They can shine and dance and seem to come alive in your hands. They can smell like candy or rotten fish, and just about every bass angler has pounds of them in almost every conceivable shape. Some styles come and go. Others have stood the test of time. While confusion often reigns, the following are some basics that can guide you through the variety of soft plastic bass baits that are available at Nationwide Tackle.
Five basic qualities to look for in any fishing lure are action, size, color -- the three sight factors -- plus scent and sound. Soft-plastic baits can have all of these qualities, built-in or added by you, not to mention their natural texture.
Action becomes most critical when bass have a longer time to see a lure, such as in clear water. In tight cover and in stained water, bass have a short sight window and pounce quickly on food, without fully knowing what it looks like and how it behaves. If they waited, the prey might escape. In many cases, a subtle, natural action works better than a frantic movement, as when using tube jigs for smallmouth. At other times, the undulations of an action-tail soft bait triggers hits.
The size factor is normally a matter of matching the size of prey that bass seem to be feeding on at a given time. Smallmouth can be particular, generally preferring smaller prey, while largemouth often swallow huge items. But even smallmouth break the rules at times and want oversized lures, and largemouth sometimes want panfish-size baits.
Color comes into play in strange ways. It makes sense that natural shades that mimic bass prey would be best in clear water. Brighter colors, including chartreuse, especially for largemouth, are better choices in stained waters. Preferred colors for smallmouth include white, yellow, or black. Other times, grey, silver, and crayfish oranges and browns are good.
Sound, which a bass's lateral line picks up first as vibrations, helps them detect and home in on prey they might not even see. When closer to prey, their inner ears come into play to pinpoint dinner until scent and sight take over. Soft plastic is fairly soundless, but adding a vibrating tail (for the advantage of action, as well) or inserting a rattle into any soft bait can improve its fish-catching ability. Make surface baits splash and gurgle to attract bass.
Many methods used to fish soft plastics are slow and easy, giving bass time to use their sense of smell to determine if a lure is good to eat. Bass will hold onto a flavoured bait for some time, giving you a better chance at setting the hook. Most soft-plastic bass baits now have baked-in scent. Salt, said to taste like blood, and "Megastrike" is very popular. Bottled scents are also available to apply regularly as you fish. Scent can be an attractant or it may simply mask human scent. It really doesn't matter. Scented soft-plastic baits give you an edge.
Let where and how you fish for bass determine which soft-plastic baits will serve you best. Keep in mind the qualities of each lure that should dominate for your situations. We won't be getting into naming specific soft-plastic baits here, because there are so many good ones and they continue to evolve. But knowing the basics of what to look for and how to fish them will help you make wise choices.
Put some soft-plastic worms in your tacklebox and every other lure will feel self-conscious, and for good reason. Few other bass lures can match the worm's versatility. Don Iovino and Yamamoto make some of the best!
The standard worm length for bass is four to six inches. Choose 4-inchers for cold fronts, spooky bass, or clear water. Bigger worms excel for big bass and in muddy water. Largemouth tend to prefer large, brighter worms, while smallmouth prefer smaller baits in natural shades. These are only generalities. Experiment.
Thin, supple worms have an undulating action. They're best used along the edges of structure and cover and in deep water, but they get ripped apart by heavy cover or panfish. Fat, soft worms are better for Texas rigs in heavy cover. They also sink slowly, which can be an important strike trigger. Stiffer worms glide and twitch better in more horizontal presentations.
In clear water, during cold fronts, or when fishing pressure is heavy, reach for a worm in a natural shade. For active bass or murky water, opt for brighter colors. For largemouth, purple, dark red, junebug, dark blue, and black are standards. Smallmouth like black, brown/orange, smoke, and silver/grey. Bright colors, like chartreuse, work well in conjunction with a dark color, giving the best contrast in muddy water. Two-tone worms let you fish two colors at once. Metal flecks shine under sunny skies, but are of limited value on cloudy days, and might spook shy bass.
A worm's action must fit the conditions. For fishing holes in weeds, twister-tails have a lot of action and drop slowly. Long, thin tails swim like a ribbon leech around muddy bottoms. Paddle-tails work well in open water, where they send out vibrations. The new rage is straight worms with no inherent action, but they glide well when twitched. They're a killer for tough smallmouth. Scented worms are an advantage, as is inserting a rattle chamber in a worm in cloudy water.
Rigging plastic worms boils down to where you'll be using them. In cover, a weedless Texas rig is hard to beat. Just crawl and hop it through the jungle. Use quality wide-bend worm hooks and sinkers. The hook should extend back about one third the length of the worm. Insert a toothpick into a bullet sinker to keep it from sliding down the line or use weights with metal springs that screw into the worm. Always select the smallest weight possible.
