You Can Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

[MAH 449]

I've been fishing for over 40 years, so grew up with fibreglass rods, monofilament and bait.

Now I have rod rack full of carbon fibre rods, it took me a bit longer to switch over to braid, but up until recently I was still a bait fisho and just didn't use soft plastics or other lures (except squid jigs). I bought plenty, vibes, hard bodies, soft plastics, and would give them a try but next session I would be back to bait.

But this summer I have taken the time to focus on soft plastics. Sure I still pump nippers for YFW and use gents for garfish, but I've spent most of my time learning to use soft plastics.

My target species for learning more about soft plastics has been the humble tommy ruff and 90% of the time I've targeted them off Glenelg jetty. I think a common species of a local jetty has been a very useful way to learn and is basically full circle back to when I was a kid fishing for tommies off Pt Vincent wharf.

Tommies are an interesting fish on soft plastics. They are fairly abundant and readily take a soft plastic, but when hooked, they go nuts with rapid head shakes and early on I was dropping many fish. First thing I changed was my rod. I was using a Daiwa Crosscast Rockfishing rod, it's a light rod with a fast action, rated for 3-10gm lures. at 7'8" it was a good rod for casting distance, the fast action was good for the initial strike, but it was too fast, too stiff for tommies as it lacked the suppleness to have enough bend to keep the pressure on and soak up the head shakes. Luckily I had the ideal rod in the rack and started to use an Atomic Arrowz Bream Surface. This rod had an immediate impact on my success rate landing fish. I pair this with a 1000 Stradic Ci4+.

Probably the biggest impact has been trying different ways to rig soft plastics. I started out using the standard jig heads most people use. There are plenty of people who use these jig heads with success, but I'm not one of them. So I started to use the American style offset worm hooks, setup like a cheb rig.

 

This was an improvement, but I still was dropping more fish than I was happy with. Like a jig head, the cheb rig has the weight right at the front of the soft plastic and my gut feel was the tommies used the weight and violent head shakes to throw the hook. Next change was to use a running rig setup, or what the Americans refer to as a Carolina rig.

Since changing to this rig, I rarely drop a fish.

Apart from sussing out the right rod and rig, I've settled on S-Factor for scent. I tried Pro-Cure, but it's always out-fished by the S-Factor.

For soft plastics, I most commonly use paddle tail style, but also have success with curly tail grubs. I've tried name brand lures like Zman Slim Swimz and no name cheapies off Aliexpress.

Zman are certainly durable and if using the cheapies on a jighead they get destroyed quickly, however I've found the cheapies are pretty good on an offset worm hook, A jig head holds the lure very firmly and the lack of give means the cheapies have the tail easily ripped off, as opposed to the super stretchy Zman. But on the worm hook, the cheapies are not held on as firmly a get pull down the hook rather than tearing up and last much longer. I vary the size of the cheapies, sometimes using a 5mm and sometimes a 7.5mm, and change depending on what is firing up the fish. As a general rule I find the bigger tommies hit the bigger lures more readily.

It took me a while to get the hang of soft plastics, but now this old dog readily get a feed.

I look at the weather, and if fine, just grab a rod, reel and a few soft plastics; very minimalistic, but a great way to fish and I don't know why I didn't try earlier.

[Des 838]

Great journey @MAH. Thanks for sharing that with us.

It has parallels to my journey from YFW bait fisher to lure fisher.

I was always encouraged to try lure fishing YFW but my standard response was; "why dig a hole with a tooth pick when you can use a shovel"  I did keep revisiting it, as I wanted to find out why luring kept some respected fishos so enthralled.

Today I explain it is not "digging a hole" ...  but a "delicate archaeological excavation" that requires subtlety of a tooth pick !

It is a satisfying journey discovering all the subtleties and nuances required.

BTW depending on the area I fish, I do pick up a few on the surface lures.

Cheers, Des 

[Des 838]

@bjorn2fish  we probably need a Tommy Ruff fish file in the Fish file section.

[yellow door 1 1,847]

Great write up MAH - An old successful bait dog, can become a dangerous beast with a lure in his hands




 

[Mickyj 3,322]

Well done Des you’re doing better than me at present . I have finally got the light weight rod I wanted . Keep up the good work 

[bjorn2fish 4,631]

That's a damn good write up MAH 

7 hours ago, Des said:

@bjorn2fish  we probably need a Tommy Ruff fish file in the Fish file section.

Australian Herring (Tommy Ruff) section setup @Des  

[Des 838]

On 16/2/2023 at 8:25 PM, bjorn2fish said:

That's a damn good write up MAH 

Australian Herring (Tommy Ruff) section setup @Des  

Thanks @bjorn2fish 

Perhaps we can move this great post to that section as an ongoing reference . Ta. 

