"Soft Vibes"

[Paikea]

I recently read an article describing the use of "Soft Vibe" lures. The article showed plenty of pictures but no explanation of the difference between normal soft plastic lures and "Soft Vibes".

Anyone use them? If so what are the differences?

Cheers

Paikea

[Matt]

I have been using Spanyid Sniper Vibes and the Fish Candy vibes quite a lot lately. Although they are a bit of a hybrid between an SP and a Blade, they probably have more in common with blades that SP.

They have the same tight vibrating action of blades, just with a soft body which increases their profile a bit. I fish them with gentle lifts to get the vibration going and some smaller twitches at the top of the lift. But they are pretty versatile and can be fished in a number of ways, I picked up a nice 50cm+ Flattie at IC on Sunday when ripping the Sniper Vibe in to get weed of it and then got a similar fish whilst I was dead sticking the vibe on the bottom.

Are they any better than SPs or Blades? Well, I don't think any one type of lure is better than the other. They all have their place, one down side is the cost and having a soft plastic body they can get destroyed by the toothy brigade. I have a couple of Spanyids at home missing the back half of them from Tailor. Thinking about super gluing some Bass Minnow halves onto them to see if they can resurect them.

Cheers

Windy

[slinkymalinky]

G'day Paikea,

This year I've 'discovered' soft vibe lures for estuary fishing. The now discontinued Berkley MF40 and MF50 have become a couple of my 'go-to' lures.

The big difference for me between soft vibes and blades is that the vibration is not as fast or intense (not sure if that does a great job of describing it). When I use a metal blade the feeling through the rod is a high-frequency buzz... with a soft vibe it's more subtle and a lower frequency (feels more like a burp than a buzz). We had a session on the Tweed where the fish were all over the soft vibes all day while a metal vibe of the same size and approximate colour was all but ignored... not saying soft vibes are better but just that some days fish switch onto their different action. I have to admit that when I first tried Berkley MFs I didn't like them because I was comparing them to metal vibes and didn't get the expected harsh buzz. Not any more.

I also have similar feelings when comparing Jackall hard vibes to mask (semi soft) vibes. The softer body softens the vibrating action. Sometimes the fish prefer the more subtle approach.

Different lures on different days depending on the mood of the fish.

Cheers, Slinky