I'll preface this by admitting that if I had to write down all I knew about 'Soft Plastics' all I would need would be a builder's pencil and the back of a postage stamp.

However it has not escaped my attention that these 'things' are all the go at the moment for catching fish that I wouldn't recognise if I tripped over one. I've even seen some (I think) when in a tackle shop buying some crimps for 600lb Momoi Hard (man's tackle) - they'd be the squidgy numbers in plastic pouches swimming in a small amount of goo. I assume the goo has an aroma that fishie finds nice enought to eat.

They presumably don't last very long and are not cheap. Am I starting to smell a terrific marketing ploy? Is Berkely and his mates trying prise the dollar that would have gone to the bait shop from a bunch of unsuspecting gullible anglers? Is this all a big marketing con up there with abdominisers and never dull steak knives? Are we about to be bombarded with soft plastic infommercials?

I suspect the answer is yes to all of the above - but what would I know? My impetus to pen this drivel was a glance at the 'What I bought today' thread. Bushpig, my marlin tagging hero, last night spent $100 on these things, this money even including a wallet to keep them in!!!. The Mayor of Swinewaka is a discerning gent with his dollar (he even buys Legend Lures) and for him to shell out this sort of money that last year would have gone on pilchards is testament to the powers of suggestion and peer pressure.

I wonder if in five years packets 'soft plastics' will be lying in the corners of garages up and down the country next to piles of leisure suits, George Foreman grills, exercise bicycles, all in one make up and other such 'must have' consumer items. If I were a pilchard retailer I would not be shaking in my boots just yet.

its something different and its bloody good fun on light gear. my best is 6kg snapps on 4lb line and it was a great little scrap. kingies are even more fun

Quote: Originally posted by Finatic on 03 May 2006

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What they said.
. How many snaps can you catch on a single pillie?

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Fin, I caught 7 throw back snappies on the same piece of bait once. - piece of Squid. Have tried the plastics and I agree they are here to stay. They certainly have their place.

Went to the talk by the guys from Australia, and they certainly catch fish on them. One of the interesting things they had to say was how their fishing areas are really under pressure, and it's a lot harder to catch a fish let alone a goodie.

They use braid lines- in all depths with light casting rods as they cast the plastics into the white back wash caused by waves breaking on rocks. Some of the places they fish look like the back of the gannet colony at Murawai on a bad day. Sometimes they have the motor running and one guy working the boat - very much an active agressive style of fishing, none of this having a sleep while Mr Rod Holder has a turn. They estimate doing 500 casts in an afternoons fishing. Hence the light rods and gear.

I am sold on plastics but will always like the smell and feel of cutting a piece of bait up and sticking it on a hook. Its real fishing.

Quote: Originally posted by Bushpig on 03 May 2006

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1 x 12 or 21 ?

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I thought there were a lot of parallels between the soft plastics fishing and salt water fly (having witnessed Kezza and Bushie fishing them on Saturday.)

Not necessarily as effective as a stump puller with half a bonito on a 12/0 for putting food on the table, but another technique, and an interesting and fun way to fish.

I intend to give it a go ....  until the beakies return.

Quote: Originally posted by A C on 03 May 2006

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Quote: Originally posted by Finatic on 03 May 2006

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What they said.
. How many snaps can you catch on a single pillie?

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1 X 21 lb on Monday.

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Quote: Originally posted by Finatic on 03 May 2006

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How many snaps can you catch on a single pillie?

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Yeah must say I'm new to them as well and impressed.

I thought great value for money, fair few in a pack for $9.95 and ya dont seem to lose many unless busted off.

I used only 3 (2  for me and 1 for a mate) while out on saturday and caught a fair few fish.

And yep great fun on light gear!

