Top Ten Soft Plastics . . . Please Add Your Own 2025
greatone1210 reply :
So I have noticed a large number of threads on soft plastics but most of the time we are forced to go through a ton of them just to find the information we need or want. I would like to change this and make a thread that could end up as a sticky. So the question is as follows;
You're in a tournament but only allowed soft plastics. You are allowed ten different soft plastics. Please list the ten soft plastics you would choose. Also include how you rig them, what situations you throw them in, what brand/type hooks and anything else you think would help would be fantastic.
Thank you for playing this game and I hope this thread grows and becomes a go-to source for fisherman looking for a comprehensive soft plastics thread.
OK Bass Hunter reply :
Zoom Trick worm splitshotted anywhere on a Owner 1/0 mosquito hook
5" Senko wacky rigged around docks and pilings owner 2/0 mosquito hook
10" Power Worm Texas rigged Gamakatsu 5/0 EWG hook
Zoom Super Fluke swum over open water
7" Roboworm dropshotted deep Roboworm 2/0 Rebarb hook
Rage Craw and Berkeley 4" Chigger Craw flipped and pitched around visible cover
7" Senko Carolina rigged around deep cover
Rage Tail shad fished up top especially over mats and lily pads
4" Mister Twister curly tail grub on a 1/4 ounce jighead fished everywhere and anywhere
Phish reply :
Everyone thinks their thread deserves a sticky eh?! Just kidding. I don't know that I have 10 to list as there's a lot of cross over. But I'll entertain you.
- Drop shot finesse worms and minnows. Roboworms, RI Flirt, Netbait or Zoom straight tail finesse worms, Jackall Cross Tails, cheap knockoff lighter soft jerk baits (senko types) like Yum Dinker (I like lighter slow floaters on d-shot. Nose rigged or sometimes wacky. Gamakatsu hooks - Finesse Wide Gap or the split shot / d-shot hook sized 1 up to 2/O. I acutally prefer bigger wide gaps for d-shot. But I often fish d-shot in place of t-rig around some cover and structure. Bubba shot I guess.
- Tubes. RI Innocations Boom Boom Tubes, BPS flipping tubes and a few other brands. T-Rig w/ screw in weight or unpegged in open water. Jighead for deep open water bottom fishing. Gamakatsu Offset EWG
- 7" Ribbon tail worms and curl tails. Must be 20 different brands in my tackle storage I really don't have a favorite. Zoom? Culprit? Doesn't matter much to me. T-rig pegged/screwin weight. Gamakatsu Offset EWG. Rarely I'll C-rig, been a while.
- Soft jerk/stick baits: Best Bass Baits 5-7" Sinking Sticks (senko style) extra salt, extra fat and twice as productive as the original. Running low on those so I go to http://www.mglures.c...s/pachinko.html MG Lures Pachinko or http://www.bassmagnetlures.com/?p=1923 Bass Magnet Lures 5-6" Quiver Stick and Q Daddy. Good prices, and you can buy in bulk. Or if I have old Senkos left those are almost as good as the 3 previosuly mentioned - but don't last more than a nibble. T-rig and wacky rig, sometimes with o-rings. Gamakatsu Offset EWG.
THIS IS TAKING TOO LONG!
- Any mix of Creatures, Craws and RI sweet beavers, or the 100 sweet beaver and creature duplicates like Strike King and Berkley make, Berkley Chigger Craw, Yamamoto Kreatures, Hula tail grubs. I really have no preference most of the time. Kinky Beaver might eventually be my go to creature (when tubes don't get it done). T-Rig or jig or weightless for Yamamoto. Gamakatsu Offset EWG. Superline hook if I'm pitching heavy junk with 50# braid.
- Wacky jig finesse worms and Shakeyhead worms. Jackall Flickshake. Big Bite Baits... Squirrel Tail worm I think it is. Some d-shot finesse worms will double here, especially Reaction Innovations Flirts.
- Single tail grubs. Pick a brand. Kalins, I dunno, no major preference. Jig head or spot remover type jig.