[MAH 449]

When bait fishing for tommies, it was simple. A size 10 long shank hook under a float with some split shot or a 1gm ball sinker. The thinking was tommies are a small fish so a small hook.

But with soft plastics I had no idea what to use, so tried different rigs to see what works best for me, I wanted to be able to quickly test different things like weights, hook sizes, lure sizes and lure quality. I bought a wide range of tackle and lures, so I would have them on hand during a fishing session and could readily make changes. I understand not everyone can afford to have lots of tackle on hand, and I did try and keep the costs down by buying from places like Aliexpress and the Japan Lure Shop.

To be able to quickly swap out tackle I use Mustad Fastattach Clips.

One of the first things I had trouble getting my head around was hook size for lure fishing, they all seemed so big. But I soon learned that a tommy has no trouble swallowing a 1/0 hook. I still keep a range of hooks with me because sometimes they will get fired up by the larger lure, but sometimes a smaller lure.

I also discovered that you can get hooks with bigger eyes, which make it easier to rig and also allows the hook more freedom of movement which should translate to more action from the lure.

[MAH 449]

I also wasn't sure about what size weight to use. I read a lot of people recommending to use very small weights. I bought a range of styles of weights in 2gm, 3.5gm and 5gm. I found the cheb style of weight very versatile and easy to change, but now use the bullet weight a lot more as I'm using a Carolina rig mostly. I found the 2gm weights were not very useful and were too effected by wind and current. Now I mainly use 3.5gm, but on windy days I use a 5gm weight, mainly because fishing from a jetty, the wind easily catches your line and you need the extra weight to keep a tight line on the retrieve, otherwise the wind will just put a big bow in your line.

[MAH 449]

With lures I now buy only from Aliexpress. They are much cheaper and even the cheapest lures are durable enough if rigged correctly.

My go to lures are the cheapest. They have cost be about $1.80 for a pack of 10.

These are not very stretchy. Because a jig head holds them firmly in place and they lack stretch they will last only a couple of casts before a tommy rips the tail off. But if rigged on a worm hook and a Carolina rig, I can catch a dozen tommies before losing a lure and when they cost less than 20c per lure you can afford to lose a few. I also find them easier to rig on a hook than Zman lures, but you can't take them off the hook multiple times like Zman if you make a mistake rigging them. I like to rig up several before a session and keep them in a lure box ready to go.

The other Alixpress cheapies are very much like Zman lures and use the same plastic, so have the same stretchy durable qualities. I just ordered three packs of 6 lures and they cost $12.50. They come in good quality packaging.

 

[yellow door 1 1,847]

1 hour ago, MAH said:

With lures I now buy only from Aliexpress. They are much cheaper and even the cheapest lures are durable enough if rigged correctly.

My go to lures are the cheapest. They have cost be about $1.80 for a pack of 10.

These are not very stretchy. Because a jig head holds them firmly in place and they lack stretch they will last only a couple of casts before a tommy rips the tail off. But if rigged on a worm hook and a Carolina rig, I can catch a dozen tommies before losing a lure and when they cost less than 20c per lure you can afford to lose a few. I also find them easier to rig on a hook than Zman lures, but you can't take them off the hook multiple times like Zman if you make a mistake rigging them. I like to rig up several before a session and keep them in a lure box ready to go.

 

The other Alixpress cheapies are very much like Zman lures and use the same plastic, so have the same stretchy durable qualities. I just ordered three packs of 6 lures and they cost $12.50. They come in good quality packaging.

 

Great find on the Zman style plastics - have you got a link.

I found out too late that some of my ali express lures were Zman style plastic. I put them in a bag with other plastics. So it would be handy to know what to look out for in the description.

These FTK's were made out of it but the closest the description got was to say they were super soft. and Im not sure if their whole range is made out of it

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32933730128.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.2.272df19ch9q7a6
 

[MAH 449]

14 minutes ago, yellow door 1 said:

Great find on the Zman style plastics - have you got a link.

I'm pretty sure Zman are a Thermoplastic Rubber (TPR), so when searching Aliexpress I look for soft plastic lure that mention TPR in the title.

The lures in my photos are from Johncoo on Aliexpress.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002526092840.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.5.10b9f19c5V5d6w

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002537821598.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.3.10b9f19c5V5d6w

 

[yellow door 1 1,847]

thanks MAH - exactly the info I was after

[Des 838]

I love your attention to detail  Now you have made it an art-form.