Might cast a few tonight at the mt maunganui wharf

Finatic, Yes and No. Firstly Berkley have poured more time and research into it than anybody else. Well at least they claim to and I imagine it is true. They started back in about 1989. They have spent a lot of time duplicating organic tastes and overall they have done pretty well. I have a number of articles here by members of their staff and the guy that heads their research staff.  Are you conversant with artificial coffee flavours. The situation is a little similar to that. I was involved and have been involved with that for something like 20 years and some of the early stuff was dreadful but as time has gone on a lot of the best ones today are pretty reasonable. A lot of their early attempts and especially the American ones were bloody dreadful in my opinion. Some of the better ones came from German and some of the European Flavour Houses. Unilever used to have one of the best research facilities in the UK. The floors and everything were so spotless you could eat off them.  A lot of the early stuff was very artificial and metalic in taste. Tea and wine are pretty similar in that respect. In most cases you still cant beat natural flvours and tastes. That is why things like pillies and squid are still some of the best out there. It is not just a matter of exactly copying a flavour profile but imitating it and producing something that has a unique but attractive flavour profile in itself and still strongly appeals. Perfect imitation is often impossible anyway. That is why aniseed works with fish. Once they get accustomed to it they get a real hankering for it once they recognise it. The secret is getting fish accustomed so they instantly recognise it. Ive met guys who reckon aniseed dosnt work and the reason is its because its the first time the fish have come across it. (aniseed isnt a natural flavour that is readily available in the ocean). I can certainly tell you it works alright. I can remember years ago back in the 60s I use to live in a house in Boyle Crescent just near Auckland hospital and my flatmate who is a well known NZer and wouldnt like me mentioning his name as he has a high profile job and needs to present a very squeaky clean image used to work as a seagull on the wharves plus loading beer at the railway station during his uni breaks. He used to work on the grain ships that brought the wheat in unloading those and as well as spilling a bit of wheat in the harbour at the wharf to attract the fish the wharfies use to use aniseed. This guy used to regularly bring snapper home like clockwork and also come home half cut from all the beer they used to filch at the same time. The snapper were just trained and it took stuff all to catch them. I could tell you a lot more but wont for various reasons. Ive made some pretty good attractants in the past myself and will probably bring what I have been working on for the last 5 months to market fairly shortly. In the past I have used krill as both a powder and a hydrolysate and know that works. Its a tremendous amount of work and knowledge to get it right. The good thing I found years ago was the more you work on it the better you perfect things and the better you get at it.  

With regard to Berkley I dont think they have done that much work on pheromones which is another thing and which work if you know what you are doing but like all these things it does depend on what they are combined with. You have to be a bit careful with Berkley and take some of their claims with a grain of salt. It really depends on who's giving you the information wether it their reasearch people or their sales staff. Sales staff are like sales staff anywhere and some sales staff have s**t for brains and will tell you the most outrageous lies. Always remember Berkley is a really big corporation and its mostly the almighty dollar that drives the business. I take what I am told carefully and verify it but at the same time I will admit they do have some very good products.  

At the end of the day plastic tastes just like plastic if that is all there is and just about all the good S/P manufacturers have learned to add attractants. As they say the sincerest form of flattery is imitation. Those that have learned to imitate both flavour, scent, and action generally produce the best S/Ps. Remember Scent and Action are what attract fish but Flavour/Taste is what holds a fish. With no flavour/taste you will generally only get one strike/bite. With FLAVOUR/TASTE the fish will hold on or return. The idea is to increase the odds in your favour. Flavour plays a far bigger part than most people realise. Its a bit like the old joke about Sambo and Rastus and the Intelligence Balls.   

Actually on the scent, I was mucking about with them last night and accidentally got some of the scent on my fingers and later on the cats at home were going nuts when I was around them. For the hand without the scent they weren't too interested but the hand with it made them go nuts.

So yeah it must do something!

cut a groove

it must bleed!

As everyone says, its the FUN FUN FUN thats the thing.

Most fish for me is 20 plus blue cod on one softie, which is not really much of a test as at the end they were smacking a 1inch section impaled on the hook??? white was the color.

From my point of view, its akin to fishing for trout, not many people fish for these fellas now days with bait, its spinning or fly, and they all catch fish.

For shear fun ( that f word again, it appears a lot when people talk soft plastics) I really agree with the rest of you....

Last word... Give them a try if you have not already , if you have a spinnning set, spool it up with braid and get a couple of packets of sp's ( threads on this site will give you the best color choice to go for). I used an old f4000 and noodle stick rod for a while and it caught fish, no comparison compared to my new drop shot however it only cost me some braid to get it ready to go....

Churras

Is braid essential tho?

Fishing with 3kg mono at the mo and the only problem has been bust offs!

