[19]
SOFT PLASTIC BAITS AND OTHER LURES
I have a feeling that when we get to
grips with the practicalities of fishing
with big soft plastic lure we will catch
a lot of pike on them. I know that there
have been people using smaller bass-sized
plastics for many years, with success,
but as with all bass lures they are
way too small for pike. Either that
or they are not the right sort of shapes.
Long slim worms and snakes are not as
likely to appeal to a pike as a nice
chunky slug or grub. That's my thinking
anyway.
The
biggest problem with soft plastics
is that they are mostly intended to
be rigged on single hooks, usually
just one. This means that a pike has
to hit the head end of the lure or
engulf the whole thing if you are
to hook it. My introduction to plastics
was with Mister Twistser's Slimy Slugs
in the six inch size. In my first
hour and a quarter fishing these slugs
I had ten takes, landing just one
fish. Now I admit that most of the
pike that hit the slugs were under
two pounds, and so had trouble getting
them in their mouths, but what was
obvious from the slashed state of
the tail ends of the baits was that
the pike were hitting them towards
the rear. Because I was rigging the
baits to be weedless with the hook
point only just showing, hooking problems
were compounded. Switching to a weedless
hook, at Dave Scarff's suggestion,
helped matters and the hook up rate
improved slightly. I am not alone
in suffering this annoyance. One angler
I spoke to had adopted the policy
of feeding slack as soon as he felt
a take, only striking when the line
started to move - a little bit like
when wobbling a deadbait. This takes
quick reactions and patience, but
is something I am sure any serious
lure angler can learn with practice.
Fishing with soft plastics is nothing
like using hardbaits and will require
a total re-think for U.K. anglers
to fully come to terms with.
For fishing in open water then I suggest
adding a treble hook stinger to the
large single. Since using the six
inch slugs, I have got hold of some
of the original soft plastic slugs
from Lunker City (a company not a
place!), Slug-Go in the nine inch
size. These are far more of a mouthful
and are even more effective in my
opinion, and a lot easier to cast.
However, they also suffer from the
problem of pike hitting the tail end.
Although
these slugs look like nothing much
on earth they have an incredible action
in the water when fished like a jerkbait.
The hook makes the front half of the
bait rigid, and should be rigged in
such a way that the slug is perfectly
straight. If there is even a slight
bend in the bait it will spin, and
if the nose is kinked up or down it
will work too high, or dive respectively.
Rigged true the slug becomes a totally
unpredictable jerkbait, but with a
twitching tail. After much repeated
casting slugs can 'ball up' on the
cast. This can be prevented by a drop
of superglue, or by pegging the bait
to the hook with a piece of wooden
cocktail stick or something similar
pushed through the bait and the eye
of the hook.
With
practice, and a light trace, slugs
can be walked on the surface, which
really does draw pike up. I have even
had takes skipping them over weed
so the lure actually left the water
as it hopped along. By allowing them
to sink they are fished much like
jerkbaits but have to be worked slower
to maintain depth. There are insert
weights available, to make the slugs
heavier and let them be fished faster
or deeper. Insert weights look like
headless nails made of lead, which
can be trimmed to give just the sink
rate that you require. Not surprisingly
the addition of an insert weight makes
a Slug-Go cast even more easily. Exactly
where in the slug you place these
weights will give differing actions
to the lure.
A nine-inch Slug-Go, fished just sub-surface,
lured this late summer fish.
One
answer to the hook up failure rate
might be to rig the slugs on a trace
with a couple of trebles. This would
be fine if putting a hook close to
the tail of the bait didn't completely
kill the action. Because Slug-Gos
can be rigged to be almost completely
weedless, with just the tip of the
hook point exposed, additional trebles
will prevent you using the baits to
fish where no lure has gone before!
With the hook point inside the bait
slugs can be cast into thick cover
and brought back free of weed. I can't
say that this has caught me stacks
of pike, but the odd one has come
from in the lily pads. The secret
of the pike attracting success of
slugs is undoubtedly the tail action
coupled with the where-next darting.
At times when fishing close to the
surface a Slug-Go will jump out of
the water for no earthly reason! As
with jerkbaits, this unpredictable
action probably explains part of the
problem with hooking the pike. At
the other extreme there are times
when pike will slam these slugs and
hook themselves.
