generally hit on the pause.

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A bit more info on where and how you'll be fishing as that will have a say in jighead size and type of SP. Land based or boat? Shallows or channel? Drifting or anchored?

My main advice is to make sure the jighead hits the bottom. Depending on where you're fishing, it can take a lot longer than you'd think for your jighead to hit the bottom. Where i fish from the shore, it can take anywhere from 10 to 20 seconds. You need to watch the line closely and look for a subtle bump in the line, indicating it's hit bottom.  I fished SPs for years with poor results before I recently did a charter and had someone show me exactly what to look for. Now I know what to look for, I reckon all those years I was never getting the SP to the bottom, and if you're not getting the lure to the bottom, you're not going to catch them. My success rate has increased dramatically.

Cast out, wind a little slack and wait. Once it's hit bottom, pause for a few secs, two quick flick of the wrist, wind a few turns, look for the telltale dip in the line to know you've hit bottom again, pause a few secs, then do it all over again. If in doubt, pause everything for 20 secs to ensure you're hitting the bottom. 

I don't know if colour really makes much of difference, but again would be dependent on where you're fishing. Where I fish the water can be quite murky. I like to have some earthy, neutral, dirty colours like pumpkin seed, motor oil or amber, and if that doesn't work try something more contrasty like white, pearl or pink. 

I used to use Gulps because of the scent but they're just too messy (the packets always leak) and they dry out to easily. Now i prefer zman's; so much easier and less messy. For flatty's I don't think scent is too crucial anyway. 

I normally use 1/8 or 1/6 jigheads. If in shallows you can go lower. In deeper channels, could go to 1/4. 

 

 

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Agreed you probably don't need much scent for flatties I've caught them without much but I reckon your by catch goes up a lot which is always nice ? 

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i like the zman 2.5 and 3.0 inch curl tail grub in watermelon,

these grubs may look small but i have caught flathead up to 58cm on them

bascially any soft plastic will work with the gulp,squidgys,zman being the most common

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3 hours ago, seasponge said:

A bit more info on where and how you'll be fishing as that will have a say in jighead size and type of SP. Land based or boat? Shallows or channel? Drifting or anchored?

My main advice is to make sure the jighead hits the bottom. Depending on where you're fishing, it can take a lot longer than you'd think for your jighead to hit the bottom. Where i fish from the shore, it can take anywhere from 10 to 20 seconds. You need to watch the line closely and look for a subtle bump in the line, indicating it's hit bottom.  I fished SPs for years with poor results before I recently did a charter and had someone show me exactly what to look for. Now I know what to look for, I reckon all those years I was never getting the SP to the bottom, and if you're not getting the lure to the bottom, you're not going to catch them. My success rate has increased dramatically.

Cast out, wind a little slack and wait. Once it's hit bottom, pause for a few secs, two quick flick of the wrist, wind a few turns, look for the telltale dip in the line to know you've hit bottom again, pause a few secs, then do it all over again. If in doubt, pause everything for 20 secs to ensure you're hitting the bottom. 

I don't know if colour really makes much of difference, but again would be dependent on where you're fishing. Where I fish the water can be quite murky. I like to have some earthy, neutral, dirty colours like pumpkin seed, motor oil or amber, and if that doesn't work try something more contrasty like white, pearl or pink. 

I used to use Gulps because of the scent but they're just too messy (the packets always leak) and they dry out to easily. Now i prefer zman's; so much easier and less messy. For flatty's I don't think scent is too crucial anyway. 

I normally use 1/8 or 1/6 jigheads. If in shallows you can go lower. In deeper channels, could go to 1/4. 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, Gabm said:

You'll want to go as light as possible to suit the depth (boat based) or if land based the area / cast distance. Your rod weight will also determine how light you can go. What rod weight are you using?

Generally any of the fish like SPs will do the trick on flathead. Just hop along the bottom, and pause occasionally, they'll generally hit on the pause.

Landbased and a 2-4 kilo rod. Thanks guys for all the helpful replies, I'll see what I can get.

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I tend to use a jig head between 1/8 and 1/4 oz usually a TT headlockz jig head paired with a 4" Zman streakz curly tailz in nuclear chicken or greasy prawn depended on water clarity. I absolutely smother these plastics with shrimp pro cure and as previously mentioned just hop it off the bottom back to where I'm fishing.

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Flatties are a great choice for a first crack with SP. Almost anything works on flatties. Use as light a jighead as possible in the prevailing tide. All the advice from other Raiders here is good. Another tip is to leave the bait behind so that you can only use the SP.  

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17 hours ago, Cargo05 said:

Another tip is to leave the bait behind so that you can only use the SP.  

Good tip. I just recently got a kayak and have a self imposed rule of no bait on the kayak to force me to improve my SP and lure fishing. 

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Chicken/fish/squid stripes with added rod action will do the same job as most SP if the fish ignores lures for the day. Scent(natural juices) is already included, and you can adjust (cut) it to any size you want. 

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On 2017-6-12 at 11:04 PM, dirvin21 said:

most of the gulp's in the 2.5- 4 inch range will catch flathead, My preferred is the turtleback worm in pumpkinseed on a 1/8 oz jighead this is deadly on flathead and big whiting

I have caught the most flathead on pumpkin seed 3 inch minnow . if the tailor are biting your tail off then change over to zman grubs . they can't bite them as easily . also depending on the current and depth I always start with 1/8 jig head and size 2 hook. And work my way up and down . you want the plastic to move realistically through the water but want it to hit the bottom . 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 15/06/2017 at 6:18 PM, blaxland said:

Anybody noticed that squigies are getting really soft I had one destroyed by the first flathead I got last session

I agree, they seem to be getting softer. Another thing is there are less jig heads in the packet. Fishing with SP is getting more expensive. There may come a time when we go back to hard body lures. SP are a great way to fish all the same.

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