Soft vibes are worth a try

I hope you’ve pulled the winter woollies out and are planning your next piscatorial pursuit. vibes

This month I’ll do a bit of a run down on using soft vibration lures, or soft vibes as they’re called in the ‘biz’.

Soft vibes are big business when it comes to the world of fishing.

I’ve asked a range of competition and recreational fishers if they had to pick one lure for the rest of their lives, what would it be?

Most of them have answered with, “That’s a no brainer – a soft vibe for sure!”

A soft vibe can be worked efficiently in 1m or 30m of water.

 

They can be cast at rock bars, drains, flats, wrecks, snags – tackle retriever would be required – and the list goes on.

There’re not many lures on the market that tick all the boxes like a vibe does.

These days the vibe market has gone absolutely crazy.

Fishing shops don’t have only one type of vibration-style lure on their shelves anymore.

Soft vibes, hard-body vibes, vibes with paddle tails and even prawn vibes are available.

Personally, I think there’s now an oversaturation of soft vibes available to the public.

 

There are small businesses popping up everywhere with the claim that ‘their’ lures are the ‘go to’ when the bite is tough.

Some of those businesses do have a fairly good product but there are also the cheap bulk imports that flood the market with a lesser-grade product.

How do you tell what’s fact and fiction?

Read on my friends, the answers are coming.

So, as per the early days of walking in to buy a few soft plastics… where the hell do you start when you want to do a bit of vibe fishing?

Well, we have all the information you’ll need for getting the best out of those good time vibes.

The lures I’m giving the good oil on are a totally unsponsored and are based on my opinion and experience.

 

I’ve used a wide range of vibration lures, and these are the ones I’ve had the most success with.

Just remember that, in order for a lure to be welcomed with open arms, it must first catch a fish.

If you don’t have confidence in the lure you’ve tied on, I guarantee your mindset will be different and you won’t work that lure the same as you would ‘old faithful’.

One thing that annoys me is when you pay top dollar for a new lure but then have to add the cost of a treble hook and split ring upgrades on top of it.

It’s frustrating but unfortunately, it’s a way of life when targeting big angry critters and you really want to use that lure.

My first choice for split rings and treble hooks would be those from Decoy.

 

In the trebles, the Y-S81 is a proven winner.

I find they are the lightest and strongest treble on the market.

For split rings, the Decoy Extra Strong range are a great choice.

You need to keep in mind that changing anything from the lures original setup can greatly hinder the performance and action.

I know a few fishos who use only the original hardware because they’re that worried about the action being affected.

I’ve played around with them by swimming them straight out of the packet, upgrading trebles and swimming them again.

I’ll judge if it has worked by feel and seeing what it looks like in the water.

 

The final test would be to see if it still catches fish and is still effective.

Some of the competition fishos go as far as putting the lures on scales and getting in the pool to watch the action.

I’ve pool tested a lot of vibes – you can tell a lot about a lure by testing and watching it in a pool.

So, which vibes are worth the money?

Samaki Vibelicious Thumper and Zerek Fish Trap lures are great to start with.

Samaki Vibelicious now come with Decoy trebles, so there’s not much terminal change out required.

I will still replace the trebles on a 95mm Fish Trap with size 4 Decoy Y-S81s.

The Vertrex Max by Nomad is another great option.

Though be mindful that these soft vibes have a very strong vibration and can sometimes put the fish off if they aren’t on the job.

Vertrex also have a swim lure but I haven’t had much success on that model.

Those would be my top three picks for soft vibes, if you’re keen to get into fishing with soft vibes.

Many times I’ve seen where the fish won’t eat a regular presentation but, get a vibe down in front of their face, and it’s game on!

Make sure you tune in next month because we’ll be taking a look into more of the technical side of using vibes.