Slugs
can be fished fast, with quick-fire
twitches of the rod tip, but when
fished dead-slow they give a whole
new dimension to what is known as
finesse fishing. This technique is
usually associated with light tackle
and small lures, but in my book nine
inch Slug-Gos are finesse baits. They
make little disturbance as they hit
the water, and even less as you fish
them, they don't attract by violent
actions or noisy rattles. Although
slugs can have a lively action when
being worked pike will take them on
the drop - when they have no action
at all! When allowing a slug, or any
other soft plastic, to free fall watch
the line for unexpected movements,
and treat them as takes. Indeed, I
would class all soft plastic baits
as finesse lures for the simple reason
that they don't make a lot of commotion.
Maybe "stealth lures" would be a better
name for them?
Unlike slugs, grubs and twister-tails
need a weighted jig hook to be fished,
to maintain their stability. If you
can get hold of grubs in sizes of
six inches or longer then you will
catch pike on them. Guaranteed. The
hardest part is getting jig heads
big enough. Jigs from «oz upwards
with hooks of 3/0 or larger, even
up to 8/0, are what you need. Hooks
with a good wide gape, too, and the
longer the shank the better. A wide
gape and a long shank keep the hook
point away from the lead head, which
can otherwise mask the hook when you
try to drive it home.
Rigging
grubs on a jig is just like adding
one as a trailer to a spinnerbait.
I like to get the hook to exit the
grub just in front of the curly tail,
right at the end of the body. If this
means trimming the grub to size, then
so be it. Lay the jig alongside the
grub before rigging it to gauge the
exact spot, and maybe work out where
to trim the bait to. Fishing grubs
is simplicity itself. While they can
be jigged along the bottom, a sure
fire way of finding snags in my experience,
they also work on a straight retrieve.
The rippling tail is fantastically
fishy. For some reason I have had
no great problems connecting with
pike on these lures, they just hit
them hard and are usually well hooked
in the scissors. I am sure that this
is down to the way they are being
worked. Pike have trouble targeting
jerkbaits but not so spinnerbaits,
the parallel with the two soft plastic
types (slugs and grubs) is plain to
see. Should you experience problems
hooking pike on large plastics fished
on jigs, try adding a stinger hook,
just like you would to a spinnerbait.
The stinger will have to be removed
every time the plastic bait gets chewed
beyond repair, but this is not a great
problem.
An
alternative to the jig head is the
back-weighted hook, where the weight
is moulded around the bend of the
hook rather than the eye. These hooks
have a what is known as a keeper attached
to their eyes, a coil of wire that
the grub is screwed on to. Once the
grub is on the keeper, the hook point
is put through the bait at the appropriate
place. When simply cranked back there
is no difference in the action of
grubs on the two hook styles, but
when paused and allowed to drop the
grubs fall slower and with a lazier
tail wag on the back-weighted hooks.
Swimmer head jigs, which have a flattened
profile, ride higher in the water
than ball head or stand-up jigs, and
have a slight side-to-side wobble
too. These jigs also fall slower,
weight for weight, somewhat like a
back weighted hook. Swimmer heads
collect less weed, too, brushing it
aside from the line of the hook. Not
totally weedless, but the best option
without resorting to weed-guarded
jigs. The bigger the grub the better.
Having done well on their six inch
Mogambo Grubs I am looking forward
to getting my hands on some of Kalin's
Big'Ns, real monsters at 10 inches!
Another
soft plastic bait that can be fished
on a jig head is the Reaper Tail.
This is also a lifeless looking creation
that needs careful rigging. A slight
bend should be imparted to the bait.
These lures work well hopped slowly
along the bottom, but I have also
found that the small sizes, mounted
on a ball-head jig, can be worked
back high in the water on a rapidly
twitched retrieve which makes the
tail waggle from side to side. This
catches fish, which again are usually
well hooked. Watch out for the tail
catching on the hook point and the
lure balling up, this also happens
with grubs on jigs and when they are
used as trailers too. Soft plastics
can slip out of position on the hook
or jig head, but a drop of superglue
cures that. When rigging slugs to
be non-weedless, a small square of
cycle inner tube can be pushed over
the hook point to keep it proud of
the bait.
