Soft plastics found their origins in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with small worms and grubs being moulded from hard rubber. The stiff rubber used, as well as the basic shapes produced, did not allow the flexible action and effectiveness of modern soft plastics to be observed. In 1972, lure manufacturer Mister Twister patented the Curly Tail concept, utilising the flexibility of silicone-based plastic to create a rubber lure with a more lifelike action and vastly improved fish-catching effectiveness. By the early to mid 1980s, high sales volumes of Mister Twister lures prompted many new entrants into the market, with competition soon leading to a broad and diverse selection of soft plastic lures being made available in a range of shapes, colours and sizes.

The diversity of soft plastic lures has enabled them to be used in many configurations, rigs and with various techniques. The original, and still most commonly seen use of soft plastics is as a simple lure, using a weighted hook known as a jighead. The hook of the jighead is threaded through the lure so that only the gape of the hook, and the eye, are exposed. Methods vary according to the shape of the plastic used, however is it most often cast and retrieved with short, sharp jerky motions applied by the angler through flicking the fishing rod tip. Try to emulate the natural movement of the bait the soft plastic imitates.

Soft plastics are also trolled and jigged in the same method as metal or hardbodied lures, and used as artificial baits in classic real-bait rigs. The many rigs, techniques and uses of soft plastic lures are as varied as the designs, colours and sizes they are available in. Specialised techniques and rigging methods have evolved from anglers targeting specific fish species or in particular areas, such as the Texas rig and Carolina rig. Tandem Rigs ,A variation of the traditional Jig Head, called a Deep Darter Head, provide a sub surface "walk the dog" action on the soft plastic lure.

Traditional Jerk Bait style: Point the rod tip toward the water and twitch the soft plastic as you reel, using short jerking motions to add action to the lure. I pause every so often to simulate a wounded baitfish. You will often find that you'll get hits when you start reeling again. Change retrieve speeds and twitching frequencies, there are no hard and fast rules methods for success while some methods work for some fail for others, some of the best fish I have seen landed have been as soon as the bait has hit the water, and so where is the technique in that?.

There some things that you just cannot escape from having in order to fish soft plastics properly, not everyone can afford the best so get the best you can afford, the rods are designed to be very light responsive ranging in all manner of blank types, from glass which are lazy heavy through to high carbon rods which are light and very responsive. Braid is a must 6-8-10-12-15lb for general snapper fishing is fine, DO NOT buy cheap braid because that is what it is, it will disappoint in the long run. Fluorocarbon is generally accepted as the choice of leader material 15-20lb is the common breaking strain although I regularly use 30lb and if the fish are biting and you are catching why change, Jig heads a few different weights 3/8oz 1/4oz 5/8oz are the more common weights being used. Reels spinning or casting really doesn’t matter so long as you are competent at using your choice. Whilst this is not a concise list it will get you started. Oh and don’t forget the soft baits themselves the list of brands is endless, we have chosen a few that work very well on our local fish.