I know this is a bass fishing forum, but many soft plastics catch many species including bass. I have more soft plastics than I know what to do with them and especially duplicates I didn't even know I had. Taking too many lures is a problem since most won't get used no matter how long in the box.
Question: How many anglers on UB like catching fish other than bass?
Targeting a species is tough since there are so many lures that catch everything. Granted, many lures will not work for panfish, sucker and catfish due to the size of a lure or its action/profile examples being spinnerbaits, skirted bass jigs with trailers and large crankbaits. But small light plastics on light jigs will always get bites from panfish, bass, pickerel, catfish (believe it or not), trout, walleye and others that I've netted over many decades. In my mind, the drug is the tug regardless what struck.
A few new shapes have done well as well as other past creations. What's nice about multispecies fishing is catching nice size fish of each species. A 15" crappie bends a light action rod like no tomorrow, ditto for 13" yellow perch, giant pickerel and 7 lb. catfish. Don't get me wrong, but larger plastics can catch larger fish of any species given lure shape and presentation. Here's a yellow perch and crappie caught using a 5" worm on a light jig.
softie perch.jpgsoftie crappie.jpg
A bass took down this float and 2.5" plastic thin tail grub:
float bass.jpg
Amazing was the discovery of how well a grub body caught fish minus the curl tail:
pill yp.jpg
Over 150 fish were caught using it and grub bodies attached to one another by melting the ends over a candle.
2uHQfii.jpg
Lure variety makes fishing more interesting for me knowing that a few-will-do a great majority of the time. In fact, there is a huge selection of lure types I've caught bass on and many lure types that caught fish on the same outing. It always comes down to using the right lures in the right location at the right time. Guess I've learned a thing or two in 40 yrs that serve me well today.
Congrats on a very successful year fishing with your soft plastics. Tks for sharing the article and those pictures with us. I have caught Crappie, Catfish, Drum while bass fishing with soft plastics.
Here's a couple pictures of a Bluegill & Largemouth Bass I caught over on Nolan Lake on Ft. Hood. I was flipping a SweetBeaver on 20lb Berkley Big Game. I fish a lot of soft plastics baits when I'm fishing over on Nolan Lake.
(https://i.imgur.com/DsSkVpDm.jpg)(https://i.imgur.com/w5eGWrom.jpg)
A sunfish on a Sweet Beaver and offset hook. Who woulda thought it possible?
But then again who would have thought this possible:
https://imgur.com/BuULxuN