Soft Plastics

[Yakka Eater]

How much does everyone spend annually on soft plastics?

[Little_Flatty]

Sensitive topic! That’s like asking a total stranger for their underwear type!🤣

My boss at home knows the true figure I spend on fishing (I don’t try to hide it), but whenever asked, I say $50 a year!🤣

On lures in total, it probably is a few hundred a year, including jigheads. Not sure if that is a naughty figure or not🤔 But I certainly don’t reach into my pocket every time something new comes out.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Little_Flatty

[Fab1]

What amazes me is how people can afford to keep smoking,drinking and gambling.One thing I've noticed is no matter how poor they are THEY ALWAYS FIND A WAY.

I know people that spend thousands in one night.One guy (single) at my old work would put $500 a week on lotto and power ball week in week out.

  I spend bugger all as I use old gear and really only use bait and hardly get out.I don't buy new gear like rods,reels,etc.

  Guys in hear that a right into it would spend $$$$$$$$.

At the end of the day each does what they want with their $$$.

I have soft plastics like gulps,squidgees I've had for years.😂

Edited February 23, 2022 by Fab1

[bluefin]

SP's about 20 packets a year!  Hard and soft Vibes at almost $20 each is my expensive part of fishing. At least 1 a week. 🙃

[Fab1]

2 minutes ago, bluefin said:

SP's about 20 packets a year!  Hard and soft Vibes at almost $20 each is my expensive part of fishing. At least 1 a week. 🙃

At $20 a pop it doesn't take long to cry if they are lost.

[Little_Flatty]

3 minutes ago, Fab1 said:

What amazes me is how people can afford to keep smoking,drinking and gambling.One thing I've noticed is no matter how poor they are THEY ALWAYS FIND A WAY.

I know people that spend thousands in one night.One guy (single) at my old work would put $500 a week on lotto and power ball week in week out.😫

Wow at $500 a week, you could almost pay a modest mortgage with that kind of money!

Certainly far worse things that we could be getting up to! At least with our fishing, it gets us outdoors and keeps the brain ticking along. And gives us a feed if we're very, very lucky  

4 minutes ago, bluefin said:

SP's about 20 packets a year!  Hard and soft Vibes at almost $20 each is my expensive part of fishing. At least 1 a week. 🙃

Just now, Fab1 said:

At $20 a pop it doesn't take long to cry if they are lost.

Yep that's probably the reason why I don't use vibes that much. My local spots are very snaggy. I've lost a brand new blade on the first cast! I do however have a Chasebaits weedless soft vibe in my tacklebox, ready to test its weedless claims!

[slothparade]

9 minutes ago, bluefin said:

SP's about 20 packets a year!  Hard and soft Vibes at almost $20 each is my expensive part of fishing. At least 1 a week. 🙃

The discount bin is your best friend 😂

I'll proudly say this I almost never buy and lures unless they're in the discount bin 

$5 for a vibe what a bargain 😁

 

[bluefin]

14 minutes ago, slothparade said:

The discount bin is your best friend 😂

I'll proudly say this I almost never buy and lures unless they're in the discount bin 

$5 for a vibe what a bargain 😁

 

Im very choosy in what I use !.

 

[slothparade]

1 minute ago, bluefin said:

Im very choosy in what I use !.

 

Can't blame you there. I've been looking the zerik vibes, now and again you will find all sorts of good stuff 🤣

[Little_Flatty]

For the kind of fish I catch, I'd rather get four years worth of lures and fish with Sedonas than to buy a Stella and have to skimp on lures. After all, with the type of fishing I do, what's on the end of your line matters more than what's in your hands, to a point.

Even if I win the lotto or strike it rich, all I'd do is more fishing travel instead of buying more expensive gear. Though, if I end up in Weipa or similar, maybe one high end reel might be warranted for the big nasty stuff. All the same, probably wouldn't be Stella grade though.

25 minutes ago, bluefin said:

Im very choosy in what I use !.

Same. I limit myself in what I carry and I'm hard to convince to add new lures to my box (crankas were a rare exception). Most of my lure purchases are replacements (damn tailor, damn snags!). I could quite happily survive with ONE kind of lure in my tacklebox, the Berkeley 3 inch power minnow, or any similarly proportioned soft plastic flick bait. Not many fish in the ocean/estuary that wouldn't take one of those! I'm also still fishing with two 16 year old SX40s...really get what you pay for with those; they will get a funeral when I finally lose them.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Little_Flatty

[Yakka Eater]

2 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

Sensitive topic! That’s like asking a total stranger for their underwear type!🤣

My boss at home knows the true figure I spend on fishing (I don’t try to hide it), but whenever asked, I say $50 a year!🤣

On lures in total, it probably is a few hundred a year, including jigheads. Not sure if that is a naughty figure or not🤔 But I certainly don’t reach into my pocket every time something new comes out.

wasn't meaning to be sensitive😂

I mainly use plastics when i'm fishing bays and estuaries, at least $600+ annually

Edited February 23, 2022 by Yakka Eater

[Mike Sydney]

I am fishing most nights and lose a ton of lures so am constantly replacing. Probably $25-$30 a week on average.

@Little_Flatty on weedless lures I’ve been really having fun with the Zerek Live Shrimp, only $10 each at the giant-snake shop. Its very light and come as small as 2”. I honestly don’t know why they’re not more expensive. 

