The shame....oh the shame!!!

[Muddy Toes]

Alright here I go.....for a while now and partly due to some reports I've read on here and in some magazines, yesterday I made the gut wrenching decision to buy a rod and reel combo to fish soft plastic offshore with.This decision did not come easy and even as I sit here typing these words just the mere thought of me using soft plastics as opposed to bait makes me cringe but the time has come.Call me what you will my fellow bait users but I'm going to try it!!!:-[
So the question needs to be asked what jigheads and plastic should i buy to get the ball rolling.I'm not looking at spending a zillion dollars on this whole plastics caper just in case It's something I'm not going to follow on with in the future.I usually fish for the regular offshore species we see in our area so I'm looking for your thoughts on what to buy to cover a few bases.:-?

[TimD]

What combo did you get first of all ?


cheers tim :)

[Muddy Toes]

AH HA!!!! One of the posters that MAY have influenced me.....I could have bet my house on you replying first!!!!!;D
Daiwa Ballistic 4000 reel and a Daiwa Saltiga G 7' 12-20lb rod mate.

[BillyT2382]

Woohoo come to the darkside! lol trust me muddy your gunna say everything under the sun when ya do hook up because i did..i was like yourself bait is all i know and have ever fished with, but now!!! this wriggly thing that they call s/p's and hards,
Well lets just say i'm convinced mate i'm sure you will to, i know... i know what ya thinking because i was there when i caught my first fish, then second, third and so on and so on,
I'm sure you will come back with all the stories of your trip or trips to come..

Cheers
Billy

[tunaticer]

What depth of water?

[timddo]

AH HA!!!! One of the posters that MAY have influenced me.....I could have bet my house on you replying first!!!!!;D
Daiwa Ballistic 4000 reel and a Daiwa Saltiga G 7' 12-20lb rod mate.


He is still to convice me. Most of the time he uses the deadly BAIT

[Muddy Toes]

Between 30mtrs and 80mtrs....

[trymyluck]

Ahh jeeze, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE..............

[TimD]

Jigheads-

TT's
1oz with 7/0H hooks
1.5oz with 7/0H hooks
2oz with 8/0H hooks

Or contact Scalem or Dayoo on here, they make fancy glow powdercoated jigheads with eyes and quality hooks at a great price.

The sizes i listed will get you started for now. 2oz will get down in 80 metres as long as the run isn't too strong. I have found most Snapper take the plastic whilst it's sinking rather than near the bottom anyway, so getting to the bottom isn't always nessesary.


Plastics-

I mostly use gulp so i'll list a few favourites of mine.

7" pink shine jerkshad and 6" pink shine grub (love these to death)
7" nuclear chicken jerkshad and 6" nuclear chicken grub (work pretty well sometimes)
7" punk prawn jerkshad (awesome pearlescent finish)
7" pilchard jerkshad (another winner)
7" pearl white jerkshad (fish eat em)

I do use other colours too but i can't be bothered listing all of them ;D


Braid and Leader-

For Snap's and other pretty clean fighters 20lb braid with 20lb leader is fine, if your after kingies you can use the 20lb braid with a 40-50lb leader. If your getting smoked constantly then you might have to leave the big kingies alone and try and find some smaller ones.


If you have never used plastics i would recommend grabbing the gulp bluewater dvd, it shows you the basics of using plastics offshore. I have a copy here your more than welcome to borrow.


Dunno what else to tell you, if you wanna know anything else let me know :thumbsup:


cheers tim :)

[Horse]

First thing to do is not put any bait onboard. The second thing is to replace the bait with someone who regularly fishes plastics. Jig weight is critical and can't be explained on a forum. Current, wind, depth, target species, jig style, plastic size and boat characteristics are all major factors. I have used 1oz in 110m and been unable to fish 2oz in 60m. If you think of a plastic as a lightly weighted bait being presented as naturally as possible then you are off to a good start
Gulps are synthetic baits and will work on less than perfect presentation or when the fish are playing hard to get so are ideal for starting off. For offshore 7" the most popular. Colour catches fishos not fish in most cases
I mainly use TTs for jigheads because the hooks seem to suit my technique beter than other models
I believe daytime Snapper fishing is more effective in many cases with plastics but it is a pretty steep learning curve. Have fun with it.

[Blindfreddy]

With little to no current you can fish 80m with 1/2 to 3/4oz jigheads - yep done it and scored snapper to 6 kg - everyone is different though. When you fish on your own it won't matter what lead you use.

