Stickbaits

Just in case you've been living under a rock and havent dialled in on the revolution that is 'soft plastics' then this blog won't help much.... but for those of you that understand at least the basics of plastix and the difference between the type of plastix that are available you might actually get something out of this...

Stickbaits, jerk minnows, jerk baits... call them what you will, and usually that will be a name inherited from our yankee mates, these lures are without doubt THE most deadly soft lures you can use.

My assuption on this revolves around attack triggers in fish. Fish have in-built or natural instincts. For most species a natural instinct is predation. Fish must eat but in the process if this can be achieved with minimum fuss the better. So if a fish can sense another fish injured or dying, the natural instinct is to snaffle that fish, which renders itself an easy meal...

The stickbait mimics a wounded or dying bait fish superbly. In fact i would go so far as to say it does that better than any other lure i know. What's interesting is that the lure in itself has no built in action whatsoever. Its basically a long streamlined piece of plastic, unlike fish or worm profile lures that have tails that swim or flutter when the lure is worked.

Where the stickbait gains its movement is in the jighead. Usually jigheads used for stickbaits are angular or shaped heads that resemble a bullet. If you've ever watched a James Bond movie and seen baddies shooting bullets into the water. You would have noticed the effect water has on the trajectory of the bullet. It basically maked the bullet deviate violently as the water catches the shaped edge of the bullet. same premise with the jighead. When twitched, and sometimes violently, the jighead darts off in erratic fashion. The lure and jighead combo then has the effect of mimicing a wounded fish....which basically does the exact same thing when its dyaing or wounded.

Unlike other plastix with in-built action, which require little imput from the fisho to work, the stickbait requires a good deal of imput from the angler. Its truely a matter of deception, and really, isn't that what using lures is all about.

Working the lure is at the discretion of the fisho. My old man tweaks the lure gently where i probably am a little more violent. You can do 1, 2 or 3 up-sweeps of the rod, side- sweeps, downward sweeps...really the only limit is your imagination.

Also these days i wipe S-Factor all over my lures. The scent is actually water soluable and fish can taste the lure without even having it in thier mouth..im told from a range of up to 1 meter??? Cool stuff.

So there you have it. The 101 on stickbaits. There's still a heap i havent covered but the fun is getting out there and learning something for yourself.