Lockdown list: your top 3 softbaits

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Originally posted by Muppet Muppet wrote:

I did laugh at Paul saying he did not fish under the boat. Atari style has nailed me lots though I don’t do it much now. The other advantage of kayaks.

When I use microjigs in shallow water (fished just like a cast ahead softie), I can almost guarantee that if I'm going to get a fish, it will be on the drop or on the first twitch. The rest of the retrieve is somewhat going through the motions. The further the lure is away from the boat the better. It's one of the reasons I prefer metal, they cast like rockets compared to the same weight jighead/softie combo.


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So if you see a big school of fish under your vessel don’t you just drop straight over the side?
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Originally posted by MightyBoosh MightyBoosh wrote:

Originally posted by Muppet Muppet wrote:

I did laugh at Paul saying he did not fish under the boat. Atari style has nailed me lots though I don’t do it much now. The other advantage of kayaks.

When I use microjigs in shallow water (fished just like a cast ahead softie), I can almost guarantee that if I'm going to get a fish, it will be on the drop or on the first twitch. The rest of the retrieve is somewhat going through the motions. The further the lure is away from the boat the better. It's one of the reasons I prefer metal, they cast like rockets compared to the same weight jighead/softie combo.




Same for me mate BUT i find 90% of my microjigs get hit on the drop so 1st cast is always going to be the best.
I normally fish 30-50m so boat disturbence is usually minimal. Bit different if fishing 5-20m
I find that the grub tails do fish best in deeper water so i use them a lot to great efect, way better than jerkshads in deep water imo
Also been trialling new squid softbaits, these are BIG fish magnetsWink

www.kavemantackle.co.nz
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A paddle tail or curly tail can be just as affective if not more than a shad on the drop. Not trying to convert or change anyones fishing styles, do what works for you. Fishing dirctly underneath you can be a very effective way of fishing. You see the fish on the sounder you drop a softy down more often then not the fish will rise to take the softy on the drop, like muppet said advantage of yakfishing. Will happily use a paddlerz 4 or 5" on a 1/2oz jighead from the wash to the deep fished in many different ways. Would be cautious putting general rules around certain styles and techneques.
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Originally posted by Muppet Muppet wrote:

So if you see a big school of fish under your vessel don’t you just drop straight over the side?

If I'm fishing vertically in deeper water (30 metres plus), then I'll usually only put a jig down if there is some sign on the sounder. That's 90% of my fishing and it's usually pretty successful. I was referring to the remaining 10% of my fishing which occurs in 20 metres or shallower. I will chuck a jig down on to hot sign, but I'm amazed how few bites I get under these circumstances. I get the odd fish, but it's not consistent.
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Originally posted by MightyBoosh MightyBoosh wrote:

Originally posted by Muppet Muppet wrote:

So if you see a big school of fish under your vessel don’t you just drop straight over the side?


If I'm fishing vertically in deeper water (30 metres plus), then I'll usually only put a jig down if there is some sign on the sounder. That's 90% of my fishing and it's usually pretty successful. I was referring to the remaining 10% of my fishing which occurs in 20 metres or shallower. I will chuck a jig down on to hot sign, but I'm amazed how few bites I get under these circumstances. I get the odd fish, but it's not consistent.


I refined my Atari technique on my old black and white fish finder in the Rangi channel 😂
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Originally posted by Muppet Muppet wrote:

So if you see a big school of fish under your vessel don’t you just drop straight over the side?

I used to watch the guy on Jetskifishing channel - Kirk? - and he did that pretty much exclusively. Looked for sign, then did a little lob and basically fished straight to the bottom. Which was opposite to what i was reading/watching elsewhere.

I adopted the cast well ahead method in most situations because I normally fish in 5-15m, but have done the drop-into-sign thing a few times in 18-25 with success. If there's a solid patch of fish and they're feeding, bingo.
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Originally posted by Downtown Downtown wrote:

A paddle tail or curly tail can be just as affective if not more than a shad on the drop. Not trying to convert or change anyones fishing styles, do what works for you. Fishing dirctly underneath you can be a very effective way of fishing. You see the fish on the sounder you drop a softy down more often then not the fish will rise to take the softy on the drop, like muppet said advantage of yakfishing. Will happily use a paddlerz 4 or 5" on a 1/2oz jighead from the wash to the deep fished in many different ways. Would be cautious putting general rules around certain styles and techneques.


Well it depends DT. I don’t spend half my trips softbaiting, I will determine what I am going to do depending on tide, wind etc due to past experiences. What the aim is I guess is sharing what works most of the time. If someone else finds they have a consistent method on certain spots they will go back and try. And rightly so.