- Lizards, t-rig. Gamakatsu EWG, rare C-rig. Sometimes d-shot / bubba shot with Gamaktsu EWG or G-Lock Worm hooks.
- Paddle tail type small swimbaits - RI Skinny Dipper. Keitech Swing Impact (although I d-shot them). Weighted swimbait hooks from Gamakatsu.
- OK I must be missing a ton. ZOLTAN!
Long Mike reply :
I don't fish tournaments, so I am apparently not qualified to answer your question. On a personal basis, I like the Rage Tail plastics and use them almost exclusively.
greatone1210 reply :
On 8/17/2012 at 12:07 PM, Long Mike said:I don't fish tournaments, so I am apparently not qualified to answer your question. On a personal basis, I like the Rage Tail plastics and use them almost exclusively.
Only hypothetical sir. I don't fish tournaments either. The only qualification to answer is having an answer.
greatone1210 reply :
On 8/17/2012 at 12:04 PM, Phish said:Everyone thinks their thread deserves a sticky eh?!
This one will be king of the sticky threads, usurping the almighty senko thread!
fishking247 reply :
not sure if i would need ten but here are what i prefer:
1. 7" berkley power worm
2. 5" senko
3. zoom finesse/ trick worm
4. 3-4" grub
MarkH024 reply :
There are so many plastics out there it would be unfair to even make a list from my end without having tried so many. I think 10 plastics is enough variety to cover all aspects of your fishing so I'm going to just give you 6 of my favorites.
1. Havoc Pit Boss (flip/pitch)
2. Senko/Yum dinger (wacky/t-rig)
3. Rage Shad (topwater)
4. Rage Craw (t-rig/rage rig/jika/Mojo)
5. Zoom Super Fluke (jerk bait)
6. SK Coffee Tube (tube rig/Mojo)
These are 6 plastic setups if I could only fish plastics I'd get by on.
Darren. reply :
These are my most productive plastics and styles to fish them.
Fontana Finesse Man reply :
1. Zoom super fluke (pearl) nose hooked for surface fishing.
2. Zoom finesse worm (watermelon and green pumpkin) texas riggged
3. Zoom swamp crawler (cherry seed) shaky head
4. Gambler Mega craw (junebug) texas rigged
5. Rage tail lizard (green pumpkin) texas rigged or carolina rig
6. Reaction Innovations Trixie Shark (watermelon) top water frog/buzzbait over grass
Give me those and a zoom or spike it chartruese marking pen and I will take my chances.
roadwarrior reply :
Topwater: Rage Shad, Menace and Toad
Shallow: Keitech Swing Impact Fat, GYCB Kreature, NorthStar Swim Jig/
Rage Eeliminator or Single Tail Grub and Zoom Fluke or Slug-Go
Bottom:
Moving: Space Monkey and Smokin' Rooster, Sworming Hornet/
LFT Live Magic Shad
Subtle: Senko, Fat Ika, Thumper, Anaconda, Baby Craw & Lobster
iceintheveins reply :
1. Yamamoto Senko, 4" and 5" rigged weightless texposed or whacky. Cream White, watermelon black flake, green pumpkin black flake, black blue flake, watermelon/cream white laminate
2. Zoom Super Fluke and Super Fluke Jr, rigged weightless. Baby bass, pearl white, green pumpkin, lemon shad, watermelon seed, arkansas shiner
3. 6" Curl Tail Worm (green pumpkin, watermelon, motor oil, red shad, black blue flake) Rigged texas style with a sliding sinker, a split shot rig, or a parasite weight pegged
4. 5" Yamamoto Hula Grub, rigged texas style with a 1/0 EWG hook and a parasite weight pegged (green pumpkin black flake, watermelon black flack, pumpkin black flake, black/blue flake)
5. Rage Shad, rigged texposed with a 4/0 EWG. Green Pumpkin, Green Pumpkin/Chart, Pearl White
6. 6" Lizard, parasite weight pegged, texas style sliding sinker, split shot, carolina rig (green pumpkin, black blue flake, watermelon black flake, black)
7. Berkley Havoc Pit Boss, parasite weight pegged (black blue flake, green pumpkin, okeechobee craw)
8. Rage Space Monkey, parasite weight pegged (black blue flake, green pumpkin, watermelon red flake)
