Do any of you cast soft plastic lures to catch fish?

[spoonminnow]

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[john step]

I cast soft plastic lures not to catch fish it seemed today!!

 

[dorsetsteve]

Quite regularly yes. Large soft plastics too, upto about 8/9”. I prefer cranks and jerks though, just a more exciting experience.

 

[spoonminnow]

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[John Aston]

I have used them extensively. Although I prefer drop shot in very cold weather , my main technique is using various soft plastic lures on jigs , varying from 2-5grammes , and on hooks from 6 to 2/0 . Like most lure guys, I have bought far too many , because they are so cheap and the jury is still out at how much of a difference colour and precise pattern makes. Confidence is all, and I am most confident with yellow or green lures in coloured water , and silver, muted greens and bronzes in clearer water -and this year I have had some cracking sport with crayfish patterns . And , just as in fly fishing , the exact replicas don't work even nearly as well as the more impressionistic lures. I make no claim that my approach or conclusions are in any way scientific or conclusive . Like most of my angling it is no more than intuition and informed guesswork.

Two things have surprised me most about this type of lure fishing

- the variety of fish I've caught. I expected pike and perch , and trout and zander (like walleye in USA ) where present. I half expected chub, but not ide, roach/bream hybrid nor carp. And the salmon I caught from a local canal was also a surprise

- how fish can locate lures in even very coloured water. I first picked up on this when flyfishing , when I still caught in visibility of 4 or 5 inches , but I've had zander from water that was almost opaque

 

[spoonminnow]

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[dorsetsteve]

When conditions are bleak I like to go for the tackiest colours known to man, flouro pink etc. It’s a well held belief that fish often hit a lure out of irritation. It’s almost as if the fish hits the lure in pure disgust of “what the hell is that? I’m going to bite it”.

Copper is my go to is clear water, especially with some warmth.

 

[spoonminnow]

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[John Aston]

A query for you. Much as I love light lure fishing, the inconvenient truth is that I lose too many fish, certainly more than with bait or when using what I used to call plugs (but which everyone now seems to call crank baits). I put this down to the easily torn soft membrane surrounding the perch's mouth, exacerbated by the mass of the weighted jig head . Oddly , some fish are incredibly well hooked , even small perch on large lures but infuriatingly, I have lost several very big perch on similar sized lures.

I use braid (of course) and sharp hooks and wonder if my problem may be that if a take results in solid resistance I don't strike hard enough . Or, sometimes , when something has hammered the lure and already is taking line , I probably don't strike at all as it seems unnecessary to do so in that situation . Pike usually stay on, but I still experience higher loss rates than with other methods .

Any thoughts, from your experience across the pond ?

 

[spoonminnow]

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[dorsetsteve]

A query for you. Much as I love light lure fishing, the inconvenient truth is that I lose too many fish, certainly more than with bait or when using what I used to call plugs (but which everyone now seems to call crank baits). I put this down to the easily torn soft membrane surrounding the perch's mouth, exacerbated by the mass of the weighted jig head . Oddly , some fish are incredibly well hooked , even small perch on large lures but infuriatingly, I have lost several very big perch on similar sized lures.

I use braid (of course) and sharp hooks and wonder if my problem may be that if a take results in solid resistance I don't strike hard enough . Or, sometimes , when something has hammered the lure and already is taking line , I probably don't strike at all as it seems unnecessary to do so in that situation . Pike usually stay on, but I still experience higher loss rates than with other methods .

Any thoughts, from your experience across the pond ?

What are you using, set up wise? Perch are masters of throwing the hook.

I will use Crankbait (undoubtedly an Americanism) to differentiate from other hardbaits or plugs, such as Jerks. Plug is just a bit broad.

 

[John Aston]

Rods vary from Shimano Zodias to Drennan Drop Shot, Fox etc . Reels are the usual 2500/3000 suspects with 0.10- 0.13 braid , fluoro 8-10lb or Surflon 11lb where pike are an issue , jig hooks 2-5g , 6 to 2/0 depending on lure size . Hooks resharpened as necessary . Pretty routine stuff , I think

 

[dorsetsteve]

Rods vary from Shimano Zodias to Drennan Drop Shot, Fox etc . Reels are the usual 2500/3000 suspects with 0.10- 0.13 braid , fluoro 8-10lb or Surflon 11lb where pike are an issue , jig hooks 2-5g , 6 to 2/0 depending on lure size . Hooks resharpened as necessary . Pretty routine stuff , I think

What weight rods are you using, I’m sure your probably not but if you were say using a 25-50g or something rod for Perch, you may find it too stiff to soak up the shakes.

 

[John Aston]

Oh no - 2 to 8g and 5 to 10 from memory . Also a fly angler , I like the delicacy of light lure rods . I do have a brutish lure rod , but that is strictly snappers. with big lures and I think 35 lb + braid . And pike tend to stay on .

 

[spoonminnow]

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[John Aston]

Thanks for this . No boats or sonar for me - typically I am fishing small and medium rivers for perch , chub (like your whitefish I think ) and pike with jigs from 2-5g , 4 to 2/0 .

 

[Regalis]

.

 

[spoonminnow]

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[Steve Arnold]

I have had plenty of cod, pollack and bass on soft lures.

This year I added a river fish to the list, a Wels catfish (silure here in France).

It took an 8" rubber shad in yellow/black tiger stripe pattern. The rod was a little Majorcraft spinning rod, built to cast up to 21gr, overloaded by both the lure and then the fish. But the rod survived several minutes where the tip was bent well into the river!

 

[John Aston]

Cahors ... how lovely