Reaper Tail on stand-up jig. Reaper
Tail rigged horizontally on swimmer-head
jig. Renosky Super Shad on ball-head
jig with wired on double hook. Unknown
shad body (cut to place hook point
in correct position) on unidentified
jig. Kalin's Mogambo Grub on un-painted
swimmer-head jig. 8/0 lunker City
worm hook with heavy insert weights.
9" Slug-Go rigged with point of
hook just exposed. Gordon Griffiths
All Action Tail on keel-weighted
keeper hook. Back-weighted keeper
hook.
The
opinion in the U.S. seems to be that
soft plastics and jigs are at their
best in cold water conditions, worked
slowly along the bottom, but I reckon
they work well enough fished high
and fast in warm water. Perhaps this
is because I am more likely to be
found legering a deadbait when winter
comes. But maybe one winter I will
give them an extended trial. Apart
from ball head jigs, I am currently
trying out Reaper Tails on stand-up
and swimmer head jigs. So far the
stand-up seems to work best for a
slow bottom hopping presentation,
and the swimmer head for mid-water
fishing. The shape of a Reaper Tail
allows for two rigging options. I
like them rigged flat on the swimmer
head, and upright on the stand-up
jig. Just a personal preference. A
flat-rigged reaper on a wide swimmer
head can be swum through the water
with a lazy swaying action, even in
very shallow water. This set up is
also quite weed resistant, owing to
the up-facing hook. Rigging Reaper
Tails so they go a little way round
the bend of the hook gives them a
bit more life. Not too far or they
will spin on the retrieve, particularly
on swimmer heads. Don't be afraid
to trim these plastics to a length
that puts the hook point in a good
position. It is early days for these
soft plastics, and like so much that
is radical in lure fishing I know
of no U.K. suppliers for the baits
or hardware - like decent large jig
heads - at present.
The
one type of soft plastic bait that
does seem to have gained a following
in the U.K. is the shad body. Probably
because they look like fish and so
don't frighten off the conservative
British lure angler! Personally, I
have had little time for these baits
as I can't get them to do very much
when fishing them as you might a wobbled
deadbait. I find that a natural bait
actually has more action, but that
might just be me. Being fish-shaped,
people tend to rig them much as they
would a deadbait for wobbling, and
this is O.K. to an extent. As they
come shad bodies sink fairly slowly
and have a tendency to flop on their
sides when twitched. I think this
is because they are heavier at the
top of the body. Perhaps a case for
insert weights along the belly of
these shads. A jig head with a treble,
or trebles, attached by a length of
wire overcomes the dual niggles of
a lack of stability and poor hooking.
The use of a large hooked jig head
gives excellent casting with these
shads, and provided the hook is positioned
somewhere close to the middle of the
bait hooking is pretty reasonable
too. On a jig shads perform a little
better for me. The tail has more action
to my eyes, and it is simple to work
the lures deep. Equally, instead of
hopping them along the bottom, they
can be ripped back in mid-water or
higher. It might not look very attractive
to our eyes when fished like this,
but the pike can think differently
at times. For the time being I will
leave it to the likes of Del Bennett
to play about with rigs that involve
threading traces through the baits.
Del's had a thirty on a plastic shad,
so who am I to argue with him? Even
so I shall continue to fish them on
jig heads, with or without an additional
wired-in hook.
I
have by no means exhausted the range
of soft plastic baits that are available,
I have tried lizards and snakes (as
usual for me without success!) and
there are others like the weird looking
Curtis Creature which I intend to
try out some time. As you might suppose,
soft plastics don't stand up too well
to the attentions of a pike's teeth.
You can catch a few fish on one bait
though, and unless there is a big
chunk bitten off they continue to
work well. Minor cuts can be repaired
by heating the open 'wound' with flame
from a cigarette lighter and then
pressing it closed while the plastic
is still molten. This will prolong
the life of a bait somewhat. I have
a feeling that soft plastics are going
to be the next big thing in pike lures,
once there is a wide range of baits
and attendant hooks and jigs available
in this country. Interest in these
baits certainly seems to be growing
at the moment.
A small pike that absolutely hammered
a grub fished on a back-weighted
hook.
When
it comes to colours of soft plastics I have
had most success with black, white, orange
and a subdued brown a little like an eel.
