As you have probably noticed, there are quite literally limitless soft plastic baits out there.
Every kind of worm, lizard, tube, baitfish, and even things that look completely wild.
But you don’t really need all of that stuff. All you really need is 5 soft plastic bait styles.
So what are we considering when narrowing down soft plastics to just 5 categories.
Each soft plastic bait needs to be very versatile, very easy to use, and obviously, very effective.
Simply put, as long as you have these 5 bait categories, you be able to fish essentially any rig and have as much success as everyone else.
The stick bait is the most versatile soft plastic bait out there. That’s one reason why it is by far the most popular soft plastic bait in bass fishing.
A stick bait can pretty much be fished any way you want. It can be wacky rigged, Neko rigged, Texas rigged, and weightless Texas rigged.
You can even tear it apart and fish half of a stick bait on the Ned rig.
The Yum Dinger and Senko are the two most popular soft plastic stick baits on the market, but whatever one you like to use will work just fine.
Whether you are fishing a small pond or competing in a pro tournament, a stick bait soft plastic is a must have.
This shape or style of bait will serve two main purposes. The full sized crawfish plastics will be a great Texas rig bait and a great jig trailer.
When flipping around shallow cover or dragging in deeper water, the crawfish plastics give the perfect profile and size for fishing on the bottom.
Since Texas rigs and jigs are two of the most popular and effective fishing techniques, it is important that you have the right style of soft plastic baits to pair with them.
There are a few different styles of crawfish plastics, but as long as you get one that is full sized, has two claws, and moves around a bit in the water, you’ll be just fine.
The paddle tail swimbait is a super important soft plastic bait to have.
It allows you to cover lots of water with a ton of different presentations.
There are a bunch of ways to rig a paddle tail swimbait, but my favorite is the simple jig head setup.
This is a very finesse setup but still cover lots of water and gets tons of bites.
Outside of rig setups, paddle tails make awesome trailers for swim jigs, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and chatterbaits.
On top of that, because of how natural the profile and action is, you can play around a lot on your own and figure out just how the bass want the swimbait to be fished.
So when it comes to covering water with soft plastics, a paddle tail swimbait is absolutely crucial.
A finesse minnow is a tremendous soft plastic for fishing very subtle, enticing presentations or anytime you are targeting smallmouth bass.
You can really play around with lots of setups, but the primary rigs for a finesse minnow are the Drop shot, the Ned rig, and a finesse strolling application.
But because of how natural these baits are, you can pretty much fish them any way you want.
Waking them is another technique I love to use, especially when fishing in shallow water for smallmouth or spotted bass.
But no matter the bass species, weather, or time of year, they will eat a little finesse minnow style soft plastic.
As a kid, the Zoom Trick Worm was by far my most used bait.
I would buy 20 or 40 packs of these worms and within a few weeks, I would need to go buy more.
Think of them as a stick bait, but with more action and more finesse.
They can be rigged up on all the same setups, but they give you much more fluent, enticing action in the water.
A finesse worm rigged up on a drop shot looks so good, I almost want to eat it myself.
And trust me, the bass can’t resist these things no matter how you rig them up. Again, these are a bait that will work extremely well all year round.
Colors open of an entirely new door of endless options. Most companies make 10-50 different colors for each soft plastic bait.
But again, you certainly don’t need all that.
White is going to be your shad or young baitfish color. The paddle tail and minnow style baits work very well in a white color.
White also stands out very well, which makes it a good muddy water or overcast fishing color.
Black is the exact opposite of the spectrum, but surprisingly has a few of the same benefits.
Black is incredibly dark. This means it has a very visible and distinct silhouette in the water.
So again, black is great for muddy water and overcast fishing.
Black doesn’t really mimic any exact forage, but is dull enough to be non threatening and natural in its own way.
In clear water and high visibility conditions, green pumpkin is a super reliable option.
The dull, natural color looks like a bluegill, baby bass, crawfish, or pretty much anything else that bass eat.
Although it doesn’t look exactly like any one forage type, it looks enough like all of them.
For this reason, green pumpkin is the highest selling soft plastic color in bass fishing.
While the array of soft plastic baits available might seem endless, focusing on these five essential styles—stick bait, full-sized crawfish, paddle tail swimbait, finesse minnow, and finesse worm—will cover almost all your bass fishing needs.
Each of these baits is versatile, easy to use, and highly effective, ensuring you can fish any rig with success.
Additionally, sticking to the three key colors—white, black, and green pumpkin—will simplify your choices and enhance your effectiveness across various water conditions and visibility levels.
By streamlining your tackle box to these essentials, you can confidently tackle any fishing scenario and maximize your success on the water.
