In another excellent article in the NZ Herald, Harvey Clark outlines the basics of jigging for trout on NZ’s Lake Taupo. See the link below to read the article.
Something Harvey does not cover is the use of soft-plastic lures fished on lead-head jigs. I have found this method out-fishes the more usual metal jig and fly combination.
The key to fishing soft-plastics is to lift the jig slowly, and then allow it to drop freely. To get an idea of how slow to move the soft-plastic jig, just drop the jig into the water where you can still see it, and observe how little movement is required to the tail to wiggle enticingly.
Most tackle shops have good selections of soft-plastic lures, in a good range of shapes and colours. My preference is towards smaller jigs and tails.
There is one other adantage that soft-plastics has over metal jigs. Metal jigs work much better when they are being jigged as close to vertical as possible. Once they get out towards 45 degrees from the boat they lose their effectiveness. This can happen if there is any wind pushing the boat too fast. Soft-plastics however work at all angles, even being cast to surface active fish, and slowly retrieved. A boat drifting too fast because of wind is less of a problem to soft-plastics because they can be fished at shallow angles.
But something important to rememberwhen using soft plastic baits in New Zealand’s freshwater fisheries – it is illegal to use bait scents either added to the outside of the bait, or any soft bait that has bait scent or attractant incorporated in the bait.

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