Funnily enough this colour preference has
been across the entire range of plastics that
I have tried so far. In clear water the brown
has been quite good, but so have white and
orange. In murky conditions white has scored
well for me as has black. That soft plastics
should work at all in coloured water rather
goes against the theory of noisy lures being
the best bet when water clarity is poor. A
quieter lure than a plastic slug is hard to
imagine. When using jigs, I don't find the
colour of the jig head itself to have any
bearing on matters. O.K., so it looks nicer
to us if the head is painted, maybe even in
a contrasting colour to the bait, but I catch
just as well on unpainted jigs as I do on
coloured ones.
Care
must be exercised with storing soft plastics
as they can ruin other hard plastic baits
and boxes. Leave a grub next to a plastic
plug for any length of time and the paint
will have melted off the plug and maybe even
the body of the lure will have begun to melt
too. Always store soft baits in plastic bags
or "worm proof" compartmented boxes. Try not
to mix soft plastics of different colours
in the same bag or compartment as the colours
will bleed between each lure. To keep grubs
and so on supple when stored for long periods
it might be worth your while adding a few
drops of vegetable oil to the bags. Some anglers
like to use a fish oil which will soak into
the baits and mask their rubbery smell and
taste.
Small
plastics can be fished quite successfully
on the tackle you would select for
spinnerbaits or crankbaits as there
is not too much demand on the gear
to pull large hooks through thick
plastic bodies before contacting the
pike. Bigger baits like the nine inch
Slug-Go need stouter tackle, a minimum
twenty pound line and a heavy crankbait
or light jerkbait rod. Because jigs
and so on can be fished through weed
beds, it is worth erring on the heavy
side at times and braids of 35lb are
not out of place in snaggy situations.
As a consequence the 5501 Ambassadeur
is my first choice reel matched to
a rod of 6« to 7 feet, with
a fairly stiff action - particularly
if big hooks gave to be struck through
thick plastics. Traces can be simple
60lb jobs fitted with the usual swivel
and snap (a Duolock is easiest to
use) for fishing with jig heads, and
these can be used with the smaller
slugs too. However, slugs work a little
better when the trace is attached
direct to the hook, and preferably
with the join sleeved in shrink tube.
They were, after all, originally designed
to be fished for bass without a leader
- the hook tied direct to the main
line. The weight of the trace wire
can affect the action of 6 inch slugs,
a heavy one making for a deeper fishing
bait and twenty pound wire being ideal
for surface fishing. Varying traces
can, therefore, be used to subtly
alter your lure presentation. The
9 inch Slug-Go is large enough not
to be affected too much by even a
100lb trace.
Leaving
soft plastic baits, in the strictest
sense, there is one, the French made
Sosy, that could have been mentioned
in the crankbait chapter as it even
has a lip. It also has a segmented
body made of a fairly soft plastic.
The action of these highly imitative
lures is an extremely lifelike, sinuous
wiggle on a steady retrieve, and an
equally convincing crippled fish imitation
when worked in an erratic manner.
I have not had any success on the
Sosy yet, having only just begun using
them. But I know a few who have done
well on these baits.
Getting
back to hard-baits, one lure type
that I have not mentioned elsewhere
is the vibrating plug or rattlebait.
The reason is simple. They are diabolical!
I know that some anglers rate them
very highly, but I am not one of them.
Most are sinkers, although one or
two floating versions are coming on
the market now, and intended for smaller
species than pike. The only large
rattlebait that I know of is the Bill
Lewis Super-Trap. If you think that
a fast vibrating, loud rattling lure
is what you need, then give these
a try. I have nothing more to say
about these lures other than to let
you know of their existence. No doubt
someone reading this will think I
am being unfair on these baits, and
maybe one day I will change my mind.
I have one and someday I might find
the place to use it and catch pike
on it. Only then will I get another.
Until then I will say no more.
Pretty much the same goes for bladebaits,
except that I have never used one
of these. Made from a sheet of metal
with a weighted head, vibrating blades
do just that, at high frequency, when
pulled through the water. The most
famous model is the Heddon Sonar,
but larger pike/musky sized models
are now listed in U.S. catalogues.
Like sinking rattlebaits they are
at their best in deep water, and can
be either cast or jigged. I have even
less to say about blade baits than
I do about rattlebaits!