9. Yamamoto or Kalin's single tail grub, 4" (white, clear silver flake, green pumpkin, watermelon, pumpkin blake flake)
10. Luck E Strike 5" ring worm, split shot or carolina rig (watermelon, green pumpkin)
webertime reply :
1 Backwards Fat Ika
2 T-Rigged Pit Boss
3 Senko
4 C-Rigged Rage Shrimp
5 Keitech Fat Impact
6 Drop Shot a Whiskey River Bait Company Whiptail
7 3.5" Tube with a 3/16 to 3/8 jighead
8 Fluke
9 Floating Stanley Ribbit
10 Rage Shad
Highhawk1948 reply :
Innovation 5 inch worm - dropshot (Watermelon Red)
Producto 6 inch Tournement Worm - Texas Rig (Black-Grape, Watermelon Red)
Culprit 7 1/2 inch worm - Flipping (Black/Blue, Watermelon Red,Red Shad)
Dr. Irvs' Gator-Tail Worm - Flipping/Texas Rig (Watermelon Red, Grape Shad, Black/Blue)
Charlie Brewer Slider 4 inch worm - Slider Head (Black/Blue, Watermelon Red)
RB 77 reply :
I’ll take a stab at this. A little background first. I consider myself primarily/ first and foremost a plastics fisherman. I mainly fish deep, clear water reservoirs in Southern California with maximum depths of 200 feet plus (see Diamond Valley Lake). I primarily use 6 and 8 pound test due to the gin clear water and 20 plus feet of visibility. 10 pound test is “heavy” out here for everyday worm fishing. Lol. It kills me when good ol’boys back east talk about deep water crankin’ or offshore structure fishing in 15’ of water and having to drop down to 10 pound test. Deep water structure fishing for me starts at 40 plus feet! Lol.
As far as brand goes, I exclusively fish my own brand plastics now, but more on that later in another thread. Colors are usually matched to the lake/ water clarity and conditions. I prefer “natural” colors i.e. Green Pumpkin, Watermelon, Pumpkin, etc although we all know location and presentation are by far more important. Techniques overlap with the different plastics and colors. I exclusively use Gamakatsu hooks as I feel they provide the best quality at price point and offer a hook suited for every technique I employ which are primarily Drop Shot, T-Rig, and C-Rig. High speed reels are the norm and technique specific rods are standard issued with set ups dedicated to only a single technique.
Below I will list a generalized list of baits that I swear by. Like I said I exclusively use Rude Baits® now but for years used and drew inspiration from Zoom®, GYBC® and RoboWorm. In no particular order of importance as presentations vary from day to day, hour to hour, and spot to spot here is a generalized list of my top producers;
- 4.5” and 6” Finesse Worm – I primarily use these type of worms for Drop Shot and Nail Weight presentations. Drop Shot generally in 10 to 50 foot plus. Nail Weight for 10 foot or less. I use my own version of finesse worm with a size 2 Gamakatsu Drop Shot/ Split Shot hook with ¼ or 3/8 oz. ball style Drop Shot weight. Out this way very light, subtle and translucent versions of Purple, Pink, and Blue work very well.
- 5” Stik Bait – Weightless and weed less. Always! Texeposed weightless weed less presentations for generally 20 foot or less. Although as painful as it may be sometimes, this technique can kill it in 20 plus foot of water if you can stand it! Usually a Gammy 3/O EWG gets the call. With best producing colors being darker naturals, Green Pumpkin, June Bug, Grape, etc.
- 5.5” Creature Bait – I use these for primarily picking apart pieces of visible or metered cover although they are great for covering structure as well. T-Rigged for cover and C-Rigged for structure. Gammy 3/O Round Bend with a 3/8 – ½ oz. Bullet weight for the T-Rig and ½ - ¾ oz for the C-Rig. Junebug has always been a top producer for me.
