Does Persistence Pay off with Soft Plastics?

[Astro]

It seems that every time we go fishing offshore, I say to myself I will stick to Soft Plastics this trip and will not use bait no matter what. So we get to our spot and we all drop our lines in and within minutes we are usually pulling in some fish, but not with Soft Plastics. The crew I usually go fishing with are mad bait fisho's and will not fish with Soft Plastics. As I stand there watching them pull in fish I think to my self will my Soft Plastic get hit, is it worth me being persistent with this Soft Plastic or should I change over to bait.

Well reality is I always change to bait because it always seems that this is what works best almost every time. Like the saying goes, if you can't beat them........

Its hard to sit there watching the other crew pull in fish while you stand there not getting any hits, knowing that if you change to bait you will be pulling in fish as well.

So is it really worth being persistent out there with Soft Plastics?

Maybe I still havent got the gist of things, tried many shapes and colour's, different weighted Jig heads, lines.

Even with all this I have gone out and bought a dedicated Offshore Softplastics Combo, there is something inside of me telling me there is still hope.

All feedback and experiences welcome

[Adam_G]

Astro,

Don't give up mate, I was in a similar position 3 years ago and persistance pays off. Two of my off shore PBs have come from plastics, snapper & mahi mahi. I have found SP work better early to mid morning where we normally fish.

I still fish with bait at some stage most trips out, around 30% bait, 70% SP. I gave the PE jigs a go last trip so my bait rod didn't get touched (although when using the PE jigs a bit of bait was put on the hook).

You just have to suck it up and cop a bagging from your mates when the SP don't work...but hang in there and you will be able to give it back when you land that trophy fish!!

Adam

[HeadBanger]

I don't fish offshore with plastics, but as far as I'm concerned, the answer is yes!

I used to only fish bait, never bothering with lures, until around Christmas time this year. I started fishing plastics every time I went out, only to catch no fish at all on them. I gave up, until a mate of mine started using them as well, and we both caught our first fish on plastics within about 5 minutes of each other.

Since then, I gave up on them for a while until the last 3 months or so, where I've been consistently targeting and catching flathead on them. Not the biggest fish ever, but the quantity makes up for it.

If you start to think that plastics are just a sales pitch or whatever, go out into almost any estuary and have a play for some flathead. Your mind will be changed.

Good luck with it, and don't give up!
Kaidon

[Nic]

We used to fish the Barwon Banks with two-hook droppers, one hook rigged with a plastic (a Snapback or a Gulp) and the other with a pillie or squid. We used to get just as many hits on the plastic, often more.

Now that we're in big red country I'm too scared to use two hooks, so I fish the plastic on a single hook dropper (either a DOA or a Gulp). Some days it's productive and I stick with it, while other days it doesn't work well and I end up switching to bait.

I use jighead-rigged plastics only occasionally when fishing offshore, but in my limited experience the jighead weight and the jigging technique matter more than the lure profile and colour.

I envy you your snapper fishing, I miss them!

[LostNearBribie]

Mate there will be heaps of people willing to help you with this, but they will need some more info on what you are actually doing.
Where are you fishing, what are you chasing, what are you using ie. jig heads, plastics, main line leader, rod, reel everything. What are your mates using and what are they catching.
My last charter trip I went on I was the only guy using plastics and I caught more fish than anyone else.
So let us know and I'm sure you will get some valuable feed back...

What is the dedicated set up you purchased?

[PinHead]

I am the opposite to most. I have not tried plastics offshore..I have tried them in the bay and in estuaries..they stink..they dry up and they are bloody expensive. I will stick to bait any day. The old adage is very true...lures catch fishermen.

[Astro]

Thanks for the replies.

We usually fish out of mooloolaba / noosa, so barwon banks, chardons reef, sunshine reef, and sometimes goldcoast 24's, 36's. I have tried gulps 5" - 7", squidgie 145 pilly, 4" guzzler prongs, and just recently 5" snapbacks, jigheads are I use are 1-2oz jig heads. 60-80lb leader.

We usually fish in 40m or 80m. Sometimes even with a 2oz jig head I cant seem to hit the bottom in 80M, the line always seems to be running away from the back of the boat no matter how fast upstream I cast.

I was using a T-Curve 200 (I know totally wrong setup for plastics) and stradic 8000 with 30lb braid as my all arounder for everything. I thought one rod and reel could do everything, but it cant.

I have just purchased a Shimano Mexicanfire 8-10kg with a Sustain 5000, one spool with 30lb power pro and one with 20lb power pro, hopefully this will be more kind then the T-Curve/Stradic Combo. I said to my self I will not put bait on this outfit.......................

[mitchdemeanor]

Mate keep with it,

I've only just got into it but the benefits are certainly there, but there's probably a few more things you might not have thought about:-

With soft plastics you have to find the fish, its all good going out with you're bait mates but they can get the fish to come to them, you cant.

