Fishing With Big Soft Plastics: Five Principles To Consider

By Captain Mike Hogan

A few reasons why we specialize in big soft plastic baits for trophy sized game fish.

1. Opportunity Cost: Simply put, you'll weed out some smaller fish. If you're targeting a trophy, this point is worth considering. (I'm not a big fish snob, but wouldn't you rather catch something bigger if you had a choice?) By weeding out smaller fish you are minimizing down time where you could be missing an opportunity on other fish. Maybe your fish of a lifetime! Also, hooked fish can sometimes spook others in a school. You don't want to waste your BIG shot on a smaller fish.

2. Return on Investment: It's a pretty tough life for a fish. Their daily focus is all about survival and they make quick decisions, which are often based on maximizing energy spent. A large predator is not going to go too far out of its way to feed on something small that might require more energy than is exerted in chasing it. And don't forget - when you throw larger baits, your fishing radius expands. I find this especially important when I am working large areas of structure.

3. Visibility: Throw big predators something they can see. Larger baits are simply more visible due to their sheer size. What goes hand-in-hand with size are:

Colors: Enhance your lure's visibility with color and proper presentation. Blues and purples are the most visible in deep water conditions. At nighttime or in deep water, I like using solid dark colors that will present a well defined silhouette. In murky conditions, I'll go to brighter colors such as chartreuse and bubble gum.
 

4. Commotion: This one's simple. When large baits are fished on the surface, they create a lot of commotion. In this instance, widen your "fishing radius" by helping predators locate your bait.

Sounds: When thinking about this from a soft bait perspective, you can add rattles such as our Hogy Eye rattles. Another trick is to try "popping" a soft bait on the surface. My favorite way to do this is using our Jiggn' Poppin' Hogy on the surface. Also try "ripping" your soft bait across the surface, thereby generating lots of commotion.
 

5. Movement: Larger baits such as our 14- and 18-inch Hogys create a lot of commotion as they undulate their way through the water. The general rule of thumb is, the longer the soft bait, the more movement it will have.

Matching The Hatch: Sometimes to match the hatch you must use large baits. The diets of trophy largemouth, stripers, musky, tuna, billfish, yellow tail, ling cod, grouper, big snappers, rooster fish, snook, tarpon, red fish, cobia include baitfish well over 8 inches in length.