- 6” Straight Tail Worm – Used primarily with a T-Rig for picking apart isolated pieces of cover. Although the Drop Shot is a So Cal go-to, this may be the most versatile of the whole bunch. Works from one foot of water to 40 foot plus. Gammy 2/O O’Shaughnessy or 2/O Round Bend with 3/8 – ½ oz. Bullet weight. Any of the aforementioned colors will work as long as you find the fish.
- 6” Lizard – This is both my go-to C-Rig and sight fishing bait. 3/O or 4/O Gammy EWG with either a 3/8 oz. weight for a sight fishing T-Rig or ½ - ¾ oz. egg weight for C-R-rig. I have had the best luck with Pumpkin and Junebug for the C-Rig and Chartreuse for sight fishing.
- 3’ and 4” Swim Bait – When I say Swim Bait I mean “Swim Tail” style threaded on to a triangular style lead head. The same style you see on all of those A-Rigs. ¼, 3/8, and 1/2 oz. get the call. I primarily use them to scrape the bottom working uphill on long, tapering, main lake points from 50 foot of water back up to 10 foot. A great search bait. Also good for breaking fish in wolf pack when burned back to the boat. Shad (Smoke) pattern is my favorite. Probably the bait of the listed above I use the least in fresh water but is an absolute go-to killer in salt water. It is the standard bait in which all Calico, Sand, and Spotted Bay Bass fisherman use the most.
- Honorable Mention – Soft Jerk baits, Grubs, Curl Tails, Tubes, and Large Worms have all produced for me throughout the years but the six listed above are my go-to bait day in day out.
I hope the post above was informative as you can see I take pride in fishing my plastics. Whether it’s soaking a Drop Shot in 40 foot of water off a main lake point or Flippin’ and Pitchin’ tules pockets in the back of a cove I love fishing plastics.
SissySticks reply :
People will make fun, but I guess my handle gives it away anyway. Love fishing super finesse plastics-- 80% of my fishing (and when I'm not doing that I"m throwing 1/6-1/4 oz. jigs and 1/8-1/4 oz. topwaters! 
Not a tournament guy and fish only for enjoyment.
All these baits are thrown on medium-light to medium spinning tackle with 5lb. yellow powerpro mainline and 6lb. Trilene 100% fluoro leader.
3" senko or dinger- fish it any way you want, it will catch fish. Favorite are weightless texas, lightly weighted texas, drop shot
3-4" curly tail grub: great search bait on a 1/8 -1/4 oz. jighead
3" boot tail grub: catches fish in every depth and every season. Usually a slider grub rigged on a slider spider head.
4.5" Cut Tail Worm: Drop shot, texas rig, shakey head.
4" Power Worm: texas rig, swimming jighead
3" tiny brush hog: drop shot or texas rig, killer on stream fish
3" Lake Fork craw worm: texas rig, split shot, or shakey head
3" stingray grub: in cold water, this will always be tied on to a 3/32-1/8 oz. jighead in my boat
2.75" Bitsy Tube: texas rig, jighead, drop shot, split shot. An all season fish catcher.
GYCB Tiny Ika-- when all else fails, drop shot or 1/16 oz. jighead will catch fish
Basically throw greens, smokes, and transparent purples and reds like redbug, plum, grape, etc. Black and blue or junebug in muddy water, and yes, I still throw finesse plastics in muddy water.
J Francho reply :
7" Powerworm
10" Powerworm
4"Powerworm
4" Roboworm Straight Tail
4.20 Sweet Beaver
Zoom Superfluke
Ragetail Craw
Ragetail Spacemonkey
Gulp! Alive Leech
Jackall Crosstail Shad
BassinLou reply :
I will play too.
In no particular order.