Slow down, most peoples problems with soft plastics is they do each action too quickly e.g after flicking or raising your rod tip let a few seconds go by before reeling the slack in after lowering your tip. A lot of fish will take the sp on the drop, same thing with casting in let it drop properly before retrieving.

Dont use swivels, tie your leader to your braid. Swivels only cause problems

Different sp's require different tactics, dont retrieve a shrimp or a worm sp the same way as you would a minnow, think about how the real version crawls/darts/swims in the water and try and replicate it.

Patience, you MUST stick with it. I went out with a bait fisho the other week, he caught 16 to my 2. However my 2 were worth talking about, his were not!!!

The best thing you can do really is get out with some sp fisho's and see what they do, there is an art to it but like anything thats worth learning if it was easy everyone would do it.

Hope this helps, 99% of this is good advice off experienced sp fisho's not any beginners luck of mine!!!

[drunkenduncan]

I am the opposite to most. I have not tried plastics offshore..I have tried them in the bay and in estuaries..they stink..they dry up and they are bloody expensive. I will stick to bait any day. The old adage is very true...lures catch fishermen.

what a load of crap...... your are kidding me aren't you... Astro,stick with it mate. If you get a chance drop into "hooked on " in Tewantin. They run a plastics charter every 3 or four months for beginers and you WILL catch fish. Once you have a technique and know the principles of this ie. jig head, sink rates and even rigging them properly it will open up a whole new experience. Given time I gaurentee you will outfish your boring baitsoaking mates!

[Jeremy]

My tips for using plastics offshore:
1. you need to sound around and locate bait schools or good structure to work over
2. you need to fish on the drift
3. you do not want your plastic on the bottom unless you want to catch baby squire and mixed rubbish

Jeremy

[Smithy]

It's a species thing too. If the others are catching stuff like parrot and gold spot wrasse etc. like in your videos you aren't going to catch many on jighead rigged plastics. Parrot eat the plastic up but miss the hook a lot of the time. If the bait guys are braining the snapper and you aren't something is up. You should be outfishing them for quality. No nessecarially numbers. Red throats, pearlies, spangleds etc. will also be targets in the waters you fish. Pearlies can be funny. You will either get lots of small ones or a trophy or two but not many in the middle, especially if the bait guys are braining them.

What size leader are you using? The lighter the better and flourocarbon for sure. Maybe a rod length of 30lb in the water you fish should be fine. Are you casting as far as you can up current and stripping off a heap of line at the start then trying to keep slack to the jighead the whole drop?

The current you described above can be a pain. Not much you can do about it but it makes fishing hard. It is that surface current. You have your line streaming out the back yet when you come tight you are snagged on the bottom straight up and down. You've nearly got to give it away when that surface current is like that and bottom bash and even it gets hard and prone to snagging.

Also wind your plastic up fast at the end of a cast and you are in with a good chance on kingies, ajs and cobia etc.

[PinHead]

what a load of crap...... your are kidding me aren't you... Astro,stick with it mate. If you get a chance drop into "hooked on " in Tewantin. They run a plastics charter every 3 or four months for beginers and you WILL catch fish. Once you have a technique and know the principles of this ie. jig head, sink rates and even rigging them properly it will open up a whole new experience. Given time I gaurentee you will outfish your boring baitsoaking mates!

so if I have a different opinion it is a load of crap..tell ya what..next winter in bream season..i will meet you at Caloundra at about 3pm one afternoon..we will fish all night..I will use bait and you plastics. For every legal fish you catch more than me I will give you $10 and vice versa. You up to that ?????

[FishHunter]

I am the opposite to most. I have not tried plastics offshore..I have tried them in the bay and in estuaries..they stink..they dry up and they are bloody expensive. I will stick to bait any day. The old adage is very true...lures catch fishermen.

You are using Gulps and the like and I agree with you. I dont use bait at all I only use hardbody's or soft plastics and when I say soft plastics I mean mainly Squidgies.

Plastics do catch fish however they need to be worked you cant just leave them lying on the bottom like a bait.

[Just_chips]

I am the opposite to most. I have not tried plastics offshore..I have tried them in the bay and in estuaries..they stink..they dry up and they are bloody expensive. I will stick to bait any day. The old adage is very true...lures catch fishermen.

Then what do your baits catch Greg? It certainly isn't snapper is it

[Astro]

And thats exactly what happens. At the 36s in 80m current was roaring, couldnt even get close to the bottom with a 1oz jighead, put on a 2oz and let alot of line out, couldnt figure out if I was on the bottom, take up all the slack line to find out im snagged. This was a big breaking point esp when the weather isnt playin the game and nothing is going right.

I usually use 60-100lb leader, most of the time its 80lb, but not fluorocarbon? I usually have a 45-70cm leader with swivel attached?

So maybe ill try lighter fluorocarbon leader, no swivel, 2m leader length