Manufacturers of soft-plastic lures have become very proficient at pouring liquid plastic and secret sauces into a mold so that the resulting product looks like something gamefish might want to eat.

Seatrout will take unweighted soft plastics worked ata the surface, or weighted versions crawled over bottom.

The molds have been carefully crafted to reflect the size and shape of forage commonly consumed by saltwater species. One manufacturer has 2-inch peeler crabs, 3-inch and 4-inch mullet, 3- and 4-inch pogies, 4-inch shrimp, 8-inch sandworms, and 10-inch eels. In other words, lots of foods in all the right sizes.

The liquid plastic poured into these molds is engineered so that after cooling, it will have a certain density (to float, sink or suspend), texture (for some degree of hardness or softness), and finally, color. Colors run the gamut, and some manufacturers add flavors and scents to the poured plastic as an attractant that leeches out into the water so that fish will hold onto the lure longer, giving you time to set the hook, even if youfall asleep at the reel. Some soft-plastic baits are biodegradable, should one come off your hook. Ideally, your soft-plastic jerkbait looks like, feels like and tastes like the real deal when it comes out of the package. Just the same, you must present and retrieve it to complete the illusion.

Rigging Tricks

Suppose you see forage being busted in shallow water and can identify what is being ravished. You look into your tackle bag and see that you have a package of plastics that mirrors what you see in the water. How do you make that dead ringer come alive? It all depends on rigging. I can think of no other lure that allows so much latitude when it comes to the final product, that is, how it will behave in the water. You don’t just take them out of the package, put a hook in them, make a cast and begin catching fish. Wait. I hear ’ya. You did just that? Great, but hear me out—there are lots of tricks that improve your success.

Before rigging a soft-plastic bait, first consider where you are going to be fishing it. Are you fishing in deep water or shallow water? Do you want to fish it high or low in the water column, regardless of the depth? Will you be casting to open water or heavy cover? Will you have to make a long cast to cover water, or a short, soft one to a particular spot, or sighted fish? You also will want to consider the pound-test line you are using and whether you want your lure to make noise as it is being retrieved.

If you want to fish deep in the water column you are going to need to add some weight as you rig up. Perhaps the simplest solution is to use a jighead in the 1⁄8- to 3⁄8-ounce range. For shallow water, allow me to pass on a trick I was shown some time ago. Take a length of bead chain—the type used by fly tyers, or that comes on ceiling fans and lamps (available in hardware stores)—and cut off three beads with crosscut pliers or wire cutters. Make a small hole in the soft-plastic lure with your needle-nose pliers where eyes would be located and insert the three-bead link. Don’t make the hole too large, otherwise the chain won’t fit tightly. The lure now sinks slowly, nose first, and looks like a baitfish diving for cover, which is quite realistic. I sometimes insert a small glass rattle chamber, available in most tackle shops, in the same manner. Not only does it add a bit of weight, but they also rattle when you retrieve your soft-plastic lure erratically.