A sort-of-crankbait is the Buck Perry
Spoonplug. Although these are pressed
out of a single piece of sheet metal
they are retrieved like crankbaits
and have a similar sort of diving,
wiggling action. Hard to find and
most use when fishing deep water from
a boat. A similar bait is the Russelure.
I have no experience of fishing with
either of these lures either. Another
lure that shares some common ground,
in as much as it is essentially a
spoon, but one which fishes in a non-spoon-like
way, is the Helin Swimmerspoon. I
think these lures have been deleted
for some time, but I mention them
out of interest and because I know
that some people have done well on
them at times - particularly when
trolling. These banana-shaped spoons
actually fish with the line-tie underneath
and rock from side to side. The largest
sizes sink like the proverbial stones,
and are therefore best used from a
boat, which is essential if you intend
to troll with them I guess!
Fly
fishing for pike appears to be a growth
area as I write, so I mention it here
for that reason. There have been a
few anglers specialising in this for
a number of years, but for some reason
more and more people are trying it
out for themselves. There is one chap
locally who has had pike to over nineteen
pounds on the fly. From what I can
gather he often manages to catch more
on his flies than other anglers fishing
alongside him with more mainstream
pike lures - which appears to be what
everyone who tries fly fishing for
pike seems to find. I haven't got
round to it yet, but one of these
days I will give pike-fly fishing
a try, hopefully on a trout water
with some huge, previously uncaught
pike in it!
Arbogast A. C. Plug, 9½".
Bill Lewis Super Trap (sinking).
Berkley Power Rattle. Sosy. Helin
Swimmer Spoon. Buck Perry Spoon
Plug.
There are plenty of other lures around,
some halfway between one type and
another, others being combination
lures. Over the last few years there
have appeared rattlebaits with soft
plastic back-end. Berkley do a range
of these baits plus a crankbait and
a minnow too. The Berkley "Powerbait"
soft plastic is even scent impregnated
to make the fish hold on longer. That's
what they say anyway! These lures
are all bass-sized, but the Arbogast
A.C. Plug is a large, jointed, lip-less
crankbait with a soft plastic tail
pinned into the rear section. Originally
designed for bass, despite its size,
the A.C. comes in three sizes from
7½ to 12 inches in length,
so it is perfectly acceptable to pike.
Having a wooden body, the A.C. Plug
is very buoyant and will only run
down to about two feet in the nine
inch size. For shallow water pike
it works well, being good for popping,
and having a snakey wiggle when cranked.
At its slowest retrieve speed the
tail can be made to slap lazily in
the wake from the body, while the
head wiggles just below the surface.
So far I what little success I have
had has come by fishing the A.C. pretty
quickly, but steadily. I have even
had pike come up to this lure when
fishing it like this over more than
twelve feet of water, and not big
fish either. Pike as small as five
or six pounds have shown an interest
in the A.C. Plug. One interesting
incident that occurred when using
this plug was that two fish that hit
it (and then fell off) actually turned
and followed it in. Usually pike that
hit lures as solidly as these fish
did, but don't get landed, make a
hasty exit from the scene. Perhaps
this was just a one-off though. With
the A.C. Plug currently selling for
around £20 I leave it to you
to decide if it is worth it the money,
I remain unconvinced at present. You
never know though.
Leaving
aside commercially made "hybrid" lures,
you can always add bits to lures in
an attempt to make them more attractive
to pike. If this gives you confidence
then I am not going to say it is wrong.
I have had takes on a Creek Chub Pikie
fitted with a spinner blade between
the line-tie and the trace snap. But
to go too far down this road leads
you away from the main point of lure
fishing - catching pike. Adorning
lures for the hell of it is counter-productive
in my opinion, as it very often destroys
the original behaviour of the lure,
and rarely improves it. If you want
a lure to do something different -
change to a different lure! Most good
baits have got the way they are by
field testing of prototypes. They
are how they are for a reason. They
work. Don't let me stop you experimenting
though, always try new lures, and
new ways of fishing old ones. Even
so, classic lures, and lure types,
will always catch pike. There is far
too much over-complification talked
about in lure fishing circles by some
people. And a lot of talk for talk's
sake. Pike are simple creatures, and
the best lures and techniques are
simple too.
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