I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice on this mate!

I've used the gulps 5 or 7 inch jerk shads a lot. The black and pink colour being a personal favourite of mine. Just recantly tried the McArthy's and love them even more. The 6 inch paddletails are great, as are the bullhead minnow. If targetting the bigger bottom fish like dhu's I recommend going atleast a 5inch and even bigger up to 7 or 8inch plastics. They have huge mouths and will easily engulf a big plastic. Theres definately a big difference in brands. Some are scented, softer, last longer, dry out or dont dry out when out of the packet... definately differences.

The jerk shads require a bit more effort on your part to make them jerk around but are deadly on snapper. The paddletails dont really require you to do anything as they tails swim in the current by themselves and the dhu's love them!

Jig heads all depend on the current really. Lightest possible to stay down the bottom. Anything from 10 - 60grams.

they are just compressed bait anyway.

for 30 to 50m, grab yourself some 1oz and 2oz jig heads with either 5/0 or 7/0 hooks (size depending on the length of the plastic you're using).
Drifting, provided it's not too fast has produced best for me, usually a 1oz is heavy enough in water to 30m, them bump the weight up from there. I generally give plastics away deeper than 45m or so and use jigs instead, but they can be used deeper. At anchor, if there's not too much current, 1oz will be fine, just fan your casts around the boat and allow plenty of time to get to the bottom.
As for plastics themselves, everyone has their favs, they will all work but the difference for me is how long they last. Some are only good for 1 fish, others will last a lot longer. My 2 fav brands are Mcarthy and Snapbacks, for demersals like dhuies, snapper and coral trout, 5-7 inch plastics come through for me.

ok here is another question for those in the know. when fishing plastics in deeper water are you able to put them on your normal paternosta rig just using lighter weight lead heads so they can still move around while drifting

Are on the money I agree with everything they said, as for your question Russ yes you can use plastics on paternosta for deep water or you can use a rig called a Captains Elevator Rig. Basically a bare jig head hook with a plastic keeper and no weight with a split ring through the eye joined to a rocket/bomb sinker of your choice, works well in deep water.

thats sounds interesting would you please be able to show us a diagram of that twitchemup

I've used plastic on a paternoster rig, just used normal hooks too. They stay on fine and the rocking on the boat gives them enough action. I fished like that up at the abrolhos when the drift got too fast to just fish with a jighead, had to use some big lead but got some nice trout and baldies!

I use a reasonably large white lead head jig for my bottom bouncing (it doubles as the sinker and it's not a patenoster)and I sometimes put a large SP on that and it's worked well when the fish are on.

Cheers
Dale

I especially like the 5" Snapbacks as they are a bit tougher than the average SP ......... smear some S Factor on and you are in business.

For fishing the bottom I "invented" a rig that had a tear drop sinker attached to a split ring and then a hook with around 4-5" of assist cord on it. I used this as a bottom ring and found that it worked really well. I will see if I can get a picture of it.

Steve

Apparently there is something called ebbing which is to thread a plastic onto a circle hook, give it 1m of lead, then tie that back to your jig! That way it seems to dart along behind your jig.

Still never tried it!

Thanks for the info guys

Plenty of good advice and options on how to fish SP's

Hope the weather comes good for Sunday now.....

these are pretty popular in NZ for soft baiting over there and come in sizes up to 6oz. I've seen them used in up to 150m from as drifting boat but the plastic still has a little life to it still due to the swivel point.

http://www.canlive.co.nz/catalog/zen/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=99_100
You can make your own up using teardrop sinkers with a swivel eye as well.

OK been and grabbed a few pkts of the McCarthys and some decent jig heads, will hopefully try them out on Sunday....

Just a small point of confusion, it's McArthy Baits, so drop that extra C! You won't be able to find their website if you use the wrong spelling ;)

Yep spelt that wrong didn't I

Cheers Till