Lots of stuff about soft baits recently.

What would your best soft bait be? How to you rig it up?

thanks

My favorite rig is a beetle spin setup with a black and pink jig with a bright pink with glitter twister tail. I have caught more fish on this setup then anything else in my tackle box. I should really leave everything at home but a bunch of jigs and twister tails. :)

For Walleyes either a 4" Gulp Minnow on a 3/8oz jighead, snap jigged off the bottom or a Gulp Crawler on a crawler harness.

For Smallies either a 3" Pumpkin/chartreuse Power Grub on a 1/8oz mushroom head jig or a 4" white Power Jerk Shad on a texas style hook. Later in the summer a 1/4 oz jig with grub or 4" worm.

For Pike and Lakers I like a 5" Power Swim Shad on a 3/4 oz Kalin's Saltwater Bullet Jig. For shallow Pike a texas rigged 4" Power Jerk Shad or a 9" Slug-go works great.

If I had to pick just one "best" I would have to go with a 3" Power Grub...in three or four colors.

My favorite is easily a 2 or 3" pumpkinseed/orange ribbontail powerbait. I've caught everything and a lot of them on this except I don't believe I have ever caught a Lake Trout on them. Funny thing, back here in Illinois they don't do all that well, so I'm guessing the color is more important then the smell. I have some non-scented other similar ones so I should experiment to see if that's the case.

I don't put too much importance on the color of the jighead I use with them, if I had a choice it would be something in the orange or orange/yellow spectrum but many times I'll just use a plain jighead and rely on the color of the plastic. What's more important is the size of the jig head. Considering I'm only using 2 and 3" varieties I try to stay as light as I can get away with depending on the wind or depth of water. I'll start with 1/16oz, but if I can't feel my jig due to conditions go to 1/8 and hopefully not any heavier.

Gonna make some time for some other stuff this trip, especially the Zulus, but I said that last year to.LOL

Dave

If its Smallies I like to use a ( ) If its walleyes I like to use a ( ) :-)

Nothing beats a Zulu fished sub-surface! :-) Rig it with a size 3 swivel, use about 8 to 10 inches of line leader tied to a 1/0 red worm hook and Texas rig the soft plastic jerk bait.

Sebile makes a soft Magic Swimmer swim bait that is killer.

2" Gulp Minnow Grub in either Yellow/Black Fleck, or Orange with a jig, lighter the better.

Agreed QueticoMike

I fish the Berkeley Power Jerk Shad rigged the exact same way. Smallies, Largemouth, Pike hammer it. I like Pearl White or Arkansas Shiner.

quote Arlo Pankook: "I fish the Berkeley Power Jerk Shad rigged the exact same way. Smallies, Largemouth, Pike hammer it. I like Pearl White or Arkansas Shiner.


"

Hey Arlo,
Have you ever tried a Zulu before? Can you use a Berkeley Power Jerk Shad to catch more than 50 fish or does it fall apart before that? I'm just saying that these Zulus last longer than any other soft plastic bait I've ever used. If your Jerk Shade doesn't last that long I would recommend giving it a shot, they make it in pearl too.

Depends what I'm after, for smallies it would be a green pumpkinseed Denny Brauer flipping tube bait rigged texas style(4/0 or 5/0 wide gap hook),they are a solid body tube that last longer than hollow ones.
For walleyes it would be a chart.Power Bait twister tail on usually a 1/8 oz. jig

I will pick up some Zulus, I was wondering what the difference was.
Thanks.