Finesse The Bass With Soft Plastic

Finesse The Bass With Soft Plastic

The big selection of soft plastic baits at the store and kits for making plastic fishing thingies are easily purchased. Soft plastics are a favorite with anglers nationwide and some fisherman have great success with them. 

Two popular ways to fish with them is a Texas-style rig that has the hook point inside the plastic thingy so it is weed less and the other is a Carolina rig that has the hook exposed.

A Texas rig is made by threading on a bullet sinker on the line and then attaching an offset hook to the line. The plastic thingy is pushed in to the hook about 3/8 inch and the out the bottom of the plastic. The Plastic thingy is then pushed up the hook to the offset. Now the thingy is turned on the hook so the point tip can be stuck inside the body of the bait to form a snag less bate. You line the thingy setup so it has a nice flow off the line.

The bullet sinker is free on the line to slide. The sinker helps you cast it and it takes the lure to the bottom. When a fish takes the bate and moves away from where he grabbed it the line slides through the sinker with little resistance. You need to set the hook with a snap because it has to poke through the plastic body before it can pierce the fish.

With the Texas-rig, you can fish the densest cover because the hook point is inside the bait and it should not hook on things.

The Carolina rig is similar but hook point is out of the bait. The rig is made with a brass bullet sinker, then a glass bead, then a straight hook. The brass bullet and bead makes a clicking sound when it is pulled through the water to help attract the fish. The Plastic thingy is just slid onto the hook and the point is poked out the bottom of the thingy at the point where the bend of the hook is. This leaves the point out where it can pierce the fish easily. 

The slip sinker/bead can be attached a couple of feet ahead of the hook and bait with a leader to the hook. This still give the clicking sound but lets the plastic thingy sink more slowly and stay off the bottom longer. These work well where the bottom is clean and there are few snags.

Plastic baits should be retrieved slowly. A slow steady craw and or hoping them along the bottom lets them move like what they are molded to resemble. 

Moving them fast just beneath the water sometimes will work on top feeding fish, but as a general rule they are slow retrieval baits.  

With bass, they will usually hold on to the soft plastic bait for several seconds before it lets go of it. Some anglers set the hook right away; others hesitate for a second before setting the hook. A strong upward sweep of the rod is a good technique to set the hook.  

Many of the plastics come pre flavored and scented. Bass hunt using scent and flavor as well as sight and sound. Tempting them with flavor and sent should keep the plastics in their mouth longer one would think. That should give more hook setting time for slow fishermen like me. 8-

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Plastics come in a wide color range. Pick the colors that match the type of colors of living baits in the area you are fishing in. I have found a dark bait in water that has low visibility seems to work better than a light bait. It may be that the dark spot in the water shows up better.

Fishing with plastics is often called finesse fishing because you need to bring in or retrieve the bait slowly. So when you try fishing using plastics, finesse the bass out of the water with soft plastics.

Fish with finesse!