Newbie to Soft Plastics - Help Required

[ismail]

Hello,

I am keen to get into soft plastics fishing. I live in Loganholme (between brisbane and gold coast) and was wondering if anyone can tell me what is a good area to go try my hand at SP fishing of the shore/bank.

Also what technique do you recomend for someone who has never fished with SP before. I have watched the squidgy dvds but am still a little unsure of which techniques would be best for me to start with.

I have got a rack raider rod matched to an okuma Epix 2000 which is spooled with 6lb braid. From what I have read this is ideal for SP fishing right? What leader should i be using? ALso I have bought a range of Soft Plastics inclduing squidgy fish, berkley 3 inch minnows, berkley grubs, atmic fat grubs.

Any help would be very much appreciated. Also does anyone know of any guides who teach the way to fish with SP.

cheers

Ismail

[stu68]

I played around for a bit with the SP"s but after 1/2 ahour would go back to bait.Then I said to myself,SELF your not giving this thing a real good go so I started not taking bait at all. and thing just started to click.
Every trip is getting better.I was inspired by some of the guys on this site (eg Flickflack cloud9 and others)Watch there posting and you will pickup alot, better then any book or DVD.
Good luck
Cheers Stu

[joeT]

SP's require a lot of patience at the start, you just need to keep casting and casting and trying different plastics and weights.

Its best not to bring any bait with you when trying sp's, its really easy to get disheartened after a few casts and you want to tie on a bait rig cos you know you'll get bites. Then you won't give the sp's a fair chance.

[gunna]

The slow lift and drop is as good as any. Most important thing is to fish the plastic reeeaaalllly slow. Let it sit between slow lifts. It will often get hit just sitting there. Another idea is to think about the action of the baitfish you are trying to copy and try a similar movement. Something like small darting movements for the minnow style plastics.

[Scott15]

well your choice of gear and plastics are spot on mate. bit of practice and some advice and you'll be hooked, plenty of info on this site, just search around.

[gif]

See if you can get the Adam Royter / Berkley DVD on SP fishing. After the first bit of advertising it settles down to some good advice.

I still don’t retrieve slowly enough - that’s why my 8 year old beat me to win a social bream comp last month. He has more patience

Make sure that you dont depart any smells onto the plastic - fuel, insect repellent or sunscreen on your hands and its all over.

The one I grab first is Berkley powerbait Dropshot minnow in Watermelon.( green) There are a lot of cheap and colourful products about - some use cheaper materials that smell funny and never seen to work for me.

Give me a call if you want a chat Gary
0412 111 573

[rabbitohbill]

My question is why are people ( myself included), using SP's over bait?

More fun - yes
Less smelly - yes
more convienient- yes

There is no losing bait to tiddlers.

But I am yet to be convinced they catch more fish. I am however, persevering.

Can anyone tell me 100% confidently that they do produce more fish once you are competant with them.?

[mattooty]

It depends on the situation. Some situations bait will win hands down but in others lures will dominate. It also depends on the skill level of the fisher. Lures can cover alot more ground that bait can. Have a look at some of flickflacks reports of his massive flatties. Not many people could catch that many quality flatties with bait. Its all circumstantial to the situation.
Matt

[Scott15]

well said matt

[rabbitohbill]

It depends on the situation. Some situations bait will win hands down but in others lures will dominate. It also depends on the skill level of the fisher. Lures can cover alot more ground that bait can. Have a look at some of flickflacks reports of his massive flatties. Not many people could catch that many quality flatties with bait. Its all circumstantial to the situation.
Matt

But he is a freak [smiley=vrolijk_26.gif]

me? [smiley=dunce.gif]

[ismail]

Thanks for all the help. Ill give it a go and not take nay bait with me. But any suggestions for good areas to fish of the bank/shore onthe gold coast with SPs.

[joeT]

Can anyone tell me 100% confidently that they do produce more fish once you are competant with them.?

For me personally, I have never caught so many quality fish in my whole fishing career as I have in the last year or so using plastics. Not that I've caught that many fish in the past. Although some of it may be contributed by reading more of Ausfish and having an idea of how to fish in the first place.

I used to be one of those guys who would be happy to take home a couple of just legal fish and more often than not go home without anything. Now, I can regularly take home good squire and flathead that I would have never dreamt of catching before.

[stu68]

Spot on joe

[land-lubber]

Can anyone tell me 100% confidently that they do produce more fish once you are competant with them.?

ive been using them for the past 6 months and have caught more fish with them. i taught myself how to use them, and while im no expert, i think it just comes down to spending time experimenting.
see the report about gc landbased, we didnt get a touch on livies or pillies, but cleaned up with platics.
cheers

[bazz]

Hi i have just started on soft plastic's i was using bekley minows in white today and caught 11 flathead 1 bream and 2 tailer at the pin. this took about 6hrs fishing time to get them. I still think you can not beat some one who is bait fishing, but it is great to catch them when you know you are just fooling the fish to bight somthing that is not realey bait. One of the places i fish is to the left of bigera creek down at the gold coast next to the big towers you can park your car in the street and walk over to the inlet that leads into boat harbour. i have caught bream, flathead whiting off the rock wall and the beach to the left right up to the next inlet. I have found that i catch more with a slow retrieve and lift, and in the boat i get more on the drift no lifting or retriving. I hope this helps, just talk to as many people as you can. Bazz