Soft plastic lures – great value and great fish catchers

by Andrew Hart

For many years soft, plastic lures have been available to the fishing public. These lures have never had any real variety or shape and the only fish they have had any success on in Tasmania is the ubiquitous Flathead.

This is about to change however, with the popular Force Ten brand releasing six new variety packs of lures and they are fantastic. The Snackpacks, as they are known, range from freshwater through to tropical, Barramundi pack.

Why Soft Plastics?
Each lure is made to represent the natural food that fish eat, and although other lures represent this sufficiently, they are made out of hard wood, metal or other materials. Soft plastic lures are available in a huge range of sizes, colours and shapes. They are, as the name implies soft. They are gooey soft, like a bait fish. If a fish hits a hard lure, and doesn’t get hooked, it would usually be spooked. If a fish was to hit a soft plastic lure however, the lure would not only look, but feel natural, which means that they will often keep grabbing until it is hooked – they often work much better than there hard bodied cousins.

Gear
The gear that is required to fish with soft plastics is nothing special. Your rod and reel just needs to be capable of casting a lure.

Hooks
In each pack of lures, specialized hooks are included, however if you want best results with the soft plastics, then Mustad have a variety of hooks available for sort plastics lures.

These hooks are available in packs of five, which have different sizes and weights included. This makes them ideal for the huge variety of lures that come in Force Tens packs.

The hooks are available in two different forms, the Power Lock and the Fin-Acky. Both these hooks have a unique look system that attaches the hook to the lure, which leaving all of the hook exposed and ready for the hook up. The difference between the two is the sizes, with the Power Lock a heavy salt water hook and the Fin-Acky is smaller and designed for small, light weight, plastic lures.

Variety
Soft plastics are deadly on a large Flathead and a special Flathead pack is available. There is also a Bream and Whiting pack, a Freshwater pack, a Saltwater pack, and a Barra/Tropical pack available. The variety packs include over 20 lures for under $12, and each pack included a fully illustrated “how to” hook. Force Ten plastic baits are available from all good tackle stores, so ask for them by name.

They are excellent value and worth a place in your tackle boxes.