Suprise First Soft Plastic Fish

[TurtleTown]

After failing to wake up at the crack of dawn to go fishing i was getting the itch to go fishing by mid afternoon despite it being low tide. So i decided to leave all bait at home and give the soft plastics a go as up to date i haven't been able to catch a fish on the darn things ! Off down to my local shore based fishing spot in middle harbor i headed despite it having  limited shoreline to cover i thought it would do for an hour or so.

After arriving i start casing my wriggler SP on a 1/8 head and #1 hook doing a slow bounce across the bottom only to pull it from the water tailless ! ok a good sign i thought something thinks it looks alive, so i re rig and go again. Two casts later i felt two strikes bringing it in and that wriggler now has a chunk out of its belly in the shape of a mouth and its tail missing, i repeat this with two more wrigglers before i start to get worried i didn't bring enough SP with me ! So i changed to some Berkley grubs that are over 7 years old in pumpkin seed that need to be used up and decrease the hook to 1/16 #4. The same pattern continues and i start to think i must have slow reflexes or only very small fish are attacking it. After going through 12 SP of various types i finally got a hookup, to be honest i was quite surprised when i actually felt some weight on the rod not just the usual tap tap nothing, so i reeled it in and could feel it didn't have much weight to it but i was pleased to see what had been destroying all my SP's!!  I did a double take when the fish broke the water, a Leatherjacket !?!  now that was not what i expected, i have never seen a leatherjacket taken on a soft plastic before but it explains how i had so many nice neat bites out of the precious wrigglers. With that i decided to call it quits and try a different location next time - maybe Narrabeen for some Flathead.  Anyway now i can at least say Ive caught a fish on SP now !

Dave

[rickmarlin62]

they certainly chew em up don't they..never got one myself on a plastic but have heard of others doing it...rick

[Aardvarking]

Leatherjacket have jaws like a pair of wirer cutters, I've genuinely had a hook bitten in half by leatherjacket! They're also possible the dumbest animal alive, and will eat anything that moves. I've had a metric ton of soft plastics ruined by leatherjacket, but it's just a speck compared to the four hundred metric tons of plastucs ruined by bloody tailor.

[MainframeJames]

 

45 minutes ago, TurtleTown said:

After failing to wake up at the crack of dawn to go fishing i was getting the itch to go fishing by mid afternoon despite it being low tide. So i decided to leave all bait at home and give the soft plastics a go as up to date i haven't been able to catch a fish on the darn things ! Off down to my local shore based fishing spot in middle harbor i headed despite it having  limited shoreline to cover i thought it would do for an hour or so.

After arriving i start casing my wriggler SP on a 1/8 head and #1 hook doing a slow bounce across the bottom only to pull it from the water tailless ! ok a good sign i thought something thinks it looks alive, so i re rig and go again. Two casts later i felt two strikes bringing it in and that wriggler now has a chunk out of its belly in the shape of a mouth and its tail missing, i repeat this with two more wrigglers before i start to get worried i didn't bring enough SP with me ! So i changed to some Berkley grubs that are over 7 years old in pumpkin seed that need to be used up and decrease the hook to 1/16 #4. The same pattern continues and i start to think i must have slow reflexes or only very small fish are attacking it. After going through 12 SP of various types i finally got a hookup, to be honest i was quite surprised when i actually felt some weight on the rod not just the usual tap tap nothing, so i reeled it in and could feel it didn't have much weight to it but i was pleased to see what had been destroying all my SP's!!  I did a double take when the fish broke the water, a Leatherjacket !?!  now that was not what i expected, i have never seen a leatherjacket taken on a soft plastic before but it explains how i had so many nice neat bites out of the precious wrigglers. With that i decided to call it quits and try a different location next time - maybe Narrabeen for some Flathead.  Anyway now i can at least say Ive caught a fish on SP now !

Dave

Sounds like a fun little mystery to solve! I'm interested in knowing the spot if you're willing to PM me. 

[nutsaboutfishing]

When this starts happening I either move  or change to blades. 

Well done on you first   SP fish!!

 

[nbdshroom]

Nice work. Keep it up.