In open water, swim a worm on a light mushroom-style jighead, or fish with a simple hook and split-shot rig, just like live bait, retrieving slowly and pausing along bottom. In deeper water or on shoals, use a Carolina rig to call fish to the sound produced by a glass bead sandwiched between the sinker and swivel.
The action-tailed grub body, teamed with a jig head, might be the best bass-catching plastic bait of all. It's the chameleon of the lure world, able to become a crayfish, minnow, nymph, or leech with only the slightest adjustment in retrieves. Once the domain of walleye anglers, grubs are rapidly becoming the plastic of choice for bass anglers too.
The basic action-tailed grub is a cylindrical, ribbed plastic body tapering to a ribbon-like tail -- a mini-worm. There are, however, dozens of variations. Twin-tailed, spade-tailed, twin straight-tails, and paddle-tailed grubs are also popular. Body shapes also range from squat to lean and flat. All of these variations have adherents, but the basic curly-tailed grub is still the most versatile. When fishing for bass, most anglers use 3-inch grubs -- the length of the average crayfish, minnow, and leech. In the fall, or if you're targeting only giant bass, you could move up to a 4-inch grub, but when smallmouth go sour and refuse to bite a 3-incher, scale down. I've had many days saved by switching to a 2-inch grub on a 3/32-ounce mushroom jig head.
This is finesse fishing, so stow away the baitcaster and 12-pound line. I use a one-piece Medium-Action spinning rod and a high-visibility 6-pound line. Cast the grub out, let it drop, and watch the line. Bass often hit on the drop. When one inhales a 2-inch grub, it's almost undetectable.
Fat-bodied Yamamoto grubs do a great job at copying a crayfish. Drag one along bottom and then give it a light pop so that it hops. At times, dragging the grub super slowly is enough to coax a bronzeback into biting.
Thinner grubs are dead ringers for a leech or minnow. If bass are primarily feeding on minnows and leeches, swim the grub. There are a couple of ways to do this. Cast the grub out and then, with gentle sideways sweeps of the rod, let it flow through the water as you retrieve. The action of the grub's swimming tail is enhanced by this gentle "ebb-and-flow" retrieve. You can also slowly raise and lower the rod tip. The grub will swim towards you as you raise the tip, and tumble back as you follow it down with the rod. Pause for a pickup and repeat. Most hits come as the grub falls. This trick will pull largemouth and smallmouth off open structure. It also works wonders in grass beds and around lily pads.
When bass are really aggressive and busting minnows, bump up the jig head to 3/8- or even 5/8-ounce to gain casting distance. You'll have to retrieve the heavier jig more quickly, however, or it will sink like a stone.
Last but not least, grub bodies are excellent for tipping spinnerbaits and flipping jigs, for extra action. This is where double twister- or straight split-tails are most useful, although even a standard single tail will work.
Grub colors for bass tend to be more subtle than those used for walleye. When smallmouth are the focus, grubs in smoke, red shad, black, pumpkinseed, and any of various crayfish shades are tough to beat. Largemouth anglers are more varied in their grub colors, although pearl white, translucent/glitter, blue, purple, and black with red or chartreuse tails are popular choices.
Minnow and shad baits were among the earliest soft-plastic designs. They range from 3- to 8 inches in length, but smaller sizes are most popular for bass here, especially smallmouths. Original designs had paddle tails, but newer versions have forked, twister, or ribbon tails.
The real trigger of these baits is their realism. Standard baitfish hues have always been popular, but now companies are producing extremely realistic photo and even hologram finishes. Matching the dominant bass forage in the lakes you fish is easier than ever. The most common method of fishing these baits is on a jig head. I favor ball or football heads. Rigging these baits as soft jerkbaits or drop-shotting them is also becoming popular. Standard jig-rigged bodies are not weedless, but they excel around shoals and other open-water situations when bass are feeding on minnows, perch, shiners, or shad in clear water. Retrieves are endless, but slow crawls with a few twitches mixed in is often the best. Let the realism and subtle actions of these baits work for you. Medium- to light-action spinning rods and reels are perfect for working these lures.
Swim baits, the latest craze, are really just versions of the minnow/shad body with realistic hologram finishes and moulded in jig heads. They're a favorite of California's big-bass hunters, who prefer huge baits. In Delaware and Maryland, 3- to 6-inch versions are more versatile. They can be jigged, but are designed to be retrieved like shallow-runnung crankbaits. Keep the retrieve steady and mix in several pauses.
Bass love tubes. Invented by Bobby Garland in the late 1970s, they gained quick praise. Originally intended to fool largemouth from deep, clear waters, they've also become a mainstay for smallmouth anglers.The best tubes we have ever used are made by Yamamoto.
Available up to 6 inches in length, the original hollow cylinders have little action of their own. Sporting tentacles instead of an action tail, they produce minimal vibration or sound. So why are they so lethal? Their natural appearance mimics crayfish and minnows. These days, the simple tube has competition from realistic crayfish and baitfish tube bodies and other models with action tails or fin add-ons, but it still holds its own.
