Soft plastics you need to use
Category: Tournament
Feb 14th, 2018 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Feb 14th, 2018 at 12:00 AM
Sure, there are a zillion lures you can toss for bass during the late winter or early spring. So many of them are effective and fun to use. For sake of discussion this time around, let’s look at soft plastics.
There are so many to choose from, and all of them can have a place in your arsenal, depending on how you like to fish them. So, BassFIRST checked in with a few Bassmaster Elite Series pros (Josh Bertrand, Fletcher Shryock and Brandon Palaniuk) to see what they choose to use in the soft plastic realm for early season bass.
Spiderwire pro Fletcher Shryock is a Senko-maniac.
“I have three favorites,” said Shryock. First is a Texas-rigged Senko to flip in clearer water. Second is a wacky-rigged Senko to fish in cleaner water around docks. Third is a Senko on a shaky head on points and steeper banks in pockets.
“Just throw the Senko!”
Abu Garcia pro Josh Bertrand suggests a little more variety for his soft plastic selection.
“I like the Berkley 4-inch Chigger Craw as a jig trailer. Great for use on a football jig on rocks or a flipping jig on wood.
“The Berkley MaxScent Powerbait General Texas-rigged is great fished around spawning areas with a hard bottom.
“My other choice is usually a Berkley Pitboss Texas-rigged and flipped on wood or grass.”
Yamaha pro Brandon Palaniuk sticks with a basic soft plastics approach early in the year.
“I flip shallow wood in transition areas with a Zoom Z-Hog,” said Palaniuk. “I’ll fish a shaky head on pea gravel points using a Zoom Trick Worm, and I’ll use a twitch-twitch-pause retrieve with a weightless Zoom Super Fluke on shallow flats with grass.”