Fishing with Tony Lincoln | Soft plastic lures

SOFT plastics are a soft lure body attached to a weighted jig head with a hook, or an unweighted hook.

They are available in a huge range of colours, designs, weights and sizes, and compared to metals and hardbodies, are one of the most versatile lures available due to their ability to be fished at a huge range of speeds, depths and using a myriad of techniques.

Their versatility makes plastics suitable for a plethora of situations and is one of the reasons that they are so successful on such a large range of species. Everything from whiting to billfish have been caught on plastics with many species being deceived by a well-presented offering.

Plastics aren't just a hunk of plastic on a hook. Designed to display specific characteristics and emit distinctly different vibrations depending on their individual shape and design, the fins, corrugations, tails, etc on each lure are all contributing to the action, vibration and fish-attracting capabilities.

A commonly used phrase regarding plastics is, "You can't fish them too slowly". A predator striking a plastic whilst it's at rest is extremely common.

Frustratingly slow, intermittent retrieves with long pauses are very successful on many species such as flathead, bream and even snapper, with the elasticity of plastics regularly seeing fish striking the lure multiple times if they miss, as opposed to metals and hardbodies which, if a strike fails to hook up, quite often the fish immediately knows that what it's tried to eat isn't edible and won't try again. Predators will repeatedly bite and start to swallow a plastic after the initial strike.

The most important advice I can give when using a plastic is to make sure the hook is located dead centre in the body when you rig it up. This is absolutely critical to ensure it swims straight and true through the water, allowing its full action and vibration potential.

And that's it for another edition ladies and gents, so once again thanks for reading, and remember;

Talk to old people, they know stuff you don't.

Talk to young people, they know stuff you don't.

FISHING REPORT

• Still a few tailor around but becoming patchy.
• School mackerel right around the peninsula off the jetties, rocky points and inshore reefs as well as the Pine River mouth and Ted Smout platform, and out in the bay off the beacons and reefs.
• Great flathead fishing in the Pine River, Hays Inlet, Clontarf foreshore and off Scarborough Spit.
• Summer whiting becoming more consistent. Try the beaches, rivers and creeks.
• Squid and cuttlefish still around off the jetties, rocky points and inshore reefs.
• Squire and snapper are firing well with some very nice fish up to 75cm off the rocks and inshore reefs around the peninsula as well as the reefs on both sides of Moreton with some good tuskies thrown into the mix.
• Yellowtail kingfish around the artificial reefs have been causing some havoc amongst a few anglers who've been undergunned for them.