[Little_Flatty]

48 minutes ago, Mike Sydney said:

I am fishing most nights and lose a ton of lures so am constantly replacing. Probably $25-$30 a week on average.

@Little_Flatty on weedless lures I’ve been really having fun with the Zerek Live Shrimp, only $10 each at the giant-snake shop. Its very light and come as small as 2”. I honestly don’t know why they’re not more expensive. 

I'm sure I have one of the Zereks lying around (or was it the Savage equivalent?), should get it out for a play. I used to have two, but lost one to a flatty when playing silly buggers with 3lb leader chasing bream.

I used to lose a ton of lures too until I started using EWG hooks and Texas rigs where I knew it was snaggy. Now it's normal for me to get through a session without losing a single lure.

That's a related question to the original post; how many lures does one lose to snags in a session?

Before rigging weedless  and being more discerning where I will deploy a traditional jig head/vibe/blade, I would regularly lose 3-5 in a session but these days, I will lose at most 1-2, with no losses being likely. I suspect that boat/kayak-based anglers might lose less (and have a higher recovery rate thanks to being able to change line angle more readily).

I'm sure there's a 'skill' to 'feeling' the snags + a skill to get lures back from snags, which I am ok at, but I'm not entirely convinced that this is more than 60% effective.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Little_Flatty

[Isaac Ct]

0$, bait fisherman all the way.

[Rebel]

Hard to say, over $100 a year. Might be more.

[Green Hornet]

Back when I was tournament fishing I probably spent four or five hundred on plastics every year and just a little less on hard bodied lures. I don't fish comps anymore and still have hundreds of packs of plastics and unused hards that I'm slowly working my way through.

These days I really enjoy casting metals from the beach and just don't lost them. I've been fishing the same 35g Surecatch Bishop for the last 4 years and only have to change the hooks when I can no longer sharpen them to a fine point. 

[dirvin21]

I just replace as necessary although I do stock up when there'sa good special, wouldn't even guess at a yearly figure

My philosophy is Amy and I work hard, fishing is our passion so we have no issues with the $$$ spent on it 

 

[mrsswordfisherman]

This is a horrible thread 

The amount of dollars swordie has spent would have bought us new cars, a another house etc 

I nagged for long enough (yes I did nag about this @Fab1) and he now makes his own soft plastics pretty much  

He gets his moulds from the Ukraine sadly - there may be some issues getting anything out of there  now

Here is his post on making soft plastics 

 

[Fab1]

45 minutes ago, mrsswordfisherman said:

This is a horrible thread 

The amount of dollars swordie has spent would have bought us new cars, a another house etc 

I nagged for long enough (yes I did nag about this @Fab1) and he now makes his own soft plastics pretty much  

He gets his moulds from the Ukraine sadly - there may be some issues getting anything out of there  now

Here is his post on making soft plastics 

 

I knew it!

[bluefin]

This is my sport. Im happy to pay, because it makes me happy. I feel good using brand name lures.  Plus I get free food ! Exercise, and  Therapy to better my Psychological mindset in the form of stress, anxiety and depression relief. I get to forget about life for a while. ( sing me a song Mr piano man )🙃

[essjay]

I dont know for sure but probably invested around $300-350 getting myself setup for SP fishing including my Samaki jig head box.

Its a relatively cheap hobby for me when compared to others I pursue and my ROI so far is astronomical 

[Scratchie]

My soft plastics range will depend on what I’m actually targeting. So you obviously need quite a few different ones! 
For me, being a predominantly lure based angler I go through a fair bit. However, I have been fortunate enough to be supplied with plenty of plastics and also been sent a lot to trial for different companies. In saying that, I still probably spend about $200-$300 per year because at the end of the day, YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH LURES 😂😂😂

cheers scratchie!!! 

[Yakka Eater]

1 hour ago, Scratchie said:

My soft plastics range will depend on what I’m actually targeting. So you obviously need quite a few different ones! 
For me, being a predominantly lure based angler I go through a fair bit. However, I have been fortunate enough to be supplied with plenty of plastics and also been sent a lot to trial for different companies. In saying that, I still probably spend about $200-$300 per year because at the end of the day, YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH LURES 😂😂😂

cheers scratchie!!! 

I agree!! never too many! Making your own would be fun and save a fair amount of bucks

[Fab1]

To put things in perspective when I played golf(Haven't played for probably 8yrs or so). My membership was nearly $2500 alone.I have clubs worth about 4k.Go price consumers like golf balls(Good ones) they ain't cheap.Then you always usually have a feed and beer or dozen.(Not cheap either).I use to play 3-4 times a week 18holes and then go to work and put in 12hrs.

  Watching YouTube,reading books,asking people's advice I reached a handicap of 3 self taught.

Maybe I need to ask Yowie how to catch bloody fish.😂😂

[frankS]

For about 15 years I was sponsored to the tune of $1000 per year by probably the largest fishing related franchise in Australia. I would have trouble finding things to spend the money on, so a lot of it went on just buying stuff like plastics, tackle boxes, and knives and stuff and donate it all to raffles etc that mainly went to worth while charities.

What I am saying is other than buying rods reels etc I found it hard to spend that much money every year, I spose that's why I have thousands of lures, ( over $1000 sold in the last month or so and that is selling cheap ) I have plenty left.

As far as plastics I would only have about 50 or so packets of various types so wouldn't be spending a lot on plastics annually.

If I had to spend my own money on plastics I would estimate less than $50 annually.

Though I don't fish anywhere as much these days as I used to.

Frank