Sp's Off The Rocks

[little mullet]

Hi Guys....new to the forum.

I'm quite experienced fishing off the rocks for Sambos, tailor, bream, jew, kings...etc with bait and metal slices.

But this christmas, I would like to try using soft plastics off the rocks while i'm bait fishing.

Has anyone used them off the rocks??

If so, what should I be looking for in selection of SP's and techniques...thanks guys

[neilm]

mate.

Personally I wouldn't bother to use SPs for targetting tailor - it'll probably work out expensive!.

As for Kings, my understanding is that the 6 inch sluggos are a good bet, but the best plan is to see what bait is present at the time that you're fishing and try to emulate this - I think this is a general rule - how many times can you put the 'wrong' lure through a school of salmon feeding frantically and not get a thing because the sambos are onto something that doesn't match your lure?

Cheers,

neil

[Guest madsmc]

G'day little mullet and to FishRaider.

I've been using plastics off the stones for a while now, but only for bread and butter species like bream, flathead, and flounder. Hopefully one day my list of species will include a nice jew.

I am not a guru by any means, but I'll give you some pointers from what I've learnt since I started with plastics.

Bream

For bream, stick with the smaller curl tail, fish, or stickbait style plastics up to three inches in length. The key is to work them up and down fairly slowly, including a complete stop here and there. This let's them have a good look at it before they strike. Small twitches of the rod tip are also useful during the retrive to give off a "wounded baitfish" look.

The twitches are particularly important when using the stickbait style plastics such as the Berkley Power Minnow or Squidgy Flickbaits, as this style of lure has no built in swimming action.

It took me a while to nail a bream on plastics, and I'm sure a lot of others had the same experience, so don't be discouraged if it takes a while. Persistence, and patience is the key.

Flathead

For flathead, get yourself some mid sized plastics from two to six inches in length. Personally, I don't find that the style, or colour are really all that important for flathead, so knock yourself out where that's concerned.

The way to fish these is to let them sink right to the bottom, then give a big lift (or two) of the rod tip then drop it back down, so the lure darts up off the bottom then slowly sinks back to the bottom. Repeat this process until you have a fish, or the lure is back to your feet.

If you're just starting with plastics I recommend you target flathead first up until you get a feel for how to fish with plastics. Flatties are a fairly straight forward fish to target on a plastic lure, and will give you the quickest results.

Jew

I'm just starting out with targeting Jew on plastic, so I don't have much advice to give. I'm using fairly large plastics, 4 inches plus in length, and fishing them with big, slow lift and drop movements. However I haven't had any positive results as yet.

There are a few other guys on the site who have been successful with jew on plastic, so they might add some advice, or you could search through the previous posts in the "Lure and Fly" section for more info.

Pelagics

For pelagic species I usually stick to metal slices, especially for tailor, but plastics will work. I've caught plenty of Tailor as a by catch when using plastics, but as Neil has pointed out, it gets expensive pretty quick. It's normally a one plastic per fish proposition. The wallet, and the don't like it very much.

I'm not experienced enough on that front so I can't really give you any more advice on tackle and techniques for pelagics. Hopefully one of the other Raiders will step in with some advice on Sambo's, Kingies etc on plastics.

If possible, I highly recommend that you get your hands on one of the many videos on soft plastics fishing. I have both the Squidgy and Berkely DVD's and they've made a lot of techniques clear to me very quickly.

Also, don't forget to check out the articles written by Ken A on soft plastics fishing. They can be found here.

Best of luck with the plastics mate. Much like fly fishing, it's a bit of an addiction once you start. Hope to hear about your first capture in the near future.

Shane

[little mullet]

thanks for your replies guys.

i'll definately give it a go this summer.

Also, when fishing off the rocks with SP's, is getting snagged an big issue?

thanks guys

[Guest lbgking]

Sluggos are the way to go for kings.

I have caught 40cm slimies on plastics at dawn/dusk but not much else.

I only let the sp's sink for 15 seconds before retrieving so I don't loose many.

[changa]

Little mullet,

Merry Xmas and

I have been using SP's off the rocks for pelagics mainly for years and i find they are irresistible to most species.

Some SP's are very soft and are munched in one hit and some others i use i have had for years as the material is much tougher.

When the likes of tailor are biting their heads off i switch to the CHEAPO SP's that i buy for a couple bucks for a bag of 10.

These usuall last for a few fish before being changed.

Change your retrieval rate and experiement a lot.

I generally use 4" in 'silver fox' or similar or white or silver/blue with good success.

good luck

changa