1. Zoom finesse worm (watermelon seed)
2. Zoom swamp crawler " "
3. Zoom french fry " "
4. Zoom fluke " "
5. Zoom trick worm " "
6. Zoom horny toad " "
7. Gambler EZ
8. Yum Stick worm " " and ozark smoke
9. Zoom u-vibe (watermelon seed)
10. Zoom baby fluke " "
deaknh03 reply :
1 rage craw
2 rage lobster
3 rage baby craw
4 rage space monkey
5 rage smokin rooster
6 rage lizard
7 rage hawg
8 rage shad
9 rage twin tail menace
10a rage shellcracker
10b rage annie
10c rage toad
10d rage recon
10e rage chunk
10f rage grub
many threads and info on how to rig these, the different ways are almost limitless!
fish-fighting-illini reply :
1 Berkley Gulp 7" turtle back wrom purple blue fleck pricey & they don't hold up but they work like crazy.
2 Berkley Chigger craws 5" black w red fleck they don't hold up real well either but they rock
3 Not sure if this counts as a soft plastic but Storm swimshads 3" These don't work well everywhere but at certain lakes they do and the price is fairly cheap.
they also last forever.
4 anything Powerbait
Those 3 -4 ** are what I use the most
nastynate reply :
Zoom super fluke
GYM sinko 5"4"3"
GYM pro sinko
Mizmo tubes
Rage baby craw
Zoom ultra vibe speed craw
Zoom old monster
Berkley powerbait chigger craw/crazy legs
Zoom brush hog
Zoom lizards
rowyourboat reply :
1. 4" & 5" Senko - GYCB, yum
2. Tube - cabin creek/venom/BPS
3. 4" ring worm - cabin creek/zoom
4. Fluke - zoom
5. 4" robo worm
6. zoom finese worm
7. zoom trick worm
8. spider jig - cabin creek
9. jackall flick shake
10. ALL rage baits. LOVE em
tholmes reply :
I
1. 7" or 7-1/2" ribbon tail worm - Brand doesn't matter much to me, Culprit, Power Worm, Yum, Barlow's - they all work. Colors: Red shad, tequila sunrise, junebug, watermelon seed, black neon
2. Zoom Ol' Monster - same colors as above
3. Yum Crawbug - crawdad and junebug colors
4. Rage tail Space Monkey - Bama Bug, Watermelon/red flake
5. 4" twister tail grubs - white, black, chartreuse, smoke/silver flake
6. LFT Live magic Shad- watermelon/red pearl and sun perch
7.. 4"-5" Senko or a reasonable facsimile thereof
8. 4"-6" finesse worm
9. LFT Fork Frog
10. Rage Tail Smokin' Rooster - pretty much any color thay make. I have no idea what this thing is supposed to look like, but bass seem to think it looks like FOOD.
Tom
JigMe reply :
I have never fished a tournament, but here is a list of my most productive soft plastics:
- RageTail Baby Craw; T-rig with a small bullet weight
- Yamo. Senko 5’; wacky
- Stanley topwater frogs; size 4 hook
- Rage Tail Craw: pitch or flip on a Northstar Jig
- Zoom grub: trailer or use it on a small Jig head
- Zoom trick worm: Drop shot, or T-rig
- Zoom Finesse worm: Wacky and weightless
- Robo worm: Drop shot
- Bite it Trick stick: Wacky
I.rar reply :
i almost always fish my light spinning outfit. i love throwing plastics but i limit myself to a few that i feel i can always catch fish if theyre there.
zoom super fluke jr
zoom 4" lizard
4" roboworm straight tail
4" power worm
4" cut tails
4" stick baits even though i havnt fished them as much as i used to.
aside from the stick baits which i fish weightless t rigged, i can rig those weighted or weightless t rig, light c rig, drop shot, split shot, and shakey head or even wacky.
that gives me over 20 possible presentations...if i had only one color. i personally go for baby bass or greens, a white or pearl color and maybe a red shad color. i fish all those on a 1/0 ewg hook and i use 1/32, 1/16 and 1/8oz bullet weights. ive never fished a tournament but i usually only get to go out for a couple hours or so every outing. so what i have here is more than enough for me.
bkohlman reply :
1. Zoom Finesse Worm
2. Brush Hog
3. Zoom Trick Worm
4. Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver
5. Berkley Power Worm
6. Crappie Slider!
Maxximus Redneckus reply :
1.manns augertail
2.mister twister grubs
3.manns jelly worm
4.zoom fluke
5.culprit worms
6.manns shadow
7.berkely powerbaits
8.zoom lizards
9.3x strike king baits
10.manns hardnose jelly worms
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