How to Rig Your Bait Junkies

Fishing with soft plastics is a great way to catch bream, the tell tale clunk that you usually feel as they inhale the lure and the subsequent hook set make for a fun way to pursue these fish, they can be hard to catch sometimes but more often than not using soft plastic grubs and minnows will land you a few fish.

The hardware used in combination with soft plastic fishing can be altered to suit either the situation or the structure you are trying to extract the fish from. Here are 5 ways to rig the Bait Junkie Minnows and Grubs and the times I use them.

1. Standard Jighead - There is the traditional way of standard jighead inserted straight down the middle of the plastic and bring the hook out the top, whether it be a ball, dome or dart head is the most commonly used jighead. Each work as effectively as the other and everyone has their own preference when is comes to their favourite style of jighead. I prefer either the ball head or dome head with separate plastic holder for holding the plastic on. This is usually the way I first rig when fishing most open areas with minimal items to snag you on. It also is a great way to fish in high current areas as the head will sit on the bottom with the tail of the grub or minnow moving in the current to attract a bite. You have good hook exposure and rarely if eaten will miss a hook up. I will generally use weights from 1/6oz up to 1/20oz with these style of heads.

2. HWS Jighead - (hidden weight system) jigheads, these will not have a head on them and as the name suggests the weight ends up being hidden inside the plastic. They skip cast brilliantly and fantastic for fishing against structure and where there is overhanging foliage and getting in behind this is ideal to attract the bite via skip casting them into the desired location. I have found myself fishing these most often in shallow areas as well and I tend to use a lighter weight with this style of jig. To rig these it is the same as the traditional style jighead and go from the head of the plastic down the middle and bring the hook out the back, weights from 1/16oz up to 1/40oz are most common.

3. Weedless Worm Hooks - which you can get in weighted and unweighted. Unweighted is a great way to turn your soft plastic into a surface lure for when you are either searching for fish or find fish feeding on prawns in a system. Cast out as far as you can a slow constant retrieve off the surface is the way to go. Weedless worm hooks also come weighted which a re a great way to fish deep into snags and rocky areas with out getting snagged up all the time. getting the lure deep into these areas will get some solid fish however you may need to up the leader size to land more than you loose. To rig these you start at the head of the plastic and through the middle at a 45 degree angel come out he bottom the weighted ones generally come in 1/8oz up to 1/32oz.

4. HWS Weedless - I have started doing this more often these days as I like to fish lighter than I used to. If I'm fishing heavy timber I will try to fish the branches I can see first but then drop the plastic down deeper into the timber to try and get the bite. With this technique you can use the HWS jighead and rig it similar to the way rig a weedless worm hook. from the head of the plastic go in a 45 degree angel through the middle and come out the bottom. When rigging the HWS on a Minnow it will help it fall horizontally and almost create a shimmy on the drop. Then depending on you hook size line up to come back through or almost all the way through the plastic so the  hook tip is not exposed. This way when the fish bites it will still get a hook up but will not snag.

5. Traditional Weedless - As above but when you need to either go deeper or help get the plastic through thicker weed but not get caught up along the way. I use this in one of my local systems that has a very high amount of weed in it and the fish under this some times. It help get the plastic down the fish with coming back full of weed. The rigging technique is the same as above and can be rigged this way with any weight. As with traditional style jigheads weights I use are usually from 1/6oz up to 1/20oz.

These are a few of the ways that iI rig my Bait Junkie soft plastic lures and I hope that if you try some of these ideas they help you catch some more fish.

Daiwa is always looking to provide anglers across Australia with the best gear and advice possible. You can find your local Daiwa store here and if you want more fishing tricks and tips take a look at our blog page here! Also make sure to sign up for our mailing list so you're the first to know about new blogs, product updates, and special giveaways!