Six super soft-plastics for saltwater action
Check the tackle boxes of saltwater anglers these days and you’ll find an amazingly wide array of lure designs, shapes, and color patterns. From slabs of metal known as diamond jigs to surface poppers, hard-bodied swimming plugs, bucktails, and spoons, every lure category has its fans. But I’d venture none are as popular as the soft-plastic genre.
No doubt the appeal of soft-plastics in recent years has exploded to the point that choices in this lure format now seem overwhelming. A quick perusal reveals minnow and creature styles including paddle tails, eel tails, curly tails, jerk baits, large profile, slender profile, shrimp imitations, crab shapes, and more. But that’s the beauty of these lures; there’s a productive pattern to catch the eyes of anyone—or any fish.
Following is an introductory run-down of some of the most versatile soft-plastics on the market today. There’s no need to carry them all, of course, but having a varied selection to match the hatch, current, weather, and feeding habits of your quarry makes sense. The selections presented are not ranked in any particular order, as any one of these—or a hundred others—could be the hot ticket on any given day. So, think of this lineup as a starting place for filling out your soft-plastic arsenal, and let your imagination run wild from there.
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Al Gag’s Whip It Fish (Rigged)
“The thing that drives this lure’s success is that the head and the body are both designed with hydrodynamics in mind,” says Whip It Fish inventor, Al “Gags” Gagliarducci. “I designed this lure so water would slide along the sides of the head and funnel back to lift the tail up. That gave it not only the side-to-side movement of the paddle tail but also a rolling shimmy of the body like a hard-sided swim plug. It was the first duo-action soft-plastic of its kind.”
It’s still outfishing its imitators 13 years after introduction—and not just with stripers and snook. “It’s caught cobia to jack crevalle, and someone even jigged a giant grouper with it,” continues Gags. “In Alaska, people are using it for halibut. Imagine hooking a halibut on a swimbait!” he says with a chuckle.
Gags suggests trying the threadfin shad color for snook, noting famed sharpie “Crazy Alberto” Knie who has caught some real tanks along Florida’s Gulf Coast using that pattern. “Just cast out and retrieve it at a medium speed with plenty of rod twitches,” says Gags. “The lure does the rest.” Available in sizes three inches to six inches. MSRP $4.50-$9 for one rigged and one spare body; algagsfishinglures.com/collections/whip-it-fish
Panther Martin BigFin Paddle Tail Swimbaits
Full disclosure: I designed this lure for Panther Martin, but even I’m surprised at its versatility. BigFins catch not only the stripers they were engineered to tempt but false albacore, summer flounder, black sea bass, weakfish, snook, sea trout, redfish, and a slew of other species as well, including cobia, mahi, cubera snapper, and roosterfish. Available in one-ounce (five-inch) and two-ounce (seven-inch) sizes and paddle tail or eel tail slim profile configurations, these lures are heavy enough to jig and slender enough to probe the shallows.
Retrieve BigFins with a moderately fast pace in open water around baitfish schools, jig for bottom dwellers, or burn ’em for Fat Alberts. Extremely durable with a large dorsal fin acting as a weed guard, you can bounce them off bulkheads, docks, and bridge abutments without fear of snagging. MSRP $4.50 for three bodies and 1-oz. head; $5.50 for three bodies and 2-oz. head; panthermartin.com/Lures/swimbaits/BigFin-Paddle-Tail
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Got-cha Pro Shrimp
Named Best New Saltwater Lure at the 2023 Big Rock Sports Outdoor Expo in Nashville, Tennessee, this new entry has really made a splash. Especially enticing to sea trout and redfish, it might also score with snook and southern flounder.
A jointed tail section gives the Got-cha Pro Shrimp superior action and lifelike appeal while four provocative color patterns provide a good look for curious fish in clear or stained water.
Pre-rigged with a unique jighead that helps flair the body off the bottom while kicking up puffs of sand or mud as it’s twitched along, this shrimp imitation works great beneath a popping cork over shallow flats and along marsh edges or twitched across deeper open bottom with a Carolina rig. Bury the hook point slightly in the body cavity for a weedless presentation.
“Got-cha Pro Shrimp are scoring especially well with sea trout and redfish from the Carolinas to Florida,” says Chris Pardue, saltwater product manager for Calcutta Outdoors. “We expect they’ll continue expanding their range this summer.” I’m guessing he’s right on target with that assumption. MSRP $6.99 (3-pack, ¼-oz.);
calcuttaoutdoors.com/products/gotcha-pro-lifelike-shrimp
No Live Bait Needed (NLBN) Paddle Tails
These five-inch and eight-inch hand-poured, soft-plastic paddle tails generally feature two to four colors and iridescent additives that help the lure’s profile stand out day and night. With a large boot and thicker profile—especially in the belly—than most paddle tails, they are ideal for slow-roll retrieves in quiet water yet still perform fine in stronger currents when paired with a properly sized jighead. Match them with NLBN screw lock-style jigs, and they’ll stay secured in place throughout your trip. Switch heads to match the tide as the current strengthens or weakens.
“We designed these lures for southern snook and tarpon, but they catch nearly any predator that swims and have a solid following of anglers targeting stripers (rockfish) and other predator species in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions as well,” says Andrew Pellerin, general manager for NLBN. “Choose the five-inch body for fast action or the eight-inch size if it’s lunkers you seek. Either way, fish these lures with a slow and subtle retrieve that allows them to scrape bottom once every three seconds, and you can’t go wrong.” MSRP $9.99 (5-inch/3-pack) or (8-inch/2-pack). Jigs start at $7.99 (2-pack). nlbn.com
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Storm WildEye Swim Shads
Introduced in 2002, these are among the most popular paddle-tail soft-plastics of all time. Available in two-inch to nine-inch sizes, these are great choices for imitating medium to large full-bodied baitfish including bunker, herring, and mullet. Life-like appearance and swimming action, combined with a tough but soft body, draws strikes from all species of inshore predators and raves from fishing fans.
Weighted internally, these lures casts reasonably well and swim perfectly with a simple straight retrieve. Reel faster to keep them near the surface or slower to drop down deep. Adding an occasional sharp twitch to your retrieve can trigger reluctant lunkers to commit. MSRP $3.99-$13.99; rapala.com/us_en/wildeye-swim-shad
Z-Man Mulletron
Mullet imitations are the rage, and Z-Man’s recently released Mulletron is quickly establishing itself as a leader of the pack. With a realistic “finger mullet” profile, low-frequency thumping tail wag, and minimal body roll, they look like the real deal on a steady slow-roll retrieve.
Formed from Z-Man’s amazingly stretchy and tough ElaZtech, these soft-body options can be rigged to run weedless on a ZWG Swimbait Hook or impaled on a Z-Man Swimbait Eye Jighead for open-water action (there are back and belly hook pockets for easy rigging). Either way, redfish, tarpon, snook, cobia, sea trout, and stripers are sure to respond. Nick the bottom occasionally on shallow retrieves to ignite the bite with tank-sized snook, and you’ll quickly become a believer. MSRP $4.99 per 4-pack
(3.3-inch) or 3-pack (4-inch); zmanfishing.com
-by Tom Schlichter
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