Paddlerz do work shallow, seen it myself. But my main point is that the vast majority of the fish you saw gracing the mags for example are caught in conditions generally favourable for the technique.
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Originally posted by MightyBoosh MightyBoosh wrote:

Originally posted by The Tamure Kid The Tamure Kid wrote:

That seems a fair generalisation. 
  • I'd add "fishing on the drop" to point one. Some people just fish the drop - cast out, watch the line for takes on the drop, and if they don't get one, they wind in and start again - they don't fish out the cast right back to the boat.


The first point is kind of extreme! I sort of get it though, see my next post.


It is, but what some people do - usually specialists who fish from boats in close and it's not very productive fishing right back to the boat, and the chance of snags increases to some extent. 

But I've had a couple of very surprising hook ups when winding in in the past year, so now do that methodically rather than assuming it's dead fishing time.
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Originally posted by Muppet Muppet wrote:

 
I refined my Atari technique on my old black and white fish finder in the Rangi channel 😂

Well, fishing rule #1 you can't catch fish if they're not there LOL
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Very true
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Sorting through gear some jig head experiments over the years for various types of softies.
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Got a heap of good 1/4 Nitros the old good type
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Downtown Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Mar 2020 at 2:13pm
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Originally posted by Muppet Muppet wrote:

Originally posted by Downtown Downtown wrote:

A paddle tail or curly tail can be just as affective if not more than a shad on the drop. Not trying to convert or change anyones fishing styles, do what works for you. Fishing dirctly underneath you can be a very effective way of fishing. You see the fish on the sounder you drop a softy down more often then not the fish will rise to take the softy on the drop, like muppet said advantage of yakfishing. Will happily use a paddlerz 4 or 5" on a 1/2oz jighead from the wash to the deep fished in many different ways. Would be cautious putting general rules around certain styles and techneques.


Well it depends DT. I don’t spend half my trips softbaiting, I will determine what I am going to do depending on tide, wind etc due to past experiences. What the aim is I guess is sharing what works most of the time. If someone else finds they have a consistent method on certain spots they will go back and try. And rightly so.

Paddlerz do work shallow, seen it myself. But my main point is that the vast majority of the fish you saw gracing the mags for example are caught in conditions generally favourable for the technique.


Agree with you completely on using different teqeneques in there ideal conditions is going to produce the goods more consistantly and that is what you do to get your results.
I'm a different animal, I softbait every trip as my main method. I do try and line up as many factors as i can but very rarely does everything line up. I place more importance in having the experience/knowledge on how to produce the goods when conditions arent favourable.
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That is where you and I differ DT. I happily will drop the softbaits if I think live baiting or bait fishing will be better.
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1: Zman 5" Motor Oil Jerk Shad
2: Zman 5" Houdini Paddle-tail
3: Zman 7" Nuked Pilchard Jerk Shad

I fish mainly shallow coastal locations 2-15m (tiger country) I use lightbulbs 1/4 and 3/8 weights, short and long shank (the colour glow does matter!Wink)

Cant wait for BKK to come into the market with some jig heads!

Always come home with something! 
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Nice one, NZWest, that's an interesting selection.

I just got some 7" Z Man Diezel Minnows in Houdini from Australia. They look really good for a flick around places that kingies frequent.
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That's a pretty comprehensive jighead collection, Dan. I recognised the Trokar Flippin, maybe an Atomic Seeker or two, plenty of Nitros. Maybe a Mustad Darter?

Here are some interesting jigheads i've bought from overseas. I'm keen to see if the coloured heads, and in particular the bold eye, adds an x-factor. 

Pic 1: the first two are TT Lures 'Big Eyez' which use Mustad hooks - the first one is pink (but looks red in the pic), second one is black on the 'back', silver on the side; and the eyes on both are lumo. 

The second two are ZMan Redfish Eye jigheads from the US- use Mustad Ultrapoint hooks. The white eye is lumo. So far, i've caught some really nice fish on the chartreuse eye. Not easy to get the body on the hook, but once on they don't come off. They do a Trout Eye too, on a smaller hook which look fantastic with a small minnow or paddle tail in work ups. Got a skipjack one up north about this time last year. 

Haven't had a chance to try the TT lures yet, just arrived 10 days ago!!

Pic 2 is a TT Lures 'Demonz', which comes on a lighter gauge Gamakatsu hook. Keen to try with a Bruised Banana or Houdini. 

The TT Lures jigheads have the headlock design specifically to stop the stretchy Z Mans from slipping. I've been impressed with their plain jigheads, so thought i'd try the coloured/eyed ones.





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