Page 58 - Bush 'n Beach Fishing magazine

Jeff Wilton with a mangrove jack on a weedless rigged Z-Man Lubin Pfeiffer fromThe Full Scale - Fishing Adventures with aTT EZ ShrimpZ. Lures SnakelockZ pinned barramundi.
HTow to rig and fish weedless plastics
HE weather is lure, allowing more fish the hook, allowing you warming and to be caught on a single to easily swim the soft we’re starting soft plastic. plastic across the sur-
Tackle Tactics
by JUSTIN WILLMER
to see more bass, bar- Second, the plastic is face.
ramundi and mangrove jack photos popping up on social media.
such as weed, lilies and timber, so fishing these areas with traditional lures can translate to snags, lures fouled with weed and lost gear.
ElaZtech soft plastics when weedless rigging because they have three main advantages over traditional soft plastics.
extremely soft and flex- ible, letting the hook clear much more easily when a fish strikes and increasing the hook-up rate.
This is a popular op- tion for rigging frogs to fish on the surface for bass, mangrove jack, barramundi, saratoga, Murray cod and other species that feed off the top.
Many of the images feature a soft plastic and a weedless jig head locked firmly in the jaw hinge of the fish, making it difficult for it to throw or dislodge the jig head during the fight.
Weedless rigged soft plastics come into their own in these scenarios and can mean not only more time fishing, but more fish landed.
First, when rigging weedless you are only securing a small section of the plastic in place, and the 10X Tough durability ensures it doesn’t tear away easily when casting hard and when the fish strike the
Finally, the plastic is naturally buoyant, meaning you can rig weedless and unweight- ed to fish the surface or weight the soft plastic to fish a required depth.
This setup is ideal for buzzing lures across the top of weed beds and among lilies, reeds and timber.
Many species – in- cluding those men- tioned – love structure
I fish a wide selection of Z-Man 10X Tough
When rigging this style of plastic, it’s im- portant to use a jig head that has a keeper de- signed to stop the plas- tic from sliding down the hook, such as the ‘chin lock’ keeper from TT Lures – found on the ChinlockZ, Chin- lockZ Finesse, Chin- lockZ Snagless Weight System, SnakelockZ, SnakelockZ Finesse and NedlockZ EWG.
The strikes can be brutal, so be ready to keep the fish out of structure.
Paul Chew with aTT Lures SnakelockZ rigged barramundi on a Z-Man Scented ShrimpZ.
Page 58 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, November 2020
For surface fishing, the ChinlockZ has the ‘chin lock’ keeper but no additional weight on
The ChinlockZ is available in a finesse version as small as a #4 for tiny plastics, right through to a 12/0 for fishing large plastics.
Let’s take a look at each of these jig heads, why we might use them and what species may be the target.
It is even used in larg- er sizes in open wa- ter for species such as kingfish.
This weightless jig head is also popular for swimming crusta- ceans, and paddle and curl tail plastics across the surface or walking jerkbaits over structure for the aforementioned species.
* continued P59 www.bnb shing.com.au