Rigging plastics weedless

Soft plastics have really made themselves at home in the Australian marketplace over the last few decades, and their development has come along in leaps and bounds. By far one of the most revolutionary aspects of plastics, however, is their ability to be rigged ‘weedless’. Plastics rigged in this way can be fished through structure that other lures, including soft plastics rigged on a standard jig head, just can’t. There are drawbacks to fishing weedless, but in the right situation, suffering these drawbacks is worth it over all.

Rigging plastics weedless involves using a wide-gaped jig head or ‘worm’ hook and embedding the hook point in the plastic, and this allows the lure to pass through various structures without catching on them. In this way, it allows anglers to fish in tight cover to fish that aren’t keen to leave the safety of their den to feed. There is a huge range of jig heads designed for this purpose, and some of the better ones are Tackle Tactics Chinlockz Finesse Hooks, Owner Beast Twist Lock Weighted and VMC Predator 3X Strong Hooks 7317.

There is also a good range of pre-rigged soft plastics that come weedless, such as the Zerek Weedless Fish Trap, Zerek Live Shrimp Hotlegs 4IN and Chasebaits Bobbin Frog.

There are drawbacks to using weedless soft plastics, and the main one is that hook-up potential is sacrificed slightly. Often fish will grab the plastic, but if anglers’ reflexes aren’t fast enough to strike, the plastic will just slide back out of the fish’s mouth. Hook setting is an important skill when fishing weedless. Upon feeling the bite, anglers will need to strike with the rod in order to push the hook point through the plastic and into the fish’s jaw, resulting in a solid hook-up. It can take a bit of time to perfect, but once you do, you’ll be hooking and landing more fish.

If you’re new to the world of soft plastics and you want to expand your skill set further, make sure you look into some of the weedless options available. Having weedless presentations ready will mean you have the ability to fish in areas where you simply couldn’t before.