Two potent retrieves are hopping and dragging. Hopping consists of snapping the rod tip 6 to 12 inches, to hop the bait off bottom. Dragging is just as simple. Slide the rod horizontally or allow the wind to push the boat over potential spots. When done correctly, the tube slides along bottom.
Vary retrieves. When bass are fussy, slow down. If that doesn't work, try quick and snappy. Speed can trigger neutral fish, especially smallmouth.
Tubes are finesse baits, so adding scent and using subtle colours usually are best. Variations of grey, white, brown, black, and green with metal flake fare well anywhere. Try to match the hatch. Smallmouth feeding on minnows or other baitfish, are suckers for 2- to 4-inch smoke, pearl, or shad tubes. Something that resembles a perch or crayfish will entice both largemouth and smallmouth. Largemouth seem to be pickier over tube colors. Pink, mustard, watermelon, and June bug all get super hot, then seem to fizzle without reason. Experiment.
A tube rigged with a light jig head inserted inside it is standard, but smallmouth anglers fishing over hard bottoms often prefer an outside head for better "feel." Most anglers favour 1/16- to 1/4-ounce heads, but jumbo jigs can be the ticket in deep water or in windy conditions. Spinning rods and reels with 6- to 12-pound lines are suitable for open-water situations.
Big tubes are also at home in heavy largemouth cover. Rigged weedless, their smooth profile slips easily thorough matted grass. Texas-rigging tubes with traditional worm hooks is difficult. Extra-wide-gap worm hooks by Daiichi, X-Point, and Gamakatsu are better. Both designs offer enough gap to allow for excellent hook penetration. Switch to heavy-action casting or flipping rods and heavier line for thick cover.
An off-beat technique is to fish tubes like a soft jerkbait. Rig Texas style, but omit the bullet weight.
Soft plastics have evolved into a well-rounded team, including valued players in mid-depth and surface applications. Three prime examples are jerkbaits, top waters, and crankbaits.
One advancement has been the soft-plastic jerkbait, which began with Lunker City Tackle's Sluggo, and now the new "Sizmic" Flugo is taking the angling world by storm! It shot immediately onto the must-have chart and spawned a host of other jerkbaits, many of them with realistic baitfish bodies. They can imitate the erratic, flicking, fluttering motions of a small suspended fish in distress, yet retain all the subtleties and fish-catching attributes of soft plastic.
Bass anglers now have a bait that can be worked high in the water and cover territory quickly, yet, when stopped, it flutters down gently. These baits excel in clear water, especially where bass won't respond to standard tactics. Although soft jerkbaits can be rigged in just about any fashion a plastic worm or minnow can, they were originally designed to be used on a straight-shaft worm hook and fished in a series of twitching actions, to impart a darting, gliding motion. Soft jerkbaits are often weighted slightly to add casting distance and increase sinking speed, but care must be taken not to hinder their action.
Weedless soft top-water baits, thick-bodied frogs and the like, are excellent for rooting largemouth out of snag-infested areas. To attract a fish's attention, skitter and splash the bait over dense cover, but pause at open ambush points to allow fish a clear shot at it. Melding soft plastic with hard lures started soon after the introduction of the first soft baits. Adding action-tail grubs or worms to the back of spinnerbaits and weedless metal spoons are prime examples of how anglers enhance the scent and action of these hard lures. There are also soft-plastic crankbaits that work well. Their downfall, however, is a lack of durability. They get chewed or ripped by fish eventually and must be replaced. As a result, they've failed to gain widespread recognition among bass anglers. More recent soft-plastic/hard-body hybrids with replaceable tails have been better accepted.
Critters are just about anything that falls outside of standard soft-plastic styles. They range from realistic imitations of common aquatic organisms to generic forms with exaggerated features loosely representative of something a bass could eat. Common shapes include crayfish, leeches, salamanders, and hellgrammites. This broad range of shapes offers anglers options to match any craving a largemouth or smallmouth bass might have.
Matching the hatch, a common tactic of trout anglers, is equally applicable to bass. Especially when food is plentiful, they can become selective about what they put in their mouths. They become programmed to respond to a specific silhouette, color, shape, or action associated with an easy meal. At times, adding a few trailing tentacles, claws, or a set of legs to a bass bait is all it takes to fool fish. In clear water or when fish are less aggressive, more precise realism might be required.
The ability of fish to recognize patterns works both ways. Not only are bass looking for things to eat, but they also need to be aware of things they must avoid. After being hooked a few times, a bass can be repelled by certain lures. Here's where critters crawl into play again. A fish that might be wary of a tube, worm, or minnow might be attracted to another style of soft plastic.
