Can soft plastic baits gain an even greater following? Some of the heightened popularity of plastics can be traced to Denny Brauer’s phenomenal 1998 campaign. The all-time money winner on the BASSMASTER tournament trail won both the 1998 BASS Masters Classic and the 1998 FLW Tour Angler of the Year primarily by flipping jigs and soft plastics. His Classic victory urged nearly every manufacturer of soft plastic to introduce versions of the larger flippin’ tube that Brauer used. Tubes are but the tip of a vast jello-like iceberg of soft plastics, however.

Some trendy designs are simply variations of traditional soft plastic baits. Some new versions show improvements over traditional designs. But others are imitative knockoffs designed to cash in on the soft plastics craze. Many novel styles and products merit consideration, however.

Trick Worms

The tag “trick worm,” sometimes called swimming worm, is appropriate for this versatile and fun-to-fish bait. Trick worms are less buoyant and more pliable than traditional floating worms. New designs, some supple hand-poured variations, have flooded the market. The standard design is a 6- to 7-inch or straight worm with an enlarged tail.

Unlike the predictable back-and-forth sachet of the stiffer jerkworm, the pliable trick worm has an unpredictable action when twitched or jerked. When bass hold shallow and seem tentative about striking a moving bait, the trick worm’s erratic action and slow fall produces strikes when other lures fail. Count on it in postspawn conditions or when cold fronts sour the prespawn bite.

The trick worm can be fished at the end of a Carolina rig, split-shot rig, or above a drop-shot presentation. But perhaps the most productive way to fish a trick worm is Texas-rigged on a 2/0 hook with no weight, about 10 inches behind a barrel swivel. Curling the worm up on the hook shank a bit gives it an incredibly erratic wiggle that puts the trick in your trick worm.

When faced with an extremely tough bite, try fishing the worm wacky-style, that’s with a 1/0 straight-shank hook inserted through the middle of the worm. Barely twitch it near stumps or brush, or dead-stick it in deeper pockets and channels. Another trick-worm trick is to insert a finishing nail or lead nail weight into the head to make the worm do a headstand.

Flippin’ Tubes

Following Brauer’s success, flippin’ tubes—or oversized gitzits—are raging hot from Lake Champlain to the Cal Delta. Of course, a few anglers have known for years the effectiveness of compact drop baits. But until recently, the oversized tubes have been a guarded secret.

Despite its appearance, or perhaps because of it, tubes can entice strikes from the most finicky predator. The gliding head of the bait imitates natural fish movements, and the lure’s trailing tentacles give an indication of something alive.

The preferred tube for flipping and pitching into cover is 4 to 5 inches long, with a solid head, hollow body and plenty of pliable tentacles. The solid plastic head makes Texas-rigging a tube easier. Many experts use Gambler’s Florida Rig weight when fishing a tube bait with a solid plastic head.

Others favor a traditional smaller tube and use weights that attach directly to the hook and ride inside the hollow body, like Eagle Claw’s Quik Clip weight, used in conjunction with their H-P Hook. In either case, too heavy a weight deadens the bite-enticing, spiraling fall of the tube and it drops like a rock.

Zipper Worms

The zipper-style worm—a modern descendent of the ring worm—is another trendy soft plastic design, and for good reason. Unlike the trick worm, which is of eastern origin, the zipper is a western style that has fooled bass wherever it’s been tried.

Out West, bass anglers use split-shot and drop-shot rigging to entice finesse bites from hard-fished, clear western waters. East of the Rockies, anglers are Texas-rigging the compact lures and skipping them under rocks, pitching them into grass beds, and flipping them into fallen trees.

Keys to the zipper’s effectiveness are its oversized ribs that create water resistance to slow the lure’s fall and to create considerable water movement. Additionally, when bass mouth the zipper, the ribs fold and offer a lifelike feel, likely encouraging a bass to hold it. Finally, its short tail allows the lure to pass through heavy cover easily, making it ideal for flipping brush or lily pads. The zipper concept has worked so well that companies are offering grubs, craws, and lizards with a similar ribbed design.

Soft Plastic Jerkbaits

This lure category simply refuses to become passé. The traditional Texas-rigged, weightless presentation is standard, but recently guides and tournament pros have found that the soft jerkbait can be equally productive when fished deep. Moreover, a generation of new shapes have added wiggles and glides to the genre that originated with the Lunker City Slug-Go.

