I need help with plastics, im just starting out

[brute898]

Well the time has come for me to try soft plastic fishing. I am sick of getting in my car all smelly and dirty so I wanna give the plastics a shot and see how I go. I will be targeting flathead and whiting with one set up and snapper with another set up.
First of all my budget is around $250 or less per combo. Also I would like to stay with shimano set ups as I have some of them and they are great. I know hardly anything about plastics.

I will need one set up for flathead, bream, whiting etc. So what rod, reel and pound of braid and leader would you suggest. Also what size jig heads and styles of plastics. I will be fishing in about 3-6m of water.

I am going to need another combo for snapper out in the bay. What is a good quality rod and reel in the shimano range for roughly $250 that would be suitable for what I need. Also what strength of braid and leader will I need. It will be in Port Phillip Bay. Also what size jigheads and styles of plastics? I have heard about the berkley gulp jerkshads are good but I am not sure what size.
Also when I am using plastics for flathead and also snapper what is a good way to retrieve the plastic as I have never done it before.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

[Tangles]

Brute,

those rubbers stink as much if not more than bait, and S factor xyz , well takes me straight back to times one should forget,, .. yes i have tried them and will try them again but they are as smelly as bait.

also it its far kinder to give a fish a real feed of real food before it lands in your esky than a plastic

I dont reckon any fisho should ever worry about dirt and smell, now if it was a case of it was a better fishing technique targeting a certain way of fishing, then any successful technique is a good one regardless , bait plastic or lure.

I think you have to brute up

cheers
Mike

My Next invention, Bait that looks like a franger, packaged with a hint of ?

[breakthelines]

Starlo Stix & stradic reel.

But i'd go:

Get a berkley drop shot IM6 rod - 6'6" 1-3kg. $90-$110 depending where you buy.

Abu Garcia Cardinal 102 reel. $60-$75 as above.

4lb or 6lb Braid.

6lb leader for Bream & 12lb leader for flatties.

3" Shaky shad (pumpkin seed) and 5" jerk shad (any chicken colour).

Hope it helps! Jay

[Marlin_Mike]

seek help......dont do it....the dark side is strong but you can do it................be stronger.................. give the SP's the flick..........


Mike

[BaitThrower]

Go the Smelly!

Although flathead will strike at just about anything... so no problem there... As for bream, well I tend to think they like smelly bait better than plastics. Snaps seem to chew plastics just fine.

As for rods, well IMO you can catch them on just about any rod (snaps will need something heavier). A good soft plastic rod with a soft, springy tip works well for bream as they get scared off at any hint of tension on the bait.

[Peter4]

seek help......dont do it....the dark side is strong but you can do it................be stronger.................. give the SP's the flick..........

Banish the blasphemer!

[kevvie]

Mate, to answer your questions would require a novel-length response. My advice is to use the search feature in the forum and read through all the topics you can find. You will come across a heap of info already posted dozens of times.

Time on the water will be your best option. There are literally thousands of combinations of rods, reels, plastics, jigheads and leaders. Go to you local tackle store and start picking thier brains.

For a first timer though...use Gulp! or lures with S-Factor. It will enhance your chances of catching fish with sp's.

And for reference...My missus only comlains when i come home from fishing after using bait...NOT LURES!!! Its far cleaner, convenient and when you get good, better than bait

[Scalem]

Your budget of $250 is a little more than what I spent.. And every time I take a newbie out in the boat to teach them about soft plastics, the one plastics rig that I have, ALWAYS catches more fish even when placed in the newbies hands, and has never let me down. It's the berkley dropshot 6"8 ( around $90.00) 3-5kg with a simple Penn applause 4000 (around $125.00)series loaded with 10lb Stren Microfuse. I have had it for about 4 years now, and it is wrinsed in warm water after every trip which might be why it has lasted this long .. But hooked some nice fish in all that time.

Scalem

[flathead007]

If you can hold out a little I would get a stradic 1000 or 2500 (i own 5 stradic reels) for a middle of the road reel they are up the top. In regards to a rod heaps of companies make a good quality rod for around 90 to 110.

If you are looking for a bargain though i started with a a shimano catana rod 7ft 2-4kg ($45 to 65) reel shimano sienna 2500 (does not lay the line anywhere near as good as a more expensive reel but you will get that with any reel in its prce range). And for line i would recoomend 4 to 6 pound (4 is better if your not scared) use braid over fire line (must use low stretch line) as you will get further casts. Get someone to show you how to put backing line on your reel (most shim reels come with 2 spools which makes it easier)

You will need to get some leader, i always use flourocarbon 2 to 4 pound for bream and whiting and 4 to 10 pound (8) for flathead.

jig heads

flathead - up to 3m 1/8th of an ounce #1 hook
- up to 6m 1/6th of an ounce #1 hook
3 inch minnow gulp pumpkinseed (my go to lure)

bream - up to 3m 1/16th of an ounce or less #1 hook
- up to 6m 1/8th or less of an ounce #1 hook
3 inch minnow powerbait clear, pearl watermelon

whiting - ask someone else as i have not caught many on plastics

Start off getting the gear for flathead that is the best place to start you will have some by catch of other species and plastics for flathead are much more effective than any bait. Hope that helps PM me for more info.

Make sure you shop around price differences can be huge, if there is only a small difference in price use your local as they will know a lot more about what to buy and how to get set up than at BCF or #####

[tunaticer]

I would be looking for a Berkley Dropshot 6'10" spin rod and mating that with a 2500 Symetre and loading 6lb braid on it. Buy a selection of flourocarbon leader spools in 4, 6 8 and 12lb sizes (value for money can be found in FC Rock 100m spools that go for about the same price as 25m of other brands and just as good. If you are new to braids go for a thermally fused braid like fireline or Stren microfuse as fused lines do tangle less than true braids in light sizes. True braids will cast further and tangle much more and are not forgiving for sloppy rod work continually wrapping the tip on the drop.

What plastic is a wide open question that will come down to what your local fish are feeding on. I can present absolute bream killers from the sunshine coast in my local creek and bum out completely, or i could put on that they favour and brain them.

Clue is accross the board that you need to fish as light as possible in both leader size and jig weight and to a lesser extent jig size. Match the hook to the bait and then select the right weight head. no point putting a #1 hook in a 4" jerkbait to get the weight right. Do not be scared to run a fairly big sized hook in a plastic if the weight is correct. The bend of the hook does not need to be any further back that half way and usually for me they sit with the point at about 1/3rd the way from the nose to the tail.

Fish with "controlled slack" do not fish tight to the lure or jighead. allow the line to have enough readily accessible slack for a fish to suck a bait into thier mouth. 90% of the time a "short take" or a missed bite is due to insufficient slack for the fish to effectively suck the bait into thier mouths. Fish seldom open thier mouths and move forward to get the lure in the mouth, they get close and quickly open they mouth and flare thier gills to suck the bait in. Learn to control the slack so it is there but not excessively and you will soon master the black art.

Colours generally catch a lot more anglers than fish, having been sucked in and spat out with colours a lot over 40 yrs I now use basic colours almost exclusively, greens, greys, browns and clears......clears are absolute killers at times esp first light and last light because they refract the little amount of light that is left and throw flashes.

Do not take bait when you are on the learning curve of plastics, it is too easy to give the game away.