Plastic Fantastic!

I have been a plastic convert for quite a few years now, cutting my teeth on Flathead and then taking on the humble Bream. I have since progressed fishing the plastic in all sorts of situations and for all sorts of fish and today plastics fishing stands out as my preferred style of fishing. Whilst hard bodied lures and bait have their place for me a plastic is my go to lure.

It is amazing how many packets I have collected, how many brands I have tried and how many storage systems I have used. Forget the argument about when is a plastic not a plastic basically for me softies or plastics fall into two broad categories wet or dry. Wet plastics are often scented and more likely biodegradable with some of them coming in a juice or infused liquid. These are the ones in your kit that are most likely going to dry out given half the chance. This has always presented problems as far as storage is concerned and I have moved from keeping them in the packets in wallets etc to tipping them into airtight leak tight containers to using a combination of both strategies. Before the release of the Plano soft plastic storage system and the new Gulp storage systems we were ever searching for the perfect leak proof containers in our supermarket and we tried out quite a few different ones which seemed to do the trick for a while however eventually the seals gave out and we were back to square one. I can highly recommend the Plano system though it has certainly made a big difference, you should also keep an eye out for the new Berkely Gulp storage trays, these are quite nifty as they are the same depth as a standard tackle storage tray and fit nicely into the tackle bag. This style of lure have produced many a great fish and won many a tournament and not for a minute would I rule out their place in any tackle bag.

The other category of plastics I call ‘dry softies’ these are easier to store and often come infused with scents and flavours.  There are certainly some Bio style ‘baits’ which are similar to the property of wet plastics amongst this group but they do not dry out and are easy to store and use.

As a TT sponsored angler I was recently given the opportunity to fish with ZMan products. Now some of you will say I am just saying this because I represent the brand but the reality is they are fantastic plastics and by far the toughest product on the market without the fuss and bother of drying out or storage issues. Whilst at first I fished them every so often they have become more and more my go to lure of choice. This year I have caught Barramundi, Salmon, Tailor, Bream, Snapper, Flathead and a great number of random species using plastics from the ZMan range. The clear point of difference to other plastics on the markets is the elaZtech substance which truly makes this a very tough but pliable lure. On a recent weekend I caught 12 Tailor and 1 Australian Salmon all on the same Z Man lure. Justin Wilmer from TT Lures is on a challenge to catch 50 fish using 1 plastic and after fishing the same lure 2 weekends running his effort currently sits at 48 with 44 Flathead and 4 Pike, I ask you what other soft plastic would have withstood these toothy terrors and lasted as long? Club member Tom Ryan also took up this challenge and has caught in excess of 60 fish all on the same ZMan lure, This is great news for Plastic fishos and may eliminate some of the fuss and bother of both the storage issue and the turn over of lures. Good news too the range is increasing and there should be some great plastics to choose from come Flathead Classic time. So no matter whether you call a plastic a plastic a softoe or a artificial bait I think they are all fantastic! get amongst it.