Anyway I'm off to cast a few SPs in a few down the mt wharf. Report back in due course

Jeez Krill, how many typists do you have on the payroll? Got a spare one that can come down and read your posts to me mate?

back and only 2 fish for my 30mins fishing. heaps of bites but only small.

lost me only hook to a good fish then them bottom or rock so wandered back indoors.

yep good fun

Yeah I think S/Ps are here to stay alright and will only get better and better. One thing that does worry me though is the amount of unbiodegradeable plastic we can introduce into our marine enviroment. We are lucky to come into it at this point unlike the States where they have been playing around with them for 45 years or so and some of the early stuff is virtually totally unbiodegradeable or will take literally hundreds and hundreds of years to break down. Unfortunatelay a lot of this sort of thing eventually ends up in the food chain. (we have all met Plastic Americans havnt we?). Over there there is quite a large number of lakes which are literally covered in millions of unbiodegradeable plastic baits. (kind of gives a different meaning to the words plastic fish dosnt it). Today a lot of the S/P manufacturers are doing a reasonable job but there are still some producing stuff that is not good and dosnt augur well for the future. Hopefully we are not going to end up with much of that stuff imported into NZ.

One of the positive aspects that I like about them is the amount of bait fish that is not being destroyed or taken out of the foodchain. That has to be a positive. While it is not a massive amount in NZs case it still has a detrimental effect and I generally am behind anything that can reduce and minimise the effect.

Finatic, I used coffee as an analogy as it has a lot of similarities and is a good example. I have had a long experience with it and tea learning my Coffee in Italy and my Tea in Sri Lanka and India the best countries in the world to learn them. I tend to prefer both natural but dont mind flavours when they are done well which they seldom are. They can certainly be used to camourflage and cover unwanted tastes, aspects, and poorer quality products. The same is true of S/Ps. There are some people doing or trying to do a good job and others who are just interested in the money.  Quality requires dedication and knowledge. In your case if you dont like coffee it wouldnt be much sense making a coffee bait that would attract you. Just as each of us is attracted to certain flavours and tastes I am sure as we continue and the knowledge of attractants grows it will be easier to target certain fish. Just as a matter of interest Italian coffee as we all know has a good reputation although that is not always justified as they used to use a certain amount of Robusta beans in the blend rather than say all Arabicas. I have had some awful coffee in Italy and virtually everytime I can trace it back to overuse of Robusta which produce prolifically, come out of areas like central Africa, are exceedingly cheap in comparison, and taste muddy and like crap.  In the same way people that spend the time. do the research, and the money are much more likely to build better attractants which will work better. If you are into quality wine or anything similar you will know what I am talking about.

Beagle, I have a dictation program called Dragon Naturally Speaking which used to cost a fortune and is still about the best. You want to be thanful I dont use that. You can do a full A4 page in about 2 minutes flat talking at 180 - 200 words a minute. 

JK, Braid certainly improves the sensitivity and makes it more fun I will admit. I think it comes down to how many bustoffs you have.

thanks krill well getting in them bustoffs at the mo so braid wont be too far away.

I guess braid will be more important in the deeper water? Ive just been fishing the shallows with the SPs so far.

This post from the usually snapper adverse Obald had me confused for quite a while.  Is the end of the game season driving him to new lows and could he actuallly be considering bottom fishing!  What is happening in the State if Milford?

However, with the indepth information from Krill, Bushy and Squid I finally started to understand his ploy.  Coming soon to a Lureorium near you......

Soft Plastic Biodegradable Scented Disposable Marlin Lures. 

   Cheers

       DA

I sort of agree with Obald, but lure fishing does have a lot of appeal to me. I still keep remembering the jigging craze of the eighties and it's revival with the looong jigs.

I must try SP's one day.

Much better tonight. Wish had the cam here. Just got in from  nearly 1 hour of all out SP abuse at Mt M wharf. 1 bait and 6, maybe 7 fish, not sure, will think about it more. 1 lil trev and rest all snappes, only 2 legal  but one well over. All returned. No mess no fuss, no sign of a yellow bus and off to bed.

JK

Quote: Originally posted by Kezza on 05 May 2006I don't find myself often doing this, but I agree with the Swine on this one....

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