Yamamoto’s Senko is formed of dense, salted plastic, and its tapered body wiggles as it falls. Black Mamba has created a new family of soft jerkbaits with superb action in deep or shallow cover.

Tie a member of this soft plastic family on the business end of a Carolina rig. When dragged along the bottom and stopped, the jerkbait glides forward and then hovers before starting a slow free-fall.

On Texas impoundments, known for trophy-size bass, guides have been fishing pot-bellied versions like the Bass Assassin Shad, on leadheads. Cast the bait, allow it to fall to a specific depth, then rip or swim it through the strike zone. Fish it where clouds of shad gather along creek channels or off main-lake points. And a weightless version is well-nigh unbeatable for unseen bass in shallow bays in spring.

Porklike Plastic Trailers

Plastic jig trailers that resemble classic pork rinds are another hot category. Uncle Josh, long a leader in pork trailers, hasn’t abandoned these meaty chunks, but now offers a plastic version for the millions of anglers who have crossed over. Plastic trailers have been particularly popular in the South where hot sun is hard on hog hide.

Supple, scented, and salt-injected versions of the plastic trailers remain pliable in cold water. Try ‘em, too, as a trailer on a spinnerbait.

Grubs

Grubs have a new twist as well. Once a finesse bait, big grubs are hot, even up to the 10-inch Yamamoto model. Admittedly, 4- to 5-inch grubs are most popular, however.

As with many trendy plastics, anglers primarily use large grubs for flipping and pitching. Mega grubs offer the best of two baits. Like a ribbontail worm, the grub’s tail displaces lots of water and produces action. Yet the compact body of even a large grub appeals to reluctant fish.

Like the traditional sickletail grub, the skirted doubletail or spider grub has been around awhile. Still, the lure’s popularity continues to grow. The bait first peaked in bass fisheries dominated by rocky environments. Now, anglers across the country have found the skirted spider grub productive when largemouths are reluctant to strike standard jigs. Spiders also make a fine trailer on a flippin’ jig. And the popular football head matches a spider grub like hand in glove.

Drop-Shot Baits

You don’t need a crystal ball to predict the boom in drop-shot presentations, leading to plastics specifically made for this rig. Many plastic baits in the drop-shot category are versions of western-style worms including reaper, leech, doodle, and zipper-style worms. Berkley’s new entries in the drop-shot line verify the strength of this trend.

Drop-shot fishing is finesseful. Hence drop-shot baits are small and slender, often amenable to a #1 offset-shank worm hook or a smaller bait-holder hook impaled through the head like a real minnow. The new baits are supple and scented, rendering a lifelike wiggle by shaking the rod tip.

Oddballs

The final group of trendy soft plastics can only be classified as oddballs. This group includes the new baits designed to compete with Zoom’s Brush Hog. Like Zoom’s popular product, the new baits (Berkley Power Hawg, Gambler Bacon Rind, Mister Twister B-A Hawg, Bass Pro Stump Hog, Riverside Wooly Hawg) have multiple appendages and produce vibration and action when falling or when pulled through the water.

The bait’s bulky profile and action make it a perfect lure for flipping along the edges of cover, such as a grassline or reedbed. And because the bulky baits push so much water, they’re ideal for muddy water or at night. Texas-rig the lures or fish them on a Carolina rig. Breaking all molds is the new Pop’n Worm from Indian Lure Company. The cupped body on this floating worm creates a splash as it’s twitched.

Swim Baits

Here’s a hot western bait that hasn’t yet found its way much east of East Texas. Perhaps that’s because swim baits are massive plastic fishes intended for giant largemouths. Early swim baits like the Fish Trap were hand-poured shad bodies with a wiggling tail. They were impaled on a fish-shape jighead. The latest baits, like the Optimum and Basstrix have an interior weight for a level swimming action. Anglers fish these hand-poured lifelike baits with a steady retrieve to imitate a trout or other potential prey.

A separate category of swim baits has a segmented body, interior weighting, and a crankbait-style lip to create a wiggle. Possum Lures offers models in perch and bluegill shapes. Castaic Soft Baits blazed this trail with their bluegill and rainbow trout baits, recently adding baby crappie and bluegill, and a crawfish.

It’s crazy to think an angler can use or even carry every irresistible new plastic bait. To decide which baits to carry, assess your angling preferences and style. Then match an appropriate soft plastic bait, whether new and trendy or an old standby, to that application.

*Paul Cañada is an outdoor writer from Irving, Texas.