Plastics - Versatility and Choice

Here is a quick video on summertime plastics and some tips as well.   I hope you find this one helpful and we will be posting new videos soon to go with this one as well.  

Plastics is a very broad category, there are tons of choices and it tends to be what we all carry the most of in our boats.  There is a bait in this category to fit every need, depth, or pattern and they can also be fished in many different ways.  So, I have broken this category out into the different categories based on how you rig them and the best baits for that rigging method.   They can be used in so many ways on so many different rigs that it seems everyday you here about some new rig and variation of a rig that someone is using.  I will discuss some of the most common rigs in this piece and break down specific uses and variaions in the rigs in the sections attached to this article. To see some of the great plastics we carry on primarytackle.com click on this link to take you to our plastics page.  Primary Tackle Plastics and Soft Baits

Plastics can be fished in some basic rigs - texas rig (pegged, un-pegged, punch), carolina rig (Several variations), drop shot, shakey head, weighted hooks and rigs, and weightless.  I am going to cover each of these styles at length in the attached pages so lets go thru the different styles of plastics and you can also go to that pages using the red hyperlinked descriptions above.  They can be broken down into several different styles of baits - Worms, Tubes, Craws, Shad bodies, Grubs, Creature baits, flukes, Senkos, lizards, and finesse baits just to name a few with different ones coming out everyday.  

Worms where the original plastic and come in tons of styles and shapes.  This is the broadest category with the most uses and styles but really is probably the least used of the group.  Lizards are widely used in spring in the spawn and on carolina rigs most commonly. Tubes have their own space as they slide into heavy cover and have a unique spiral fall, they are great in high pressure situations.  Craws and creature baits are probably the most commonly used plastic nowdays as most fisherman now crawfish are a favorite food of bass year round. Grubs are a favorite among river and creek Smallmouth guys in current.  Shad bodies are just that to mimic swimming shad coming in many variations like flukes, minnows, and swimbaits.  Senkos (namebrand like Coca Cola) or stickbaits are a thicker cigar shaped worm best used with a slow action to coax reluctant bass especially in spring and around grass.  Plastics typically come into thier own after the water warms past 50 degrees but do have a place in colder water situations at times such as on a-rigs, carolina rigs, grubs, etc.

These baits can be cast, pitched, and flipped in dozens of different rigs and techniques. Each one has its own application and time that it comes into its own much like your other equipment and they have their own little special nuances that you need to learn and experience to use them to their fullest extent.  In the discussions of the seasons I outline what rigs to use when and in discussions of the rigs themselves and rigging will discuss the situations each works best in.   In each rig type there seems to develop a new variation every day that applies to a specific situation and I want to encourage you to experiment yourself when something doesn't quite work exactly how you would like it to. They need to be practiced much like other techniques or learning to cast with new equipment and can be modified to fit your needs.

Above is a very broad explanation of when and where to use certain plastics but they will be discussed in more length in the attached pages to this article.  The theme here is find what works on your lake for your style of fishing and get very good at it.  They each have their role and I will discuss them at length in the attached articles.