Blindfreddy

[PinHead]

All I can do is shake my head in disbelief. Where will it end??

[Captain Seaweed]

ohh Anthony.....

[Boat Hog]

MT

I'll be watching the classified section to see when your live bait tank, bait board and burley bucket come up for sale. :P ::)

Good luck,

[Marlin_Mike]

Oh Great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Another lost to the Dark Side............................

[Bull]

What combo did you get first of all ?


cheers tim :)

You have a lot to answer for Tim first Rosco and now Anthony where will it end lol

[gruntahunta]

He has already lost the battle....got nio chance of succeeding....Bet the bait goes as backup....tries plastics for about an hour or 2.....out comes the swivells and in comes the fish.

[Blindfreddy]

If a livies gets chomped you can still put it back down as a dead bait - but have you ever tried to re rig a half eaten 7" jerkshad?

[Muddy Toes]

Loosing friends and respect.......not my first intention but inevitable non the less.
I'm not totally lost to the darkside guys I'm merely trying it.....I'm experimenting.....kind of along the lines that Elton John, Freddy Mercury and Boy George went through when they started experimenting with things they wanted to try.
Pretty colours, new toys and a few people looking at me strangely, try as you may my fellow bait fishers but I will not be beaten!!!:P


Thanks for the replies so far guys it's a big help to someone as clueless as me about fishing with plastics.
So which will hit the classifieds first the plastics or the baitboard?8-)

[Funchy]

My 68yr old father is up at Inskip right now with 3 packs of SP's.NEVER EVER thought I would see the day. He has seen my recent success and cant help himself. Good luck MT.

[BigE]

Quick and easy is the lure of the dark side ......... be careful young padwun.

BigE

[Muddy Toes]

too cryptic for me master......what be meant by that?

[trymyluck]

Loosing friends and respect.......not my first intention but inevitable non the less.
I'm not totally lost to the darkside guys I'm merely trying it.....I'm experimenting.....kind of along the lines that Elton John, Freddy Mercury and Boy George went through when they started experimenting with things they wanted to try.
Pretty colours, new toys and a few people looking at me strangely, try as you may my fellow bait fishers but I will not be beaten!!!:P


Thanks for the replies so far guys it's a big help to someone as clueless as me about fishing with plastics.
So which will hit the classifieds first the plastics or the baitboard?8-)

Be careful, be very very careful.........The dark side has an even darker cousin............You may take up Fly Fishing..............

[Muddy Toes]

Be careful, be very very careful.........The dark side has an even darker cousin............You may take up Fly Fishing..............

Not likely mate........I draw the line at the tweed jacket, pipe and those funny looking landing nets....

[Crunchy]

If you haven't got one get a sea anchor
If you don't know them learn the Bimini twist, yucatan and rapala loop knots.
Stock up on 1/4 1/2 and 3/4 oz jig heads, 5 and 7 inch gulps, esp NC's

It's all good......

[robtarr]

just do what I do Anthony and take everything out....bait, SP's, jigs, the lot...variety is the spice of life mate

[fishfeeder]

"kind of along the lines that Elton John, Freddy Mercury and Boy George went through when they started experimenting with things"

Its all starting to make sense now, Don't know how I missed it.... but I think they call them Rubbers not plastics :-*:-*

[fishinwahbee]

Mate. Don't bring any bait on board. Make yourself use plastics for the same amount of time as you would fish Bait. I never bring Bait out anymore i did when i first started. The occasionally live bait is Great fun too. Watch some of the videos on you tube. Fishing the edge is a great series. I might rarely put a live bait out on a rod(1) and fish plastics.

[PinHead]

I reckon these blokes that use plastics all the time end up with other plastic accessories..plastic wife perhaps. Just cannot live without the artificial things in life.

Turn back now or forever be seduced by plastic.

[kingcray]

I too have recently been converted (almost). Have caught almost a dozen different estuary and bay species on plastics over the last few months that took me the best part of 20 years to get on baits.
I have caught plenty of decent sized fish over the last 5 or so plastics trips in places i would normally fish with bait. Certainly cannot say the same for the last 5 bait outings!!

[grave41]

Muddy in 40-70m of water i use tt 7/0 5/8 jig heads with 5 inch paddle tails grey yellow top white belly with asplash of red around gills'.Cast up current ,stick rod in holder and wind in snapper.
graham

[Muddy Toes]

Sounds a bit too easy Graham LOL