Tips for Catching Redfish on Soft Plastics

Few fishing endeavors are more fun than tying into redfish on light tackle and soft plastics, and this is an incredibly effective way to target this species. Apply these simple tips, to give your catch rate a boost.

1. Make sure your jig head is heavy enough to feel tapping on the bottom. And, unless you’ve sighted fish up top, work that plastic right along bottom. While it’s true that surface or midwater retrieves will sometimes get bites from reds, very often they’re hunting right around “live” bottom where there’s weeds, rocks with barnacles, oysters, or other habitat that holds small crabs, shrimp, and other tiny critters that the redfish love to chew on. Bounce your jigs against that stuff, and you’re far more likely to draw the attention of those redfish.
2. Stick with paddle, twister, or other active tails. While straight-tail soft plastics are great for some fish, reds will usually smack a jig as it sinks, right before it settles onto the bottom. In this scenario, you want a tail that swims as it falls. Twisters will work and flutter tails can have the right effect, but it’s hard to argue against the effectiveness of a slender paddle-tail plastic that wiggles and waggles as it sinks.
3. If you get popped but the fish misses its target, cast right back to the exact same spot three or four times. If another hit doesn’t follow, quickly change your lure to a slightly different color, shape, or size. Sometimes if they feel the sting of a hook but don’t get solidly hooked up they’ll shy away from hitting the exact same bait. But if you offer them chartreuse instead of white, or a five-incher instead of a four-incher, they can be tempted into striking again.

BONUS TIP: Freaky color patterns are designed to catch your eye in the tackle shop, more than to catch fish. Plain white or pearl is usually the go-to, followed by chartreuse (especially in greenish water), lime green, and yellow.